Edge Cases - 153 - Book 3: Chapter 18: Performance

Kindness, Sev reflected, could be painful.

Aneryn hadn’t wanted to die alone. It was a small thing for Sev to be there for him in those last moments, and yet those last moments had been more than enough to make him care that much more. Aneryn would have been a friend, he was sure.

Maybe he had been.

Sev didn’t know what to make of those strange flashes of memory he had received, and he was too tired to think hard on it; his heart still ached. Very slowly, he gathered his things — the small, conjured cup that Aneryn had made for the tea, the little ceramic pot.

They were both absolutely terrible, and looked like they were on the verge of breaking. Sev handled them like they were the most precious things in the world. They sat near the bottom of his satchel, protected by as many soft things as he could find. He even grabbed some grass to stuff into his bag, just to absorb the impact as much as possible.

He’d ask Vex to enchant it when he got the chance.

Sev got to his feet — too much time had passed, he realized, and Vex’s presentation would be soon — and groaned at the way his body ached; he’d been sitting in the same position for too long. A quick burst of divine magic smoothed away the aches into just a memory of that pain, and he started back into town.

The festival seemed strangely quieter. Or maybe it was just his state of mind — he found himself tuning out the sound, his mind drifting back to Aneryn, to that strange familiarity. He couldn’t focus on that either, because a pulse of grief would quickly follow.

He was… not in a good state, he realized, somewhat distantly. But he still wanted to be there for Vex’s presentation.

Clyde had been the one to help set it up, and he’d apparently spared no expense for it, not that Mundane bothered with currency. He’d certainly called in favors, though. Vex’s presentation would happen on the same stage as the one the glyph would eventually be revealed at, along with what Derivan had learned of its properties.

It was a grand thing, standing several feet tall and on intricately carved supports made of an ivory-white metal and pure elemental flame; the carvings glowed from within, casting a dim light across the ground. The skyfall phenomenon was beginning to clear — a precious few minutes too late, Sev thought, with a small hint of bitter regret — but it left the skies clear with only a few of those strange panes left hanging in the air.

An uncharacteristically beautiful night. Perfect for the show.

“Are you alright?” Derivan’s voice spoke behind him. Sev started a little, and then, seeing who it was, calmed himself down.

“I’ll be fine,” he said.

“Hm.” Derivan left it at that, apparently sensing that he didn’t want to talk about it yet, though he clearly knew something was up. “The skies are clear today.”

“Didn’t even know it was possible.” Sev glanced up at the faint glimmer of stars, almost visible now that the sun was beginning to set. It was strange how different and yet familiar this place. “Vex is going to be out soon. What do you think he has for us?”

“I do not know.” Derivan shrugged broad shoulders, then sat himself down on the grass. Even with that, he towered over some of the people that were still standing. “But I look forward to finding out.”

“Yeah,” Sev agreed.

He couldn’t completely shake off the somber mood that hung over him, but he wanted to be here for his friend, at least. Now they just needed Misa to join them.

Misa appeared just as a row of lights flickered into existence over the stage. The half-orc was panting with exertion, and Sev looked over at her with amusement. “Lost track of time?”

“Shut up,” she grumbled. “Fuckers were good. Nearly got me a couple times.”

Sure enough, there was a fresh scar or two along her shoulder and arm — nothing that couldn’t be healed away, though Sev knew Misa had probably just chosen to keep them. “Had fun?” he asked.

“Fuck yeah.” Misa grinned, showing her teeth. “I gotta go to Combat more often. They’re really…”

She trailed off as she spoke, taking in Sev’s expression. “You alright?” she asked, frowning. “You don’t look it.”

“I’ll be fine,” Sev insisted with a sigh. “I’ll talk about it later, but it’s not important for now. Besides, the show’s starting.”

Misa peered at him with no small amount of suspicion — but a swell of music from behind the stage distracted her, and she turned her gaze to the stage. “Dang,” she muttered. “They really went all out for this.”

“They really did,” Sev agreed. “You think Vex will be okay? He usually doesn’t like this kinda thing.”

“I believe Clyde offered him a great many notes on glyphs as recompense,” Derivan commented dryly. “Though it seems a poor deal, considering Clyde shares whatever he knows on request.”

“Couldn’t keep a secret to save his life.” Misa chuckled.

“He also offered a number of reality shards, which is the true reason Vex accepted the deal, I believe,” Derivan said. “Though perhaps he simply saw that Clyde truly did want to see a Festival as grand as all the Festivals of old, and felt that a minor discomfort was worth bringing that memory to life…”

Derivan’s voice trailed off as Vex walked onto the stage, and all eyes focused on him.

The lizardkin was, for once, fully outfitted as a wizard. He didn’t wear the traditional robes of an Elyran wizard, though. Those were all long, flowy sleeves and reams of enchanted fabric, mostly to fit as many runes on the enchantment as possible.

What Vex wore was closer to the combat gear that Sev had seen some of the mages from Combat wear — closely-fitted cloth wrapped around his shoulders and down to his waist, leaving his arms bare, and baggy trousers secured just above his ankles, higher than normal due to his digitigrade feet.

He’d painted his arms, Sev realized. No wonder he’d taken so long to prepare — he couldn’t imagine the amount of time that must have gone into the intricate glyphs that were painted over his scales, especially if he’d had to paint them on by himself. Even his tail had a scattering of glyphs, every one of them carefully painted with directionality, pointing from the base to the tip of his tail.

The paints looked to be composed of the liquid mana Vex was able to call forth with [Splash of Mana], along with a metallic additive Sev thought might have been crushed reality shards.

Hopefully they weren’t those. Sev winced at the idea of crushing reality shards down. Vex… probably knew what he was doing, though. He’d only blown things up a couple of times.

And Clyde or Belle would probably stop him if he was going to blow something up.

Probably.

The music swelled to a crescendo, and Vex shut his eyes, letting out a long, steadying breath, as though to center himself. The lights that lit up the stage suddenly inverted, covering the stage and the audience with darkness; small gasps filled the arena.

In that artificial darkness, the glyphs painted on Vex’s arms began to glow.

It lit up Vex’s scales, casting him in a contrast of light and shadow. Everyone watching fell silent, their breaths falling still. A single point of light lit up the darkness — the tip of Vex’s blade, Sev realized, the dagger he often used to carve his spells with — and then, slowly but surely, he began carving an image into the air.

Not a glyph. A fully-formed image. A stylized display of his own life story.

Sev saw the image of Vex’s own parents, artfully displayed as a menacing presence around him and his siblings. He saw those smaller figures slowly becoming powers in their own right, gaining larger presences, and yet turning away from them in the process, until he was the last one left, a protective presence curling around a smaller, younger figure.

He saw Vex leave, the small figure that represented him drooping with no small amount of regret. He saw Vex fighting alone for a time, until he was joined by three others, and then it was all the tiny details in every scene Vex drew — the way his shoulders slowly drew back, the way he held his head a little higher.

That in itself would have been an incredible display, but Vex was doing more than that. Every glyph painted on his body had a function — and with every image he drew, a glyph would activate, casting the glow of a spell over the entirety of his audience.

Ice on his left shoulder, spreading a deepening chill as Vex and his siblings cowered away from their parents. Gravity on his right, a physical weight pressing down on them as those siblings, too, grew and left. The glow of that glyph was a dirty yellow, a bitter sort of pallor cast over the watchful eyes of his audience.

Lightning was a flicker that ran down his tail, a mesmerizing display of electricity every time he moved. Vex used that one to symbolize the determination it had taken to leave his brother there while he searched for another way, the way he’d fought on his own, striking out in a desperate attempt to find something.

And then… warmth. Not fire, but the simple, cozy warmth that came with sitting by a hearth in the winter. The glow of those glyphs lit up his arms and carried with them a sense of comfort, of quiet joy. A wave rippled through them, and Sev was surprised to find aches and pains he hadn’t realized he’d had suddenly smoothing away.

Vex was healing something that was outside the domain of even his own magic.

If the lizardkin realized what he’d done, he didn’t show it. His eyes were still closed, like he was lost in his own little world, even as the not-lights slowly faded back into light, bringing the stage back.

Sev had almost forgotten the thing was there. He’d been focused entirely on Vex’s performance, on the dance, on the intricate play of emotion and storytelling.

The applause was thunderous. Vex barely seemed to notice — he seemed exhausted, the whole exercise having apparently taken more out of him than just physical strength. Sev almost hurried up on stage to help heal him, but… no.

He didn’t seem to want the help. Vex opened his eyes, offering a small smile and a bow to the crowd, yet searching the sea of people to find his friends. Sev saw the way his eyes lit up with both relief and slight embarrassment when he caught sight of them.

And then, slightly spoiling the magic of the moment but in perfect keeping with Vex’s character, he gave his friends a little wave. Sev just laughed and waved back —

And that would have been that, but he probably shouldn’t have been surprised when mana began to gather.

Just like it had when Derivan had formed a new glyph a few short weeks ago.