13 - Settling In

Posted on Thu May 16th, 2024 @ 5:48am by Dungeon Master Sue Donym

1,451 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Chapter 4 - Apprentice
Location: New New York
Timeline: 2090

So here they were, now trying to figure out how they functioned as not quite a family, but not quite as co-workers either. Aurelia had taken on a lot of apprentices in the past, but Ember was the first one in this world so she was trying to figure out how apprenticeships worked here. Ember never really had a family before so she was doing her best to try and fit in and a lot of what she was doing kind of clashed with the others. Ryder seemed to be visiting almost daily now for some reason. Becca’s security reports were getting longer and longer.

To say that things were getting a bit tense after a week of living together, even in the large house that they were occupying, was putting it lightly.

Hence, the leader of their little group decided they would take the day off and had called a ‘family meeting’ and had gathered them all in the study. Even Ryder was there. If she could have, she would have had Elena there as well, but she had a supplier meeting she couldn’t get out of.

And since this was a day off, they were all dressed casually. Ember was in an oversized black hoodie with what looked like moon symbols and occult symbols on it. Ryder was wearing a floral Hawaian shirt and his normal slacks. Aurelia was wearing a nearly sheer blue robe and a black swimsuit. Even Becca had gotten into the spirit of things and donned a bathrobe over her lingerie.

“So what’s this about?” Ember asked as she sat down on the couch and tucked her feet under her, a cup of coffee in her hands.

“We’ve all been through a lot recently and none of us have really had time to really process it or talk about it with anyone. Sure we may be getting used to things, but have any of us really come to terms with them?” As Aurelia spoke, she looked around at each person in the room. “Ryder? Ember? Becca?”

As she waited for a response, Ember nodded slowly and spoke softly when she finally did. “Yeah. Yeah, it’s been pretty hard. It was pretty hard before, but this is a different sort of hard. I’m sitting here wondering if I’m going to eat someone alive because of these cravings.” She held up a hand and waved it around a bit as she clarified things a bit. “I know what you said - I may be biting and drawing a bit of blood, but I’m just sucking out… Life? Energy? Magic? I’m still confused about that, honestly. I just know that it feels soooo gooood afterwards. LIke I just…”

Catching herself before the craving filled her so much it broke her glamor charm, she placed one hand over her mouth to wipe away a bit of drool. “I’m so sorry. I need to better control myself.”

The red headed sorceress smiled softly. “And that is one of the things we're here to talk about. That is now a natural part of you. What I’d like to know is how often you’ve been partaking of Ryder and if you’ve been partaking of anyone else.”

“Oh no… I mean…” Now scared, the former human glanced over at the muscular security guard in the hopes he could bail her out. Was she going to get kicked out of here as well?

“I believe I can answer that,” Chimed in Becca, pulling out her usual datapad and pulling up her security logs. “For three days, your visits have been once in the evenings, then it rose to once in the mornings and once in the evenings. Yesterday, you both met three times. Morning, evening, and during your lunch break.”

For his part, Ryder just nodded along as the facts were recited. “Yeah, that sounds about right.” Seeing the horrified look from Ember and the raised eyebrow from Aurelia, he felt like he had to defend himself. “What? It feels great, she needs it, and you know me. I’m always happy to help.”

Aurelia sighed heavily. “It can be rather intoxicating. Possibly even addicting. And you do need to do it to sustain yourself. I was hoping you wouldn’t need to do it quite so often, but you are still trying to get used to things so maybe that’s part of it. Maybe once you come into your own, you won’t have to do it so often.”

“Yeah, as enjoyable as it is, I’d like it more if these cravings and demands weren’t so insistent.” Ember finally spoke up in a manner like she meant it. She also gave Ryder a look that was a mixture of hunger and apology.

Before anyone else could say anything else, a sudden explosion rocked the building and suddenly all the air was sucked out of the full floor apartment complex for just a moment before it came rushing back in. Her ears ringing, Aurelia stood and took note that Ember and Ryder were both stunned from the sudden impact, the former having reverted back to her demon form and Ryder reaching out to steady her.

Her hearing must have been affected because she could hear Becca talking to her, but it sounded like she was underwater and her ears were ringing. She glanced at Becca who was pointing towards the back. What was she yelling? Third workshop? The sorceress’s eyes widened in horror. That’s where they had been working on the council’s jewelry.

“Make sure the others are safe!” she yelled, still barely able to hear. As soon as she saw Becca nod, she ran into the hall, grabbing her staff off the mantle as she went. There, she was met by half a dozen combat drones filing in through the hole they had blasted in the end of the building.

Without even waiting, she leveled her staff and activated one of the fire spells, followed by an ice spell. The spells hit the first drones in the hall, turning at least three of them to scrap as they tumbled to the ground below. Far from finished, she stalked down the hall, activating elemental spells one after the other as soon as she caught sight of one of the drones.

They were getting smarter though, and were able to avoid her attacks after the first. Not only that, but they were able to attack back far more than she liked. As she finally got past the third workroom and glanced in to make sure the goods were still inside, she realized she’d never fought anything like them before. These were tricky foes.

And she was running out of spells.

She ducked into the third workroom for a moment so she could prepare a spell similar to the ones she had on most of her clothes. She’d done it so many times by now, it had become second nature so it only took her a few seconds to modify it and dump it into her staff, but they were precious seconds that she didn’t have. While she was doing it, the remaining three drones were coming back in the hole.

Thankfully, her hearing was returning and she could hear the drones getting closer to her. When they sounded close enough, she peeked out and fired off the spell she’d activated. Normally she would use protection and barrier magic for defense only, but this time she was about to show off a little known side effect of full barriers.

As the glowing blue wall snaked out from her position and down the hall, separating it in two, it also sliced the two drones in the hall in half, sparks flying as the parts immediately shut down and fell to the floor.

But the fight wasn’t over. There was still one last drone outside the hole.

But apparently, it had different plans - It made some interesting electronic sounds, the lights changed from red to green, and it flew away.

“Becca! Ryder! Secure the premises! Ember! Call Elena on the emergency line!” Aurelia called out orders, but as she did so, her vision was fading. Had she really been pushing herself that hard? She didn’t think so. Then she finally looked down at herself and realized that the robe she’d been wearing had not been enchanted. She’d been hit by whatever the drones were firing without even realizing it and she was bleeding pretty badly.

“Well, shit,” was all she got out before darkness took her and she passed out.

 

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