Changeling

2.10

Nestra used momentum to ram herself against the wall by the gate just as it opened. She instinctively drew in everything she was— though she didn’t reapply her mask, Praying to every god she could think of that they didn’t see her.

A trio of gleams walked in. There was an archer, a close quarter fighter with a tower shield, and a mage with long staff. The mage’s eyes were a dim orange which spoke of a nascent fire affinity. She directed the pair with a single flick of her hand. Fortunately, their eyes were on the portal, not her.

“What’s the meaning of this? Was somebody there?”

Nestra ducked and used momentum to propel herself into the other room, an antechamber of sorts. Two guards sat behind a reinforced glass panel, checking screens. There were no hiding spots there, only a concrete square devoid of anything save for the two gates leading to the portal and to the outside, and a door leading to the guard room. Both of the latter were tragically closed. Nestra landed squarely below the glass in full view of a camera but hidden from direct line of sight.

“There’s a letter here, it— ah! Fire! Why is it on fire?” a male voice said behind her.

“Idiot! Don’t touch anything. Guards, you’d better have a good explanation.”

“We’re having glitches on our equipment ma’am. Running diagnostics.”

“Who did you let in?”

“Nobody, I swear!”

Meanwhile, Nestra’s mind was running three curse words on repeat. Could she take them? Probably not. Would it do anything? Also probably not. She needed out, now. Maybe cut through the gate? A coated blade and three slices ought to do it but… she would be noticed.

“Alright, we’re leaving for now. I want our boss to take a look at this,” the mage said. “Open the gate.”

That was it. Nestra was done for. The mage walked in her field of vision just as the other gate opened. Nestra had to make a run for it.

There was a pressure, like a brief idea brushing her psyche. The mage stopped in her tracks. Her breath hitched. Her face turned despondent. Nestra sprinted outside through the newly opened passage, then jumped over the nearest fence using momentum. She didn’t look behind but all she heard was silence.

Speed and momentum carried her through the deserted streets lined with locked factories and warehouses. The first rays of dawn barely touched the concrete under her feet. She stopped at her motorcycle and changed at record speed into a leather outfit that would match her ‘cover’. She was off in under a minute, with her mask on. There were no noises. No signs of pursuit.

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The benefactor had intervened, there. She was sure of it. The only question was, if there was an inquiry, would they find her out? An AI with access to traffic cameras could at least point them in her direction, since traffic at the ass crack of dawn was rather limited. She’d parked far enough but she couldn’t be sure if a small guild wouldn’t have the right to access traffic cameras.

In the end, she decided not to worry about it too much. The benefactor’s purpose tonight was clearly to deliver the skin and teach her how to access portals from afar, not how to escape pursuit or they would have warned her. The situation also led her to wonder if she could, in fact, take raiders down. Not necessarily kill them but at least disable them.

Portals always led to the same world but at some point, the portal would no longer allow people through if too many were already inside. It was like trying to swim through an ever-increasing current, her father had once said. It meant that a few minutes later and the raiders would have arrived at the fort in full view of Nestra. They would have definitely tried to take her down. Even if they miraculously assumed she was using a weird disguise, stealing portal rights carried a heavy sentence in Threshold. The guild would have made an example.

So how would she compare to them?

She was confident about being as strong and fast as an average D-class raider which was pretty good for around a week of activity. Her swordsmanship was also top-notch. The issue was that raiders were a different breed, especially in Threshold where portals were both more common and more challenging. Raiders risked their lives with every expedition and there were always unlucky moments that carried a cost: an eye shot, an unexpected enemy, fingers slipping on blood. Raiders were wounded, sometimes killed. It took something special to make people raid day after day and that meant a high combat potential.

But Nestra’s body was different. She clearly had a resilience that went beyond what could be expected at D-rank. Beginner users got stronger by infusing their bodies with mana, directing it to where it mattered. Nestra didn’t have to do that. She just was strong and resilient without trying. At the same time, she barely had any mana to work with.

Clearly not even remotely human.

But then why mostly human-shaped?

It was just weird.

Nestra’s mood improved after she parked in her secret Nestra lair and got the bag of food out. Oh, and the spear. She sent a quick message to Gorge then it was time to go home. Nothing could stop her from humming when she poured the grains into her cooking robot as well as a generous amount of butter and sugar. When the first pops rang in the quiet house, she could no longer contain her enthusiasm.

This was smuggled good, untaxed, against all of Threshold’s regulations.

This was food that the corpos wouldn’t get.

She was finally taking her life back, one meal at a time.

“I’m going to eat this criminal magical popcorn with butter and nobody can fucking stop me.”

***

In the headquarter of the Gray Shield guild, a gleam tapped on his visor with barely contained annoyance.

“Yes. The chair flickered in at around four AM. The glitches were continuous afterward. Yes. No, nothing that we could see.”

He kept silent when his interlocutor spoke in a sterner tone.

“Yes, I understand. We will transfer everything. Understood. The compensation is more than enough for us. Yes, you can count on our discretion. I will make sure my team understands the importance of their silence. We will comply, sir. Yes, I consider the matter closed. Thank you for your time.”

The gleam’s annoyance turned to dread as the call ended. He delicately placed the visor on his desk, then massaged the bridge of his nose. When he opened his eyes again, the pulsating silvery radiance betrayed his distress.

“What the hell was that?”

***

In Nestra’s mind palace, another rotating sphere had joined the more ordered dance. The puddle underneath had grown as well, just a little, but it was still barely enough to coat her blade a few times. The newly improved sphere was the one that dealt with awareness and keen senses. Nestra had one more bound to play with.

That meant she had to make a choice. Instinct told her that linking the sphere to strength would help her destabilize foes while linking it to speed would let her perform a very precise strike. The second choice was the more immediately useful, she felt. Maybe she was wrong. It was hard to say without knowing exactly what she would be up against. Once the bond was formed, Nestra returned to sleep while promising herself not to try to throw her chef knife at her cutting board ‘as an experiment’. She would do things right this time.