Hello and Merry Christmas! I hope you all are having a wonderful time and enjoying the holidays :)
This will probably be my last post of the year, so I hope you like it!
Thanks to Michelle SidheElf Amaianna, who caught a bunch of my errors and threw me a message. You're a great help!

 
As always, let me know if I screw something up or something doesn't make sense!

 

 
-Tas

 
(PS, I redid the chapter numbers for my own document, so ignore the jump in number here. You didn't miss anything.)

 

Chapter 13: The Bell Tolls for Thee

Ilos, Day 55

I stretched as I looked into the glowing blue window that represented the contents of my Storage Gem. It’d been tedious trying to whittle down a boss that looked like a cloud and only had a small solid center that could take damage. Of course, without anything solid to hit us with, the only way it could do any sort of damage was to try and hit us with lightning in a rather predictable pattern, but that was beside the point. While the cloud had dispersed when we’d destroyed the core, it had still dropped a pair of Water and a pair of Air Elemental Gems as well as four Air stones and three Water stones. I had quite the collection of Elemental Gems and stones by now, and though it was only half of what I had in the beta, I was also over a week ahead of the pace I’d set before despite having a new body.

I waved away my inventory and glanced at Gale, seeing him store some extra potions he’d prepared for the boss but didn’t want to carry around on the next Island. It’d been 25 days since we’d defeated the boss outside of Windwall, and 26 since I’d found Gale again. I’d copied his example of living in an abandoned building on the outskirts of the city to save money, and generally stayed within a block or two of where he chose to stay. Neither of us talked much, instead concentrating on working through quests and bosses as fast as possible. Our teamwork had certainly improved, only needing a word or a simple gesture to indicate important information if needed, though it usually wasn’t necessary. By this point we had a good idea of what the other would do in a fight and worked together to bring down our enemies quickly.

Gale closed his inventory and I started heading for the now active Air Gate, knowing he’d be right behind me. I was a bit nervous about this next Island because of how many firsts it represented. The rainbow lights parted as I stepped through the Air Gate revealing the bleak home of the Dread Castle Hamelin.

There was no city here, nor was any other living populace besides ourselves, the large castle in the center was the only structure on the Island the numerous skeletons allowed to stand. This was the first Island to feature humanoid monsters, the first to include what is essentially a dungeon crawl, including traps, hidden doors, and treasure, and most heavily on my mind, the first Island where all four of the Island routes from mainland Ilos converged. I couldn’t see the southern Air Gate from where I was, but I breathed a slight sigh of relief when I saw that neither the east nor the west Air Gates were active. I half thought the other Leaders would already be here, and I wasn’t looking forward to that reunion looking like I did now.

We headed forwards towards the gates of the castle, drawing weapons as the roaming skeletons noticed us and started shambling towards closer, the grind and clatter of bones filling the air. Points of light shone in their otherwise empty eye sockets, the sign of unlife for a skeleton, and vanished almost immediately after coming into weapons range of either me or Gale as we cut through the approaching undead. Most of the skeletons on this Island were slow and somewhat brittle, but they were numerous and their attacks had a lot of force behind them. They weren’t particularly dangerous individually, but in a group their rain of heavy attacks would kill quickly. However, outside where there was plenty of room to move and dodge, they were easy for Gale and I to destroy.

After clearing the skeletons up to the castle gate, I stopped for moment, considering. When I’d first met him, Gale had told me that this Island was a far as he’d gotten in the beta, which meant he may not have finished going through the whole castle and might not know about some of the traps. I’d died a lot of times exploring this place, and I was confident I knew where most of if not all of the traps and treasure were, but very few people had gotten up to this point and most players knew the names of the people in that group. I knew that there was no ‘Aria’ among those famous names. If I revealed that I knew the area he might be able to guess I used to be Cariss — I hadn’t exactly changed my style of weaponry after all — but if I didn’t he could die to one of the traps inside and possibly take me with him.

I sighed, then turned to look up at Gale. “Let me lead from here, I know most of the traps and hidden rooms. We can even get the first two Earth Keys here as well.”

He was silent for a second or two, then spoke. “Interesting that you know the area so well. Very well, you may lead, but any traps you set off are yours to deal with. And if you run off ahead without me, don’t expect me to play catchup. I said I wouldn’t attempt to lose you, but I never said I would try to find you if lost.”

I shrugged, crouching down to down to gather stones from the ground of various shapes and sizes. Most were slightly smaller than my fist, about the size of a racquetball, and I stuffed them into a pouch I’d emptied in preparation for this very thing. Well he didn’t guess right off the bat, but he knows something is up. Oh well, he’ll find out eventually, and honestly I don’t think he’ll even care. I’ve been traveling with this guy for almost a month and I haven’t seen him react in any extreme measure to anything yet. He’s cold and detached, but being around that really does help me keep my emotions under control. As much as I hate to admit it… I like having him around.

“This was the first Island that had good treasure you could just find rather than quest or kill for it. I don’t know how many times I died trying to fully explore this place the first time, but it was more than I want to think about. I’m not going to run off ahead, this place is dangerous solo even when you can find most of the traps. Besides, my sanity can’t afford losing you quite yet.” I stood up and smiled slightly at him. “Thanks for that by the way. Now are you ready?”

“You blaming me for your mental instability is like a glutton blaming food for his corpulence. But yes this place is dangerous, tread with care.”

I blinked. “Blaming you? Oh. That wasn’t sarcasm, you’ve actually been a big help. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm pretty sure I’d have gone somewhat insane by now without you.” I stopped, my cheeks heating from the sudden surge of honesty. Why did I say that?! Maybe spending this much time around him isn’t such a good thing; his bluntness is rubbing off on me. I closed my eyes and shook my head slightly, waving a hand dismissively. “That sounded really weird didn’t it? Just forget I said anything.”

Turning away from his unreadable face to hide my embarrassment, I headed through the broken gate into the castle proper. It was dark inside the stone structure, the torch sconces sitting empty and abandoned to the ages. I lit the way with a small orb of pure light that hovered above us, occasionally throwing a small rock to trigger a trip wire or a floor plate. Most of the traps were pretty classic and useless after their initial activation, long spikes coming out of the floor or walls, arrows suddenly filling a hallway, the floor dropping out from a section of hall into a pit to give a few examples. Some of them weren’t so easily avoidable, like the one I knew caused acid to spew from the ceiling, creating a pool that would have been hard to get across if I hadn’t carefully guided us past the pair of trip wires and the floor plate that would have activated the thing.

I was internally impressed by my own memory, there were a lot of traps, and I remembered them all in extreme detail. I’d half noticed it before, but the kind of recall I had was definitely not normal. Another thing to add to my list I suppose. Do all champions exhibit such an improvement?

We’d occasionally be attacked by skeletons, but the noise they made gave us plenty of warning and we had time to move away from any nearby traps they might trigger and catch us in which was the only real danger they represented. There were doors that led off from the main hallway, but almost all of them were empty. We did end up coming across a few chests with a little bit of money and some heavy armor that neither of us would wear, so we took it with us to sell later.

After a while of wandering the castle I paused in front of a familiar spot of wall. “Now if I can remember the trick…” I muttered to myself, pressing on different places on the stone.

I grinned as the wall suddenly fell inwards, revealing a room with a pedestal and a brown rock that seemed to have an inner glow floating above it. “The first Earth Key.” I said, smiling as I took it from the pedestal and stashed it in my Storage Gem. Earth Keys were extremely valuable, allowing a permanent portal, known as an Earth Gate, to be opened from the edge of the plaza in Ilos to anywhere the holder of the Earth Key had previously been. However, the Earth Key was consumed in the process, so you had to be careful when choosing a location to open the portal to. When the goblins attack Ilos in another… nine days I think? I’ll be able to use this to get back up after I go down to help defend.

Gale’s hand landed on my shoulder before I could move from the pedestal, his grip strong enough that I’d have to put forth some effort to turn around. I stiffened, confused and not used to other people touching me, especially Gale. What is he…?

“I am not an honest man, Aria,-” I shifted in surprise as he used my actual name for the first time, my head turning a bit towards him of its own accord before I could stop it. “-but would you make me into a liar if it was to your own benefit?”

What? Make him into a liar for my own benefit? So cause him to break an agreement because of my actions? “I cannot say no, but it would depend entirely on the circumstances.”

“What do you know of this room?”

I answered honestly, still not quite knowing where he was going with this. “It contains the Earth Key I just placed in my inventory. I’m gathering there’s more to it than that.”

“But you wouldn’t have known had I not mentioned anything.” He removed his hand from my shoulder and moved around me to stand in front of the pedestal as I stepped back to give him room. “There is a Repository hidden here, one I found during the beta. Its contents are mine; its guardian is my kill. This is me keeping my promise not to abandon you, so don’t make me into a liar by interfering.”

So that’s what this is about. I crossed my arms and cocked my head to the side, my posture relaxing now that he was no longer touching me. “It’s a Death Repository isn’t it? I can see why you’d want it, and by all means take it, I’ve no use for it; but why insist on soloing the guardian? Those aren’t exactly easy to take down.”

“It wouldn’t be fair to claim a monster’s treasures and not kill it yourself. I seek the spell and one of the gems dropped by the guardian. The other gem is of less importance to me and you can have it as payment for not interfering. Besides, relying on you in every fight will make me weak the day we part ways.”

“Hmph.” I shrugged, letting my arms drop to my sides. “Well, alright I guess, but I’m coming to help if you somehow get in trouble.”

“So long as you understand.”

I nodded. “I understand. That’s very probably something I need to do myself. Do whatever you’re going to do, and yell if you need me.”

He manipulated the pedestal, rotating it a certain distance then pressing thrice in succession, and the floor directly beneath him and the pedestal dropped out into a large open room. Gale was obviously expecting this, and instead of losing his balance like he would have otherwise, he tilted slightly backwards and jumped. The chunk of stone that held the pedestal flew out from his feet as if shot from a cannon, impacting an odd golem like creature that’s surface shifted between white and black constantly, forming odd amorphous shapes that made it hard to look at. The guardian staggered backwards from the blow as Gale hit the wall feet first, swords already drawn, and leapt towards it, silent as the shadow his clothes made him out to be.

I sat down on the edge of the newly opened and perfectly square hole, letting my feet hang into the air and setting my quarterstaff across my legs. I’d be able to jump down and join the fight easily of things got out if hand from this position, and it also gave me a great view. Some of the other Leaders had talked about similar fights they had taken on and the Repositories these mini-boss type creatures guarded, though I had never encountered one myself. A Repository was a magical construct that would grant the user a single new word of power in whatever element it was tied to, thus always expanding their magical abilities.

The fight quickly kicked off after Gale’s initial assault with the stone platform, now little more than rubble scattered across the floor, but settled into a pattern after no more than a few minutes. The guardian creature would occasionally use ci or tu to screw with Gale’s vision, and I had to admit the lightshow was pretty distracting, but it didn’t seem that Gale had any trouble ignoring it because he hardly slowed even when his sight was obscured by bright light or total blackness. It was a bit odd to be sitting on the sidelines, but it was kind of fun to just sit back and watch for once instead of being in the thick of it.

With none of its special tricks working, the golem had no chance; it was just a matter of time until Gale whittled it down enough to kill the thing. Once Gale settled into a pattern of attack I sighed, kicking my legs in the air while I rested my elbows on my knees and my chin in my hands. If this was like a boss fight it could take the rest of the day and was bound to be essentially a repeating loop of Gale and the golem performing almost the exact some moves over and over again. I’d committed to watching over him in case he needed help and we’d already explored the surrounding area within earshot of the hole, so I was kinda out of luck for things to do. Hopefully a group of skeletons would come by later.

I made the bracelets of Light and Shadow I had on flow off of my wrists, forming what looked like a large medallion in the shape of a starburst. “Ressi.” I whispered, solidifying the light that made up the medallion and letting it fall into my hand. With the right shading with shadow, it looked and felt like a real piece of metal jewelry to my hand. However, this time I could also feel my hand touching the medallion, as if the magic was a part of me that I could feel and move just like an arm or a leg.

So I can feel my own magic now huh? That’s new. I tossed the medallion through the hole, but lost the strange feeling as soon as it stopped touching my skin. I made it vanish and reappear in front of me, watching it float and slowly turn as it hung in midair in front of my face. So it only works if the magic is in contact with me. What happens if I just make a conduit then? A thin string of shadow extended from the starburst, reaching out to touch my hand. Once again there was the strangeness of sensing through something not actually attached to my body. I directed the medallion to drag one of its points across the ground, feeling the texture as if I’d touched the stone with a fingertip.

“This has uses.” I mused to myself as I moved the magical construct around.

I took the next little while to just play around, but before I could delve any deeper into this new discovery, a loud whine echoed out from the golem, ascending in pitch rapidly until the construct shattered like glass. It appeared that the fight had gone much quicker than I had feared it would, probably only an hour or so in length. Hopefully we could get close to the boss room today. Glittering shards of what was once the boss scattered across the room, leaving behind a floating softball sized black box that was so dark it seemed to be a hole in reality itself, reflecting no light whatsoever. Gale sheathed his swords and reached out with both hands, taking the object and twisting sharply.

The box seemed to crack, letting out a dark mist that swirled around Gale for a few seconds before seeming to sink into him. He nodded slightly to himself, then stooped to pick up something from the ground, turning to ascend the staircase that was rapidly materializing back up to the hole I was looking down into. When he was about halfway up his hand whipped back, then forward, and I caught the small glitter out of the air as it sailed towards me.

There, resting in my palm, was a brightly glowing gemstone that held a bright pure white light. I ran a thumb over the treasure, then looked back up at Gale, just cresting the stair. “I’d have never expected to find a Light Elemental Gem here, thanks. I’d ask what word of power you learned from that Repository, but I’m going to guess you won’t tell me.”

Gale stopped, looking down at me, and for a second I thought he’d say something, but instead the silence stretched until it was obvious he wasn’t going to respond. I sighed, as usual then stood up. “Well, let’s go then.”

The pair of us continued like we had before, I lead with my glowing orb to light the way and took care of any traps we came across, with the occasional interruption of skeletons. Honestly the place seemed much less dangerous than I remembered it. Well, that wasn’t right, it was still just as dangerous with it’s myriad of traps and giant scale with winding hallways that were easy to get lost in, it was more as if it was just less stressful. I remembered each and every trap with perfect clarity, and without the uncertainty of what might be down the next hall things quickly began to feel dull and monotonous. At some point I stopped bothering to stop and make sure each trap was the same as I remembered, just hurling small pieces of stone to trip or break the devices while continuing to stroll along.

There were three more hidden rooms I knew about and I made sure our path went by them. The first contained a small chest filled with coin, mostly silver and copper, but there were a couple gold pars mixed in, the smallest piece of gold currency. Gold was surprisingly rare in Ilos, and things made of gold were extremely valuable. Around the size of a dime, a single gold par was as valuable as ten silver faults, hefty coins as big as my entire palm. It was sort of like a $50 bill, fairly rare and still commonly accepted, but those with money sometimes carried them around to save on weight. The second room was an armory that had been sealed up against the dust. It was all knight gear, heavy armor and shields of high quality mostly, but it appeared that whoever had sealed the room had taken all of the weapons with them. We took a few choice pieces to sell later, but neither of had any use for heavy equipment. The third hidden room contained the second Earth Key on its pedestal, which I tossed to Gale. I tried to twist the stone stand, fiddling with it while Gale watched, but after a few minutes of effort gave up, the pedestal still firmly rooted in the stone and refusing to move in any direction.

We traveled upwards for another hour or so after the last hidden room, and I was starting to stifle yawns. If I had to give it a guess, I would say we had been wandering upwards through the castle for a good six or seven hours by this point, and considering it was well into the afternoon when we had finished fighting the previous Island’s boss, I was starting to get tired. After a particularly intense yawn I caught Gale’s eyes, getting a small nod of agreement in return, and we ducked into a room off a side hall that only had one entrance.

While camping out wasn’t something we commonly did, we were still prepared for it. I pulled a small lantern and a bedroll from my inventory while Gale set up his own larger bedding, placing both on the hard stone floor. We didn’t really need the lantern, we’d been walking through a mostly windowless trap filled castle for the past six hours without any trouble after all with my magical light, but I preferred to have some natural light when we camped and ate. The flicker of the small flame was comforting somehow.

Using my bedroll as a seat, I took out some field rations to munch on. Hard bread with a bit of cheese wasn’t the tastiest thing, but it was hardly the worst meal and it was certainly filling. I was once again glad for my Champion body, who knows how much I would have had to eat to replenish the calories burned from fighting for eight hours and then dungeon diving for another six after that.

We ate in silence, as usual, and after I was done I wrapped up the rest of the food in some treated cloth and put it back in my inventory, then stood back up, brushing the few crumbs off my dress. “I’ll take first watch. Rotate after four hours?”

Gale nodded in agreement, and I took my post by the doorway, quarterstaff near at hand in case anything came by. There was some soft clinking behind me as Gale removed his sword belt and laid it inside his bedding before climbing in himself, and within minutes I could hear his soft breathing slow to the even rhythm of sleep.

I stifled a chuckle, leaning against the wall. It was amazing what fighting with a person by your side could do to your relationship. Despite his occasional words, Gale trusted me, falling asleep so quickly in a dungeon filled with skeletons with only me to watch his back. I smiled a bit, looking down at his sleeping face. He really was pretty good looking without that cold expression he always carried around, and those deep purple eyes of his were so entrancing when they locked with my golden ones…

I sighed, sliding down the wall until I was sitting, my hands automatically moving my dress so it was properly under me, then wrapped my arms around my knees. Just how long would it be until those kinds of thoughts were normal to me? I had been living as this small female for almost two months now, and it no longer felt strange to be that way. My mannerisms had settled into a permanent state, the System Assist no longer guiding me to act like a proper young woman because I did so automatically now. I found a curtsy came more naturally than a bow now, and I handled wearing a dress easily, not allowing any chance for someone to get a peek up my skirt. There had been some... embarrassing moments before I learned how to move in it right.

The thing I had been most worried about hadn’t come to pass, much to my relief. I remained me, body changed, emotions stronger, and it was looking like sexuality altered (as much as I hated to question that), but I was still myself. When I looked back on my past, I not only still remembered everything, but still considered the person in my memories to be me, though I was certainly no longer the David that existed then. Time and circumstances cause people to grow and change, and I was no exception.

I stared over my knees at Gale. There were some things I still had trouble with, and the stray thoughts I had about men and Gale in particular was one of them. If I considered it, it made sense; I was in a female body with female hormones, of course I would start reacting that way to some extent, but it was still unnerving. Everything in my brain screamed that those thoughts were wrong, that they shouldn’t be there in my head, but they kept popping up whenever I wasn’t paying attention. Was I still attracted to women? I hadn’t been around any that would elicit that reaction for some time, but I hoped so, just to give my head a break.

Some distant clanking interrupted my musing, skeletons coming down the hallway. Good, I could use a distraction. I waited inside the doorway, listening to the grinding movement of the skeletons get ever closer, and then just as they crossed in front of the opening I attacked.

Ducking low, I swung my quarterstaff with all the force I could put behind it in a swathe right at the skeletons’ knee level. Not only were skeletons weak to blunt force, but targeting their joints was a sure way to take them apart quickly. Indeed, the five skeletons in the middle of the ten man formation collapsed, their leg bones scattering down the hallway. Before the others could react I slid one hand along my staff towards the middle and pivoted back the other direction, catching a falling skeleton in the breastplate and sending it hurtling into the three on the left.

I continued the pivot, driving through the strike and bringing that force around the other side in time to impact a bony hand holding a blade that would have cut straight down my back. The scimitar clanged against the stone wall, the skeleton’s hand still attached, and I stepped to the side, avoiding the other strike coming my way. With a short hop, I swept my quarterstaff through the necks of the two monsters before turning to face the remaining three. Oh, remaining two, it seemed I had hit the one in the middle hard enough with its ally to take them both out of commission. Before they could try to close with me I swung my quarterstaff again, the Hard Light spell Ressi spoken only in my head as an arc of light extended out from my swing, beheading them.

The brief combat finished, I poked through the remains, breaking each of the skulls to make sure they were all done for. Unfortunately except for their weapons skeletons didn’t drop anything worthwhile, so after adding another ten scimitars to my Storage Gem to sell I sat back down just outside the door, leaning my head against the cool stone.

As the remains of the skeletons began to dissolve into multicolored motes of light, I found myself wondering how Nick and Jess were doing. Nick had found himself caught up in some pretty crazy stuff the last time I saw him, and I knew that Jess would be right there with him whatever was happening. They were both capable people, and I was sure they were fine, but I still couldn’t help but worry. What would happen the next time I saw them? I hardly resembled the David they remembered, would they even believe my story?

I closed my eyes and breathed out, pushing thoughts about my friends out of my mind. If I allowed my imagination to run free I would only come up with worse and worse scenarios on the subject. Replacing Nick and Jess were the rest of the ‘Ilos Leaders’, the other six people who had gotten the furthest in the beta. We hadn’t known each other long, but this castle was the place we had all met up for the first time and the first time we all worked in a group. Our battle with the boss of Dread Castle Hamelin started as a total mess, everyone getting in the way of everyone else, bumping into each other, hitting the adds with way more damage than was needed, there was even some magical friendly fire that went around. Jerold the ‘Knight’ was the one who finally put a stop to it, calling out directions to keep things running smoothly.

After the fight we headed up one Island, discovering the entire thing was covered in beautiful flowers and soft grass with a clear pond in the middle. We camped out there for a full day, cooking up food and sharing out drinks as we got to know each other a little bit. It was the first time any of us had met another player since the beginning of the beta after all, and it was one of my fondest memories of Ilos.

Jerold and Axel Hopfer, the ‘Knight’ and ‘Marksman’, were actually brothers on Earth, and when they both got a silver Key they decided that they were going to go full out and be the best players. Jerold was always the leader between the two and loved tactical games while Axel was much more laid back but very skilled with his hands, competing with his brother with his reaction speed and quick fingers. They both professed their surprise to see that five other people were able to match their pace in the East Islands.

Grabnar Tobos and Rovian Girst, the ‘Rager’ and ‘Elementalist’, had teamed up to take down the first boss to the south and had simply continued to work together since then. Neither had been able to beat the Alpha Wolf boss by themselves, Rovian as someone who used magic as his primary tool was hard pressed to defend himself with the wolf close in and ran out of mana too quickly, while Grabnar, as one who just ignored injury and used his giant axe to cut through everything in his way, couldn’t survive long enough to defeat the thing. The foul mouthed and hasty Grabnar and the wizard-like and shy Rovian couldn’t have been more different, but they got along really well for some reason. Unlike the brothers they thought for sure that there was someone who would have beaten them, and were more surprised to find that they were among the top players.

Markus Shaffner and Thanh, the ‘Cleric’ and ‘Assassin’ had been friends before coming to Ilos, and set off together. Thanh was one of those ultra-competitive guys, and was determined to beat the heavily armored Markus by any means necessary. Markus on the other hand seemed like he was a few years older and was just naturally gifted at whatever he put his mind to, putting in the effort to keep up with lightly armored and dagger wielding Thanh out of concern that he was going to go do something reckless and get himself killed over and over. Thanh was pissed at first that other people had beaten him to the top, but was dragged into the group dynamic by the brotherly Markus and cooled off a bit after hanging out for the day.

After food we did some sparring and showing off what we could do off towards the edge of the Island, destroying a good thirty foot circle of ground where blasts of magic had scorched the grass and flowers. All of us were experts with Ilosian magic, flinging spells without word in the midst of combat without any delay for extra focus, as expected of the people who had made it this far this fast. With the experience advantage I had from taking on everything alone up until that point I had little trouble defeating everyone, but I could tell that if I didn’t have that advantage I’d be hard pressed to perform the same feat.

We camped there through the night, sharing a few stories about what we had done so far and in the end deciding that we should continue upwards together until the path split again. There were people against it at first, but after a few minutes of debate Grabnar just called all of us ‘slackbrained fucktards’ and reminded everyone that unless the path split again we would all end up at the boss at about the same time anyway. Thanh backed him up, and that was all it took to get us all in agreement.

We took the next two bosses by storm, the combined power of our little group enough to steamroll pretty much anything in our path, and it was then that the Bell of Recall rang, signaling the attack on Ilos. We observed for an hour or two, resting from the last battle, then made our way down to take on the horde of goblins swarming the gates. At the last we all came together at the South gate to take on the Goblin General and his elite force, which is where that famous picture of all of us together came from.

That was the last time I’d seen any of them, and I was a bit nervous to meet them again, an event that could be happening within days or even hours. I hadn’t seen any of the other Air Gates on this Island open, but not only could I not see the southern one, they could have easily opened after we entered the castle. All of the Leaders were people I respected, and I was a bit worried about what they would make of the new me. What if I met them and I was the only one different? They knew me as Cariss the Calm, always in control of himself, what would they think of the emotionally volatile Aria I was now? I would be the lone girl among them, alone even when I was with them, the only one who had changed so drastically.

I shook my head, sighing. Here I was trying to distract myself from imagining up the worst reactions from Nick and Jess to the new me and now I was doing the same thing again, just with different people. I cast my mind about for another distraction and found it in the form of a song playing through the back of my head. Perhaps fitting for the darkness and quiet in the hallways, the soft notes of Disturbed’s The Sound of Silence ran circles through my mind, brought to the front now that I was thinking about it. I hummed along to the melody for a while before conjuring a guitar made of solid shadow and beginning to pick out the notes.

I’d never been good enough at the guitar to play it in front of anyone else, but I did know the scales and chords and I had a good ear for tone. It took a lot of adjusting to make my magically crafted instrument sound right, but with another couple hours of watch to go I was in no rush. It was much different playing with smaller hands, and I could feel the vibrations through my magic as I fingered each taut string. It was the oddest sensation, but the notes that came out sounded right. I played by ear, trying to sound out which notes I needed to match the original’s piano, and slowly began to work out the song.

Three hours later I had the intro down and my watch was at an end. A successful distraction from heavy thoughts. Rather than head back into the room though, my fingers started on the strings again. Perhaps it was the quiet, or perhaps it was something else, but I began to sing softly, each note high and clear and pure.

As the sound of my voice faded into the hallways I let the guitar vanish, savoring the beautiful melody, for once feeling at peace with myself and the world. Only once the silence fully returned did I stand, my footsteps not making so much as a whisper. With a touch and a nod I woke Gale for his watch, and then headed to bed, for once certain there would be no nightmares to stalk my dreams.