A Jaded Life

Chapter 1363

After I failed to pry Luna away from her growing collection of rabbits, I hopped back into the shadows to look for Lia. Brief stops in Maggie’s community and at Jademoon Tower failed to provide results, forcing me to get creative in my search. Luckily, I had a fail-safe, foolproof way to find her, as the connection between Lia and me was a constant, a link I could sense and follow.

As it turned out, I could even follow that link while I was moving through the shadows, though the connection was less distinct while in the umbral realm. Not a real surprise, given that everything was distorted within the shadows, and I had learned to deal with that long a go, but it served to delay me a little. Not a lot; it merely took me about an hour to track her down, instead of the few minutes it would take to find her in the physical world. Though, to be fair, searching for her through the shadows meant that the distance between us was fairly irrelevant. Even if she was on the other side of the globe, I would be able to find her within those sixty minutes, unless she was contained within powerful, protective wards that blocked out the shadows. However, such wards would always be a hazard, simply because their creation was limited to incredibly dangerous beings, and I had a feeling that wouldn’t change in the future.

When I stepped out of the shadows, I immediately stumbled back a little, almost stepping back into the shadows out of pure mortification. While I loved my daughters, there were a few things I had no interest in witnessing. One of those things was a partially unclothed Lia sitting on the lap of a bare-chested guy while her lips were attached to his neck. Or rather, as I realised after a moment, her teeth were sunk into said neck, meaning this was far from a kiss. This was just dinner, as evidenced by the guy’s glazed-over eyes and empty look, though that might have been due to his stupidity.

“Enjoying yourself?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper as my ears had picked up signs that there were other people nearby, not just Lia and her snack.

My voice must have startled Lia, as she jumped a little, letting go of the guy’s neck and revealing a pair of bleeding punctures. She immediately reached out to block the flow and start healing the wound, while looking at me with a strange look on her face. It was a combination of annoyance, mortification, satisfaction and a few other emotions I couldn’t quite read. It made me think that she wasn’t sure what to feel about this situation herself.

“Dress!” Lia’s voice took on a deeper, almost vibrating tone as she compelled the guy to put his shirt back on. She had to get up for that, allowing me to see a few hickeys on her chest as she was putting her own shirt back on, too. Once they were both dressed, she stared into the guy’s eyes, a faint scent of power shrouding her. Then, she spoke again, using the same vibrating voice to compel him again.

“Forget!” she commanded, twirling a little as she cloaked herself in shadow and disappeared before the guy could regain coherence. Given that I had no idea how I was going to get caught up in whatever this was, I did the same, ghosting after her as she moved quickly out of the somewhat improvised shelter they had been in, away from the people sleeping nearby and into the forest. She didn’t leave any tracks on the snowy ground as she moved, so I made sure to avoid leaving any trace of my passing. No need to make these people realise that something weird was going on.

“Daughter,” I greeted her after we were far enough in the woods to speak without being overheard. “Having fun?”

“Mother,” she returned the greeting, a faint smile around her slightly bloody mouth, “Lots of fun, actually. Did you know that the sun-crazed fools are quite delicious?” she asked, a grin stretching her lips and showing off her sharp, bloody canines.

“I did not know that,” I admitted, feeling just as amused as she seemed to be, “Just because it’s the motherly thing to do, I’ll remind you to be careful. It could be quite easy to get carried away in the throes of passion, and that might leave you open to trouble. They can hurt you, even with your vastly superior level; their divine magic will be incredibly effective against you, as you already know,” I warned her, despite knowing that she should be aware of these things already.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Yes, yes, mom, I know,” she waved me off, her voice a little snarky but also amused. “I’ll be careful, so I don’t get sunburned by that lot. Who knows what kind of SPF I’d need to withstand divinely powered sunlight?” she chuckled, making me briefly wonder where she had heard about sunscreen, though it likely was simply an artefact of her old, human life. It was fascinating how much random knowledge she had retained compared to the few personal memories she had. It would be interesting to study that in detail, though I wasn’t confident enough to poke around her mind and soul. Especially her soul was somewhat fragile and only held together by the bond and the bindings I had placed on her, so poking it was a rather bad idea.

“So, why are you here anyway? I thought you had some things to do at one of your other places,” she asked, fully aware that I wouldn’t track her down without a good reason.

“Poked something a little too vigorously, got poked back, and now I’ve got something rather interesting,” I replied, a grin on my face, while Lia started to laugh at my words, clearly amused that something had poked back.

“For one, I’ve got something that might be alchemically useful. I already know it’s magically uninteresting; at least I can’t think of any use for the stuff, but you might find something. Additionally, I’ve come across a rather sturdy creature and wanted to know if you’d be interested in helping me poke around. You might have different ideas compared to me, and your senses are focused on other aspects compared to mine,” I explained, noticing how she perked up, especially at the mention of the sturdy creature.

“What sort of monster did you stumble across now? And will Luna join us?” she asked, looking as if she was about to start walking, so we could get to our destination as quickly as possible, even if we wouldn’t actually walk.

“Luna isn’t interested. The creature in question is an Undead, or something close to that, and she’s got another project already, something more lively,” I shrugged. “The creature in question is called a Revenant, and the fascinating bit is that they can survive decapitation and start rebuilding their body from scratch. It just takes a bit of time,” I explained, and the look on Lia’s face told me that she was completely hooked. She wanted to know everything about this new monster.

“Let’s go, where are we going? One of the towers, the temple or somewhere else?” she prodded, just one step away from jumping into the shadows and speeding off.

“No, not one of the towers. Another place,” I told her, taking her arm in the process, “So, you know the drill, relax and let me take you.”

With that, I stepped into the shadows, pulling her along. Carrying someone took a little more effort, and I had a feeling that trying to force someone along who could walk the shadows on their own would be nigh impossible, but Lia was happily following my lead, so there was no issue.

It only took a few minutes to traverse the thousands of miles between our point of origin and the prison, so we soon stepped back out of the shadows and stood next to my throne.

“Nice place,” Lia remarked, looking around. “Why do I smell a few other people in here?” she asked, after sniffing the air a few times.

“Good nose,” I complimented, “There are a few test-subjects in here, nothing special. And you might also smell the former human, now Revenant; that thing gave me a few issues. It’s rather feisty and quite strong,” I admitted, getting a nod of understanding.

“Let me give you the nickel-and-dime tour, then we can check in on the Revenant; it’s still in pieces, but you might have a few ideas. We just have to take care not to kill the thing in its damaged state; I’m not sure I could create another,” I suggested, getting a nod in return, though the look of interest on her face when I admitted that I had created the Revenant was interesting. Maybe we should see about teaching her some Necromancy; it might be something she excels at, especially given that turning someone into a Vampire might be considered part of that magical domain, giving her an innate ability there. Though I had only a few, indirect memories of Lenore using that particular art, I was somewhat confident I could cobble something together. Or, at the very least, I could give her a good place to start, if she was interested.