Resurrected as a Drow 2 Chapter 2

“Follow her to the Temple, she says,” I grumbled as I stared down the endless dark of the levitation shaft. “Don’t keep her waiting, she says.”

The gentle breeze whistled up in the direction the Matron Mother just floated in like she was nothing more than a leaf on the wind, and I spared one more glance down into the dark abyss that went down for who knew how far.

Less was more when crafting a levitation sphere. And the key was to extend the weightlessness on the… outside? So that… um.

Fuck.

Basically, I needed to make my meager attempt at my levi-sphere capable of floating on the current of air in the levi-shaft.

Or else plunge to my death.

Most likely.

And if that happened, Mother would be piiiiiissed, but it wouldn’t be like it mattered because I’d be dead, so I had better figure this shit out, and quick.

I straightened up and eyed the faint silver force field all around me, but my feet were still firmly poised on the floor.

What did she do? She just appeared to rock up on the balls of her feet and then--

I popped off the ground when I executed the move, and I windmilled my arms in shock even though I technically didn’t need to catch my balance when I wasn’t in danger of falling.

However, moving through the air when I had no form of propulsion was another story.

I remembered back to what I observed from Sevahtra and how she twisted her hips and kicked her feet at the same time, and when I copied the motion, I ended up twirling in the air in a complete circle.

Great.

This was getting. me. nowhere.

After flailing about for another minute, I set my mind to thinking about this logically.

Okay, so, ether was a little bit fluid, or at least it seemed like that to me, and in a way, the sphere around me was like a stretchy container. Maybe if I sort of… “threw” my ether where I wanted to go, then I would follow like a fish at the mercy of the water in its bowl.

Although, maybe “gently tossed” should be more of the approach because it would really suck to ping off the walls of the shaft all the way up to the Temple.

So, I pictured gently tossing my ether, not just with my hands, but with my whole body, especially behind my gut where I felt the pool of my ether was located, and when I moved toward the levi-shaft, I huffed a breath in triumph.

And then my stomach immediately tried to escape through my esophagus as I fell sharply downward about four feet.

My gasp of terror ricocheted off the narrow walls, but I didn’t fall any further than that.

Success.

I wasn’t going up, however, so maybe only a partial success.

There was more to this yet, or else it wouldn’t be a proper test from Sevahtra Claden’Du.

More…

Well, Less being More, according to Mother. And knowing her, that cryptic statement was probably the key to the whole thing.

So, that meant… what exactly? Less ether was more, then?

I pictured retracting the thread of my ether, and the sphere around me got fractionally smaller. When it did, I bobbed up about two feet, and after a little more, I became level with the ledge I’d just stepped off. After a few more minor adjustments to the flow of my ether, I was finally starting to rise slowly upward.

Fuck, yes.

I was starting to figure out my magic a little, and when I correlated that the smaller I made my sphere, the faster I could go, I was actually able to really get into this way of travel simply because it was so fucking fun.

In fact, it was so fun, I almost neglected to put on the brakes when the levi-shaft reached the final floor of this Tower Level. If my reflexes were just a shade less than sharp, I would have painted the ceiling of the shaft with my insides.

“Good of you to finally join me, Son,” the Matron Mother’s dry voice greeted me as I twisted and turned so I could “toss” myself out of the shaft, and then I landed smack on my soles when I retracted all of my ether at once.

“Ugh,” I groaned and pressed my knuckles into my stomach when it felt as if my ether dropped back into the pool of my magical reserves like water dropped into a bucket from way up high. “Is it supposed to feel like that?”

“Yes, but if you practice enough, you will be able to smooth the transition so it is less jarring for you.” Sevahtra appeared and helped me out of the shaft and into the octagonal antechamber so I could stand on my own two feet again. “Glad to see you are a quick study. That will serve you well.”

“Ooh, ominous,” I said as I followed her into the Temple.

The space itself was also eight sided probably to represent the eight legs of Drogu-ani, the Spider Goddess the drow of Oshara worshiped, and it was decorated with low burning braziers with flickering purple flame. Finally, the Temple wasn’t complete without the slightly raised altar platform painted with concentric circles or the large effigy of said Goddess carved into the wall above one of the sacred baths.

“By now, you have been able to feel how to access your magic,” Sevahtra said as she led me up to the center of the platform. “And now you must rely on that again in order to defeat foes invisible to your eye.”

“Even this Eye?” I questioned as I lifted the patch over my odd blue eye I called my Dark Eye due to the fact everything was about fifty shades darker when I looked through it.

“Even so,” she said and then teleported off the platform. “Try not to get knocked off. It’ll only be worse for you.”

“What does that-- ow!” Something hard and invisible struck me in the stomach, and my foot slipped off the stone altar.

“That counts,” Sevahtra said.

“No way!” I argued and stood back in the middle. “I was barely even off!”

“Eh, semantics.” She shrugged, and I heard the swoosh of air right before whatever it was trying to nail me in the midsection again.

I danced out of the way just in time to feel the thing zip past me, and then I had to somersault forward because my hearing caught the sound of a secondary assault coming at me from behind.

“How many of those things are there?” I said as I tumbled to the side when a third invisible object tried to crack my skull open.

“That’s for you to determine,” the Matron Mother said from off to the side. “You must detect what you cannot see with your eyes.”

“Oh, great,” I huffed and whipped around when my ears picked up the air changes, but since there were at least three objects-- potentially more-- it was difficult to pinpoint all of them at the same time. “You do realize I only have one usable eye in this situation, right? So, I’m a little disadvantaged already, Mother.”

“You can handle it, Fynn, now shush and focus,” she ordered, and instead of responding, I did what she said and honed my attention for the task at hand.

Whack.

“Shit!” I missed the appearance of what had to be five invisible objects at this point and was struck in the center of my back.

“You might do better if you were blind in both eyes for this one, Fynn,” Sevahtra said as I was bashed in the shoulder by another.

“Is that supposed to be a hint?” I growled and ducked almost too late.

“Take it for what you will,” she replied, and I rolled across the platform when the invisible threat pounded into the stone right next to my head.

“Fine,” I muttered and actually closed my eyes. “But if I die, there goes my marketable assets.”

The Matron Mother didn’t respond, and I took this as my cue to really buckle down and focus.

Five.

As my other senses increased due to the absence of my sight, I could tell there were definitely five presenses.

Three were hovering somewhere overhead while the other two traded off trying to smash into me until I was forced to roll to the other side of the altar.

I used the momentum to pop up to my feet so I could kick out at where I had timed one of the objects to come for me again, and I was pleased when my boot-clad foot connected with that unseen force.

A smallish iron sphere like a miniature cannon ball instantly became visible the moment I made contact with it, and now that I could see, it was easy to hack it out of the sky so it could roll off the platform and onto the floor.

That should only make it four death spheres now instead of five, and even though it seemed I was able to see them the moment I hit them, I knew this wasn’t necessarily the object of this game.

I liked to think I was getting good at picking up on more of Mother’s subtleties, and I knew it was unlikely she would make a point of telling me this exercise had nothing to do with physical sight for no reason.

Because if one thing could be counted upon, it was that the Matron Mother was deliberate.

With everything.

Zap.

“Ow!” I yelled as the remaining invisible orbs now started to shock me even if they simply brushed against me, and I realized again how much of a rigorous task master this woman was.

Knowing her, there were probably multiple lessons all wrapped up in one to save time.

Zap.

Fuck.

Okay, so first lesson, use every sense to find out where these bastard things were at, but do this… without sight.

Eyesight.

The emphasis on the particular sight was the point, so I went back to closing my eyes in order to discern what she meant for someone like me who already had something close to “second sight.”

And then I dodged again as my acute hearing caught the sound of two of the orbs from my left.

I couldn’t keep tumbling around on the ground like this even though it was currently keeping my head from being smashed in. It was a basic common instinct that things on their back were nothing but prey.

With a full body kick back up to my feet, I was able to retreat from the edge of the platform, first and foremost because I really didn’t want to know what Mother’s version of “worse” was.

My stomach suddenly lurched oddly, and a strange fizzing noise erupted deep inside me, traveled up my throat, and poured into my ear canals.

“Gahhh!” I scratched and tugged at my pointed ears at the sensation, and it made me slightly dizzy.

Za- Za- Zaa-ap.

Fuck.

Not to mention it distracted me from the fucking invisible orbs, and it seemed like the bastards all gained up on me at once in order to fully knock me off the altar.

“Hm, just as I assumed,” Sevahtra said as I panted and slowly climbed back up to the altar. “The stakes aren’t high enough for you, so now if the spheres touch you, you will die.”

“What?” I managed to snap out right as my left ear twitched just in time to inform me of an incoming attack from that side.

I hit the ground again on my front but instantly popped up in a low crouch as I heard-- if the cold fizzing in my ears could be considered “hearing”-- the second of the four Magic Death Spheres fly over my head.

But there were two more, and with my eyes tightly closed, I let my ether combine with my naturally acute sense of sound in order to detect the other three. Two started to come after me from the right and the front while one sounded like it flew straight up.

I had to make a snap decision so none of the orbs would change course at the last minute, and when the two headed toward me, I vaulted backwards so they would collide with one another, and they both exploded in a shower of shrapnel and red and purple sparks.

“Very good, va-ulsen,” Sevahtra said. “But there are still two more, and this time, I want you to not only Detect the concealing magick, but I want you to Dispel it as well.”

Detect.

Dispel.

These distinctions were starting to get a little clearer, and I reached for my ether again so it could modify my hearing.

One orb sounded like it was circling clockwise over my head while the other seemed to be bobbing up and down around the height of my knees.

Okay, so detection down, but now how can I--

Zrrt.

Of course the Death Orbs would start shooting out firebolts.

Why would I expect anything less?

“Fuck!” I yelped as an invisible jet of heat flew over my head, and I could smell how some of my flyaways got singed as it passed overhead.

“Focus, Fynn!” Sevahtra shouted.

The orb above my head sounded like it was vibrating a little louder than before, and I leapt back when another sightless jet of fire struck the platform at my feet.

Fuck, it was only a moment’s distraction, but that was all it took for me to lose track of the second one, and there was little I could do to stop the sightless impact straight to my chest.

Then…

Blackness.

So complete I felt like a fly suspended in a puddle of molasses, but unlike the fly, I had been accustomed to ending up in this particular situation, and when the equally beautiful and monstrous Spider Goddess herself finally appeared in front of me, I simply let a cocky smile unfold on my lips.

“We must stop running into each other this way,” I purred as the Goddess observed me through her twelve ruby eyes.

Drogu smirked with her fanged smile and crossed her human arms over her abdomen.

“Oh, Fynn Draven, you get into all kinds of trouble, don’t you?” she chided. “I can only bring you back from the dead so many times.”

“Did I really die?” I asked.

“No, you are actually just unconscious this time,” she chuckled and crawled around so she was staring at me upside down. “Sevahtra talks a big game, but she is much too fond of you to follow through with just a threat. For now.”

“Oh,” I said as her words trickled through my brain. “Wait, how many times have you brought me back to life?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she chuckled in her maddening way that meant I was most definitely not going to be given answers, and I wasn’t even surprised when I sensed her cutting me free from her web.

“Fynn?” Sevahtra’s voice penetrated the cotton muffling my brain, and my eyes flew open.

“I’m good,” I groaned as I sat up. “I thought you said that was supposed to kill me?”

“Hm, I had hoped the mere thought would suffice,” she said as she helped me back to my feet. “It appears not.”

“Not that I’m one to question your teaching methods, but… why?” I ventured as I brushed my trousers off.

Fortunately, the Matron Mother was feeling generous with her patience, and she even soothed the bruise over my chest with her glowing palm.

“You recall when we did the Ascension at the Nils Dorei, and I told you I could not adopt you then as my Son?” she asked, and it seemed like such a non-sequitur I could do nothing but blink for a few seconds.

“Um, yeah, I remember,” I said, and I couldn’t help but cast my eyes to the ground when I recalled the regret I felt in the midst of such a wondrous moment with the mysterious fae wyld.

“Have you not wondered why?” she asked and then tipped my chin up so I would look at her again.

“I have, but…” I faltered.

“Of course you have, because you are as clever as they come,” she said and pinched my chin before she let me go. “It is why you are va-ulsen, after all. And although my wish was to adopt you during the Ascension, I held back because I knew there would be a greater chance for you to rise to the occasion.”

“You wanted to adopt me even then?” I asked.

“Yes, but it has been proven time and again that my children tend to be the strongest with the most will to survive, but like a seed that needs a crack in its shell in order to germinate, sometimes it needs a little pressure to reach its full potential,” she explained. “You needed to prove you were worthy to Drogu-ani first and foremost, and despite my… personal feelings that you had done enough in my eyes, you completely surpassed my wildest expectations after you implemented your plan against Ozin-Na.”

“Oh…” I could only say in the face of what sounded like a pretty serious compliment from the Matron Mother. I knew she didn’t hand these out everyday, so I didn’t want to spoil it.

“Oh, Sevvy, you’ve grown much too soft-hearted, tsk, tsk,” a sultry voice almost as full and buxom as its owner said from the far end of the Temple.

Madame Drindessa Bahna’Faar smirked with her arms crossed over her large chest as she stood there absolutely naked.

“Don’t tell me how to deal with my children, and I won’t interfere with yours, you tawdry harlot,” Sevahtra deadpanned and then jumped off the platform so she could join her very naked friend and kin-Mother. “And is all of this… necessary?”

Sevahtra gestured to the voluptuous older woman, and Drindessa merely glanced down at her light bluish green breasts, toned and cinched abdomen, and perfectly rounded hips.

“What?” The Madame shrugged as she raised her hands “A Summoning, especially from the Daemon Realm, always feels better without clothes, you should really try it.”

I’d admit, I was a little distracted by the handsome naked older woman to really register what she was getting at exactly, but by the time the words “daemon” and “Summoning” really landed, I was already being treated to a very large and dark entity rising up from the center of the altar.

“Really, Drindy?” Sevahtra huffed and clicked her teeth.

“Well, how else is he supposed to learn?” she demanded with a smirk.

As the entity grew taller than six feet, a pit of dread opened up in my stomach…

Daemon.

Summoning.

Fuck me.