[Story] Walking down the Unseen Path [July 9]

[Sid]

Whooooo I'm back! *collapses*

It's been WAY too long, but I'm finally getting back into the groove. Let's see if anybody but llearch (my trusty proofreader) is still interested in this.

Finally starting a new thread so the old one can rest in peace... somewhere on page four as of Jan 19. *cough*

Why the delay? Well, Chapter 10 was the most frustrating chapter to write, to be honest. I had to start three times from scratch, and consequently, I had to admit to myself two times that the chapter I had just written really sucked. And that doesn't exactly make me happy. So, after each failed attempt, I threw the fic into a dark corner and worked on other things.

But enough about that. I will try to get out new chapters on a halfway regular basis from here on.

Complete chapter list:
Chapter 1: Guests
Chapter 2: Revelations
Chapter 3: The Offer
Chapter 4: Welcome... to the Academy
Chapter 5: Roommates
Chapter 6: Ink
Chapter 7: Dates and Dimensional Folding
Chapter 8: Class Credit
Chapter 9: The Date
Chapter 10: Snap
Chapter 11: Clan Traits
Chapter 12: What's black and white...
Chapter 13: ...and crazy all over?
Chapter 14: Drunks, idiots... and drunk idiots

[Sid]

Chapter 10: Snap

"Kitzi?" Dante shook his head in disbelief.

Yasma raised an eyebrow. The Incubus standing in the corridor would indeed match a very superficial description of Dante's roommate: Roughly her height, almost black fur and wings, dark green hair and flight feathers, and a robe so dull that it made even clothes from fifty years ago look like the latest fashion trend. However, beyond that description, things had changed for the worse. For one, the well-kept - and dull - grey robe was now torn open in ridiculously many places, and it was colored in various shades of dark red. Blood, she guessed, but then shook her head. No. Nobody can lose this much blood and still stand. When her brain came up with the only plausible explanation, Yasma shuddered. Not all of that blood belongs to him. Her eyes focused on Kitzi's hands and then on his muzzle. More blood. But... how? Or why? This isn't the polite and shy guy I had met before...

"Dear God, Kitzi... what has he done to you?" The mouse Incubus started to walk towards his friend. "I'm so sorry... I promise, we'll get you healed once we're somewhere safe..."

The elk inhaled sharply. "Dante...?" she asked quietly, her eyes moving from her date to the bleeding fox and back again. "This maybe isn't the best idea..."

The mouse gave her a quick glare over his shoulder. "What? Can't you see that he's bleeding? What if Ink comes back?"

"I... kinda got the feeling that Ink is not who we have to worry about here," she stated diplomatically and followed him.

"Not Ink? Then who do you think should we worr-"

"DOWN!" Yasma suddenly yelled and flung herself over Dante, holding her arm up protectively. Moments later, Kitzi's jaw closed around her lower arm with enough force to make her wince. He's fast! The elk had seen Cubi performing sudden charge attacks, but a blind, bleeding Cubi doing so was a new one. Besides, isn't he supposed to be the nice guy who is completely lost without his roommate? she asked herself as she tried to shake off the wild Cubi.

"Kitzi! What is wrong? It's us! Dante and Yasma!" Dante was still trying to reason with his friend even after the attack, and Yasma couldn't decide whether he was fueled by hope or denial. "Please! We can help you!"

"Dante!" the Succubus snapped as she tried to keep Kitzi's claws away from her face. "Do something!"

"I'm trying to-"

"OTHER THAN TALKING!" she roared and slammed Kitzi against a wall. The rabid Incubus wasn't even fazed by what surely must have broken a few ribs. The only change was that now, his wing tentacles also tried to tear her apart. "Listen! I got no clue what's gotten into him, but we'll need more than just words to make him snap out of it!"

Never before had Yasma seen a look as helpless as the one on Dante's face. "I... I don't know... I mean..."

"Think, Dante! Something to knock him out! Or to restrain him!" She stumbled and fell when one of the tentacles had wrapped itself around her right ankle. Cursing loudly, Yasma wrestled with Kitzi on the floor, desperately trying to keep his teeth away from her throat. This would be so much easier if I could just kill or cripple him! Rock elemental magic wasn't made for stuff like- She froze. "Water! You guys got tons of spells to imprison and restrain people!"

"Yeah, but... but..."

"But WHAT?"

Dante clenched his fists. "I really, really suck at summoning! Can't we, like, drag him to the shower or something?"

"Oh, of course!" Yasma replied in mock friendliness. "Here, I'll just ask Kitzi to STOP MUTILATING ME FOR A MOMENT!"

"Okay, I get the hint!" Dante waved his hands frantically and cursed. "Wait, there is something... where did I put it..." The mouse started to pat his robe's pockets. "Always take it with me... ah-hah!" He fished a small amulet out of an inner pocket and grinned.

Then he broke it in half.

"...wow," Yasma replied after a few seconds, not bothering to conceal her sarcasm. "I'm so sorry I ever doubted you!"

Dante stared at his broken amulet. "But... it should have worked..."

Yasma was about to mock the Amulet That Does Nothing In Particular again when Kitzi suddenly broke off his attack. The Incubus gave off a confused snarl, his ears twitching lightly. He is hearing something. But what? There is nothing... no, wait... "...oh my God," she whispered when she realized what was happening.

Dante blinked when he realized that everybody was staring at him. Or rather: That everybody was staring at something just behind him. He turned around slowly... and looked straight into the dimensional cut that had appeared behind him. "Holy-"

As if having waited for him to pay attention to it, the ocean on the other side of the cut came crashing into the corridor.

Yasma managed to throw Kitzi off her body mere moments before the tidal wave reached her. It was too late to scream, too late to cast a protection spell, too late to do any more than just holding what little breath she had in her lungs right now. Within a few split seconds, she was flushed down the corridor at ridiculous speeds, praying that she wouldn't run out of air or hit some sort of obstacle.

It was hard to see anything, even ignoring the speed issue. In its completely flooded state, the corridor had become a badly-lit tunnel, and Yasma struggled hard against a growing sense of panic. Just when she was sure she couldn't hold her breath any longer, the water finally subsided. Yasma took a deep breath even before she hit the floor, thanking all the Gods she could think of. Judging by the frantic coughing coming from somewhere behind her, Dante had survived the trip, too. Good. That means I can kill him later.

"You okay?" the mouse managed to ask after a few seconds and began to crawl towards her.

"Sure, I'm peachy, Mister Not Compensating For Anything," Yasma replied and rolled her eyes. "You know-" She got to her knees and turned around to face him. Then she froze. Dante wasn't the only one crawling towards her - his insane roommate had not only survived their spontaneous diving trip, but apparently still had enough determination to resume the fight.

Sensing that again something was behind him, Dante clumsily sat down and faced his friend. "Please stop it, Kitzi!" he pleaded weakly, but the fox merely snarled as he continued the world's slowest amok run. "I thought we were friends!" Again, the only reply was a completely mindless snarl. "Wait! I know I haven't been the best friend, and you have every right to be frustrated, but-" Dante yelped in surprise when a rock the size of his head flew straight past him, hitting Kitzi squarely in the face. The mouse looked from the now unconscious fox to the elk. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" he finally yelled.

"THAT'S NOT YOUR FRIEND!" Yasma yelled back, trying to control her breathing again. Even summoning this comparably small rock had been a hard task in her current condition, and she knew it would take a few minutes before she could do it again. But she still had enough strength to beat some sense into her date, and she was more than willing to prove it. "I don't care what you say, but that... thing is not the nice guy you had been with when we first met!"

"He's just confused..." Dante looked as if he was about to cry, and Yasma groaned.

"Look, I know you care about him, and that's very noble," she said, lowering her voice a bit. "But even you have to admit that there wasn't a shred of his personality left."

"While some details are a bit off, Yasma is mostly correct."

Oh Hell, was all Yasma could think. She didn't have to turn around to know who had just joined the party.

After a few steps, Fa'Lina stood next to Yasma and cocked her head at the disaster zone the three Cubi had created. "Well, Balliendo will certainly be pleased," she commented and nodded approvingly. "He always was a fan of quantity, so one of his Advanced Elemental Studies students summoning this much water by means of a self-created artifact should make him proud..."

"I don't know what went wrong!" Dante cried frantically and gave the tall poodle a pleading look. "It was just supposed to drain water from nearby and transport it to my location!"

"Well, congratulations then. You succeeded." Fa'Lina gave him a smirk. When Dante only stared blankly, she chuckled. "Next time, either build in a limiter, or refrain from using it when you're just one floor away from one of SAIA's main water reserves."

Dante's jaw dropped when he realized what he had done. "I... I'm sorry, Headmistress," he finally whispered and lowered his head.

"Don't worry, all will be taken care of," Fa'Lina assured him. "And nobody is blaming you for reacting to a situation I set up."

"...WHAT?" the mouse roared when he realized what she had just said. "A situation YOU set up?"

"Quite indeed, and I will explain the how and why soon enough, but first-" Fa'Lina suddenly stopped and blinked.

Yasma was about to ask her if something was wrong, but then noticed the fading glow of Dante's eyes. It was an occasional side effect of magic, usually indicating abrupt casting of strong spells. Oh God, what did he try to do? ...and did he succeed?

"Cute, Dante," Fa'Lina commented and gave the mouse a grin. "Trying to break into my mind? Please don't tell me you really meant to do that. You know the rules, and you should know that my mind is no playground for children." She pretended to file her claws and yawned for emphasis. Then she gave Dante a meaningful look. "You have some talent, but such an obvious attack, fueled by emotions? Tsk, tsk, tsk. I'll let your almost-attempt slide this time since you have some right to be angry, but I suggest that you follow my orders now. Go back to your room, make yourself presentable, and we'll meet in the infirmary in an hour. I assume that should give Doctor Ink time to patch up your friend." She gave Yasma a look. "The same goes for you."

{{{An hour? It would normally be better to heal him slowly, but I guess this is a special case...}}} Doctor Ink shook his head as he marched past Yasma. He knelt next to Kitzi's fallen form and sighed. {{{Chushaki?}}} Ink's Warp-Aci appeared next to him and quickly teleported them away.

Fa'Lina also teleported away after summoning Kifo, leaving only Yasma and Dante in the still-flooded corridor. "...we should probably get going," the elk finally suggested.

"...yeah," Dante whispered after a long pause. He looked completely drained, and Yasma guessed that he was in shock.

I shouldn't leave him alone now... who knows what he might do? She frowned, then shuddered. Who knows what he'd do to me, actually? He just tried to launch a mental attack against Fa'Lina!

"Heh... I know that look..." Yasma blinked and looked at Dante. The mouse was giving her a completely deranged grin. "You're afraid of me," he whispered and cackled.

Splendid. He snapped.

"I've had ten roommates, and all of them gave me that look when they realized who they were supposed to share a room with." The Incubus got to his feet, the ridiculous grin still plastered onto his face. "Go ahead, little girl. Run away. Not blaming you..." Yasma slowly walked towards Dante, gritting her teeth to prevent herself from engaging in a pointless debate. "I'm meant to be alone. Should've accepted that fact sooner, actually... But that's cool, I guess it's about time that I embrace my rep-"

"SHUT! UP!" Yasma roared when she was right in front of him. Much to his credit, Dante complied, giving her a shocked look. The elk leaned forwards menacingly. "You will go to your room. You will change into a new outfit. And in exactly one hour, I will meet you in front of the infirmary so we can find out what the Hell is going on."

"...okay..." Dante whispered and nodded almost imperceptibly.

"And if you're not there, or if I find out you went on some sort of mindwiping spree, I swear I will find you. And once I do, I'm going to club you to death with your own headwings. Are. We. Clear?"

The mouse gulped. "...crystal clear..."

"Perfect," Yasma whispered, using a softer tone again. "I'll meet you in an hour then." Without waiting for an answer, she turned around and walked to the nearest exit. It's okay... don't show any weakness, she told herself. It's important that you show strength now. Otherwise we might end up with a deranged and traumatized mindreading expert who knows where you live. You can get a nervous breakdown about all of this in your room - preferably after throwing Iris out.

Yasma stubbornly ignored the various Cubi who tried to get more info from her as she navigated to her room. Nobody had bothered to offer her a towel or anything, of course. She briefly wondered how members of a mindreading, emotion-interpreting race managed to be so utterly clueless. So by the time she reached her room, she simply growled at everybody who approached her.

"Party girl!" Iris greeted her cheerfully the moment she went through the door. "You've been all over the news!"

"News?" she asked even while she was trying to figure out the best way to throw out her roommate.

"Yeah!" When Iris noticed the empty stare Yasma was giving her, she grinned. "Gossip Net! Buncha friends keep in touch telepathically to exchange all kinds of cool stuff. And damn, half of SAIA wants to know all about you, your boyfriend, and that mystery kid! Who is he? What is he? Did he cause that flood? How many did he kill? Is he single?"

The elk couldn't help but stare at the white vixen. Some of those questions were actually very good ones. Especially the one about the kills. God, Dante would snap for sure if his oh-so-adorable roomie killed fellow students. She opened her mouth, but then quickly shut it again. No. Anything you say now will most likely be leaked over the entire academy within minutes. "I need some time to unwind. Then we can talk."

"I prepared a bath!" Iris instantly cheered and gestured enthusiastically at the bathroom. "Figured you'd be... y'know, covered in blood and stuff after your epic clash, but I gotta say you managed to handle things well without getting blood all over you." She hesitated. "Okay, except for the arm."

"Arm?" Yasma blinked and looked down at her hands. One of her arms was indeed bleeding, and her robe around the wound was torn to shreds. Huh, you'd think it'd hurt more, she thought, slowly arriving at the conclusion that she was in shock. "Oh, that. Yeah... Kitzi got me there. Bit straight into it."

"Kitzi... that's the mystery berserker, right?"

Yasma gave her a look. "Could you keep this down for an hour, Iris?" When Iris opened her mouth to protest, she held up her uninjured hand. "Look, I'm going to meet Fa'Lina and Ink about this in half an hour or so. I guess they know the full story, so until we figure out what is going on, we shouldn't try to spin the situation out of control, okay?"

The vixen thought about it, cocking her way this way and that. "You're going to see Fa'Lina?" she finally asked. "That is so unfair, you know?"

Yasma smacked her forehead. Why did they give me a roommate with the nonexistent attention span? "I didn't exactly ask for this, Iris."

"That's even worse! You get to hang out with my sister, and I'm-"

"She's not your sister!" Yasma snapped.

Iris crossed her arms and pouted. "Okay, fine, she's not. But I'm still feeling the special bond that goes back to that fateful day..." She sighed dreamily, as if remembering a romantic evening. Yasma groaned.

"She smacked you through a couple of walls and then put a freaking curse on you! That doesn't make you her soulmate or anything!"

"Did I ever tell you that you're horribly unromantic?" Iris asked, still pouting slightly.

"Today? No." Yasma held out her injured arm. "Here. Could you take care of that?"

"Pffffft, piece of cake. But promise to tell me everything afterwards?"

A sigh. "I promise."

"And you'll tell her that I love her?"

"...yeah, sure," Yasma muttered, trying not to look too freaked out by her roommates apparently masochistic puppy love.

"And you'll ask her if that Kitzi fellah is a member of Clan Chu'Patzu?"

"...Clan wha?"

"Chu'Patzu," Iris repeated and blinked. "You know, the long-lost Clan that sacrifices a virgin every full moon and then engages in a totally wicked orgy party?"

This time, Yasma didn't even try to hide her freaked out stare. "...right." She shook her head. "Do I even want to know why you want me to ask?"

Iris broke into the widest grin Yasma had ever seen. "It's full moon in a week, and I got an empty schedule..."

"You need therapy," the elk muttered.

"Oh come on!" Iris taunted her even as Yasma marched into the bathroom. "You know it'd be fun!"

"You weren't there," Yasma countered and slipped out of her clothes. Much to her surprise, the bathtub was indeed ready for her. She really must want all that info... sheesh. "He was a wild beast, just not in the kinky way you'd like." She held up her injured arm. "See this? That wasn't foreplay. He tried to fricken kill his only friend, and when I stopped him, he tried to kill me." Stepping carefully into the tub, she gave Iris a look. "How about that healing, by the way?"

"Oh, sure!" Iris bounced into the room and knelt next to the tub. Almost immediately after touching her arm, the vixen's hands began to glow. "Hm, nothing deep. Give me a minute."

Yasma gave Iris a long look. It was interesting see the vixen's serious side for a change, and Yasma idly wondered whether the drunk party girl was just a mask hiding a more serious personality. "You know," she started to break the uncomfortable silence, "it's weird. I met the guy before his amok run, and he struck me more as the quiet and mild-mannered type. Either something bad happened to him after Dante left him, or the guy's got some serious issues."

"People often do weird things." Iris shrugged and let go of Yasma's arm. Aside from the bloody fur, it was as good as new, and the elk gave her a thankful smile. "I mean... somebody told me how some Succubus completely shaved off her fur to get a date. Can you imagine that? An otherwise completely sane Cubi suddenly gets a silly idea and-"

"That was me," Yasma hissed and gave Iris a glare.

"...seriously?" Iris blinked. After a few seconds, she broke out in hysterical laughter. "Oh my GOD! I can't believe it! YOU?" She ignored Yasma's groans and beamed. "Got any memories to share?"

"Drop dead, Iris." The elk buried her face in her hands. Stupid! You let her provoke you and started babbling! "You tell anybody, and I kill you." The vixen's only reply was a mad snicker. "I mean it!" The snickering merely grew stronger, and Yasma gritted her teeth. "Okay, fine. I'll tell Fa'Lina that you despise her."

Iris instantly stopped snickering. "You wouldn't," she whispered, her expression stuck somewhere between fear and anger.

"You know I would."

For a few seconds, the vixen gnawed on her lower lip. "Okay, fine. You win this time." Her white headwings flapped in irritation, and some of their black flight feathers landed in the tub. "But you still owe me for the healing, so ask her those questions!"

"Don't worry... I will... now leave me alone for a few..." Yasma sank back in the tub and sighed quietly. She didn't look forward to meeting Fa'Lina and Ink, but she had a feeling that her presence would be required to keep Dante stable. What an idiot, she thought. Did he really try to pry information out of her mind? Small wonder she didn't kill him or kick him out. A frown appeared on her face. Then again, she did say that she was somehow responsible for all of this. "Damn. Why am I surrounded by all these crazy people?"

Iris peeked into the bathroom again and smirked. "Says the girl who shaved herself just to-"

"SHUT UP!"

---

Author's Notes:
- As mentioned in the opening post, this chapter had to be scrapped twice. The first time, Yasma suddenly escaped my control and tried to let Kitzi and Dante kill each other. The second time, both Yasma and Dante escaped my control. Yasma tried to kill Kitzi, and Dante did some mild memory-scrubbing on her, followed by lots of arguing and angsting. I think most people will agree that in the long run, this outcome is the best choice among the three.
- Writing Fa'Lina and Ink is tricky business.
- Like Yasma, Iris had not been part of the initial fic idea. However, she's quickly becoming one of my favorites, mostly because she isn't angsting all the time like my other characters. Oh, and she's silly.

[Tapewolf]

Awesome, it's back!
In truth the amulet had the feel of something that had just been inserted as a bit of a hack, but I feel that was the only real weak spot in this chapter.
But we still don't know why it's happened 

[Sid]

In truth the amulet had the feel of something that had just been inserted as a bit of a hack, but I feel that was the only real weak spot in this chapter.

There are some things in this chapter that will be explored later on, including the amulet. However, the amulet was unique to this version of the chapter - the original idea had been for him to either summon and control water or to control the water flowing through pipes in a wall. I decided against those things, mostly because it would have made him too actively powerful for the current situation.

The amulet was a good one-time item to take the fight to the end phase in a fairly unique (and non-lethal) way, and it potentially allows me to gently push Dante into an enchanter direction. Also, I can let Yasma take the role of the heavy hitter that way

And, believe it or not, we'll actually get explanations in the next chapter

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

"Are? We? Clear?"

I should have noticed this earlier. This should be "Are. We. Clear?" - since only the last word has the tone uprising at the end.

Ewps.

Other than that, all good.

The advantage of the amulet is that it may take him several weeks to set it up, later. Which, while a fair length of time, limits his -immediate- powers, quite effectively... Worth keeping an eye on, but hey...

[Roureem Egas]

Heh, awesome chapter Sid! The tongue-in-cheek descriptions have a pretty cool touch, especially how you could keep the humor going on in the tense areas. Iris is a cute character, and she's one of my favorite characters now. Slightly messed up ideas in her head, the head-cocking, and the ditzy attention span.

[Sid]

"Are? We? Clear?"

I should have noticed this earlier. This should be "Are. We. Clear?" - since only the last word has the tone uprising at the end.

Ewps.

Huh, thanks for pointing it out. Fixed

The advantage of the amulet is that it may take him several weeks to set it up, later. Which, while a fair length of time, limits his -immediate- powers, quite effectively... Worth keeping an eye on, but hey...

Another plot-advantage is that it greatly depends on how much water is nearby (and as we've seen here, "more" doesn't always equal "better"). But we'll have to see what he's going to do in the future. Maybe he'll create another amulet like this, maybe he'll try something else... or maybe he'll try to enchant Yasma's plushies to transmit images from her room to him
Just like Yasma and Iris, including the amulet was a small decision that will influence the future, twisting it yet a little further away from the initial idea.

Heh, awesome chapter Sid! The tongue-in-cheek descriptions have a pretty cool touch, especially how you could keep the humor going on in the tense areas. Iris is a cute character, and she's one of my favorite characters now. Slightly messed up ideas in her head, the head-cocking, and the ditzy attention span.

Hey, thanks!
And yeah, Iris can be incredibly cute/funny or incredibly frustrating, depending on whether or not it's you who's talking with her. Still, despite (or maybe because) of her weird world view and garbled priorities, she somehow gets through life.

[Sid]

Chapter 11: Clan Traits

Dante walked down the corridor with a frown. Is this the right way to the infirmary? He scratched his head. Something was wrong, but he couldn't place his finger on it. The light's not as bright as it should be, he finally realized. "Weird. I wonder what's-"

He stopped in mid-sentence when a badly wounded horse Incubus stumbled around a corner and collapsed after a few more steps. "R... run, fool," the horse whispered, giving Dante a pleading look. "Run before-" The horse's eyes widened for a brief moment. "That's him! Can you hear him? He's coming! RUN!"

"No, wait... I... Let's you get you out of here!" Dante hurried over to the wounded Cubi. He wasn't quite sure how he'd move a creature multiple times his size and weight, but he wouldn't just leave him here while the attacker was still on the loose.

"Oh my... quite the mess here..."

Dante looked up. "Kitzi?" he asked and blinked. The young fox was leaning against the wall and gave Dante an amused smile. "What're you doing here? And what's with the silly robe?" Dark red is so totally not his color, he thought before his brain managed to puzzle out a few things. Oh dear God! That's blood! The entire robe is soaked in dear Lord what did he do and crap he's the one who wounded the horse and he tried to warn me and now-

"I'm so glad that I ran into you!" Kitzi beamed. "It's been so boring to do this all by myself."

"...what?" Dante's mouth suddenly was very dry, and he could do little more than stare.

"But now you're here! My roommate!" Kitzi gave him a grin. "We can have some fun! Together!"

"...FUN?" the mouse shrieked and pointed at the horse. "Y-you call this FUN? You're insane! A complete, out-of-control psycho!"

"I am!" The fox nodded eagerly. "And so are you! This is why we became roommates, isn't it? We're both psychos!" He slowly approached Dante. "C'mon, let's make our Clans proud..."

"No... NO! Kitzi, stop it!" Dante stumbled backwards. This was wrong. So very wrong. I'm not a psycho, and neither is Kitzi! "You're better than this! You're a good guy!"

"Oh, stop kidding yourself!" Kitzi taunted him and smirked. "You can feel the fire of rage, can't you? You can feel the heat..."

I... I actually do feel the heat, Dante realized and blinked. So hot... so very hot... like something is-

"BURNING HOT DAMN FIRE FIRE!" the mouse cursed and threw the burning pillow against a wall. "THE HELL'S GOING ON?" he yelled and quickly patted his head to check whether his fur was on fire, too.

It took him a few seconds to calm down enough to allow rational thoughts again. "Dream," he muttered when he realized that he was in his bed and not in some corridor. "No, scratch that. Nightmare." He gave the burning pillow a look. "And I take it that my alarm clock spell didn't quite work as advertised."

Okay, Dante, one step at a time, he told himself and took a deep breath. "Time." The word was laced by a little bit of magic, barely enough to require conscious thought.

"It is twenty minutes before four in the afternoon," the SAIA time service replied telepathically.

Twenty minutes to go. Barely enough time to- There was a knock at the door, making Dante sigh. "Now's not the time for visits!" he barked angrily. Damn people, most likely trying to taunt me for having a psycho roomie or something.

"Dante, it's me," Yasma's voice made him look up.

"Oh, I... erm... sure, come in!" He waved his hand quickly, and the door unlocked for her.

"Thanks," the elk started as she stepped into his room, "I was just checking to make sure that-... what's going on here?" She glanced at him, then at the burning pillow, then back at him. "You slept on a burning pillow?"

"Do I look that stupid?" Dante asked out of reflex and crossed his arms.

"Well, your hair's smoking, and the fur on your head is slightly charred... so yeah, you do."

"Dammit," Dante cursed and went into the bathroom, leaving the door open so that he could still talk to her while he took a shower.

"Seriously, what happened?" the Succubus asked from the other room as she stomped on the pillow.

"I enchanted the pillow to act as an alarm clock," Dante replied and rolled his eyes. He quickly undressed and stepped into the shower. "Needless to say that it didn't work out the way I had in mind."

"Why did you use such a strong spell, anyway?" Yasma sounded slightly awed, and Dante briefly wondered if she actually knew any spells outside of the elemental field. "I mean... why'd you need more than just the basic chime they teach in the elementary classes?"

Here we go, Dante thought and groaned. He could try to lie, but after all that had happened today, he felt like keeping things simple. "Because I had been asleep," he finally replied.

"Yeah, but even then-"

"No," he interrupted her. "I mean deep asleep." When no reply came, he let out a sigh. "And dreaming."

For a few seconds, the only sounds were those of water washing over Dante's fur. Finally, the elk burst into the bathroom. "WHAT?"

Dante gave her a look over his shoulder. "A little privacy, please?"

"You... you're beyond the ability to dream," Yasma hissed, ignoring his request. "You are physically unable to dream."

"Mh, true," he replied and reached for a towel while shutting down the water flow. "But there are certain spells that break down the boundary between meditation and daydreaming. The result is a... realistic dream, based on deeper impulses... and stuff."

"...in other words: Self-delusion." Yasma shook her head. "So what petty fantasy did you live out? Became headmaster of SAIA? Had good sex?"

Dante gave her a dark look. "Let's just say that waking up on a burning pillow counted as an improvement."

"Yeesh, a magical nightmare for the guy who can't dream? What was it? Bad sex? Got thrown out of SAIA?" She blinked and gasped. "No, wait. Kitzi."

Slipping into his robe again, the Incubus sighed. "Yeah, Kitzi. He was... happy. Slaughtered his way all through SAIA with a smile on his face." He shuddered. "And then he asked me to join him."

"Yeah, I can see how self-immolation is an improvement there," Yasma remarked with a frown. "Still... the ability to dream... how come I never heard of it? It's perfect!"

"It's hard," Dante retorted. "You need to slip into meditation and cast a pretty complex - and draining - spell in that state. And even then it can backfire."

"Then why did you do it? If it's such a waste of energy and a risk, why bother-"

The mouse sighed. "I needed to... to get away from things. I thought that a nice fantasy would cheer me up after a day that has been a complete catastrophe so far." He looked up at the elk and immediately saw her disapproval. "Right. This is the point where you hit me with a rock and rant about how I'm weakling who tries to run away from his problems, isn't it?"

Yasma crossed her arms. "I would, but we got an appointment with your friend. Time?" She frowned when she got the reply. "Five minutes. Time to go."

"We don't need that long to get to-"

"Trust me, we will. Lots of traffic in the corridors since our stunt. And don't even get me started on the rumor mill."

Great. Everybody is probably chatting about how one of those nasty Hadruroh Clan members brainwashed some innocent student into thinking it's cool to kill others. The Incubus rubbed his temples. Okay, that can't be helped. And maybe it's for the best - my reputation's down the drain, anyway. If we twist this in Kitzi's favor, we can give him a fresh start... "Right. Let's go. We just have to get to the next mirror, there's a shortcut to the infirmary from there."

Yasma held the door open and cocked her head. "Define 'shortcut', please."

"It's actually a straight path connecting the two exits. It's as if the universe tried to bring me even closer to Ink for some sick reason."

"Maybe you're supposed to become a doctor?" the elk mused as she forced her way through several groups of students.

"No, thanks," Dante replies, struggling to keep up with the tall Succubus. "I got through Ink's classes, but even with a less creepy teacher, I don't think I would've wanted to become a doctor."

They finally reached a mirror, and Dante stepped through its surface first. It was always an odd feeling, stepping into what most students simply called Mirrorspace. Of course, the sight behind the mirror's surface was the actually odd bit: A giant hallway, riddled with narrow paths. To make things worse, the paths didn't seem to obey any laws of nature. Dante saw some students walking upside down from his perspective, but to them, gravity simply pointed the other way. Some day, somebody is going to paint this, and people will praise him for his surreal vision, he mused and rolled his eyes.

"I wonder what Kitzi will say once you tell him that there is another messed-up dimension lurking behind mirrors," Yasma wondered innocently, and Dante groaned quietly. "I can still remember the day I took Iris here. She threw up straight away and refused to go near a reflective surface for weeks."

Uh, yay? Dante wondered and gave her a puzzled look. So I'm supposed to feel better just because everybody is freaked out by it? He shook his head. Having a new roommate seemed to be nothing but trouble.

After a few more steps, they left the twisted Mirrorspace and stood in front of the infirmary. Much to Dante's surprise, nobody was waiting in front of it. "Looks like fear of Ink is greater than curiosity," Yasma guessed and opened the door. "Doctor Ink?"

{{{Over here, Yasma.}}}

Operating room, Dante thought and glanced at the door Ink had led Kitzi through earlier. Of course, the room wasn't only used for operations, but that's what it was most known for. Clenching his fists, Dante went into the room.

"Light footsteps... Dante, isn't it?"

The mouse blinked. "Kitzi?" he asked quietly, staring at the fox that was sitting on the operating table, wearing a bloody hospital gown. "You... you're..."

"Alive and well, yeah," Kitzi replied happily. "Doctor Ink fixed me up in record time, or so I've been-" His explanation was cut short when Dante hugged his arm, almost dragging him off the table.

"You're normal!" Dante whispered, trying hard not to cry. It's going to be okay! Everything is going to be okay again! He's not under that crazy spell anymore, and he won't ask me to join any killing sprees! "Thank God!"

A hand stroked over his head, and Dante could hear a low sigh. "I'm... I'm really sorry, Dante," Kitzi whispered. "I just couldn't control myself... it was like a bad dream, but... real."

"It's okay... it's okay... you were under a bad spell, it's not your fault..."

"How touching," somebody remarked in an almost bored tone. "However, you might want to check your facts first, Dante."

"Fa'Lina?" Dante asked and turned to face the headmistress. "What do you mean?"

"Ahhh, exposition time!" the poodle cheered and got up from the chair she had been sitting on. Her grin sent shivers down his spine.

"What did you do, Fa'Lina?" the mouse asked, and his headwings twitched.

"My involvement is limited to some precognition," the Succubus replied evenly. "In the end, I merely redirected a few people to avoid any unnecessary victims." She moved over to Kitzi and moved the gown a bit to reveal a part of his belly. "Here is what you're looking for."

Dante cocked his head and grabbed a chair to stand on. When he finally saw what Fa'Lina had revealed, the mouse frowned. It's... a Clan mark. He reached out and brushed over the fur to get a better look. The dark green mark was about the size of his hand and consisted of a roughly circular shape, with two slightly curved triangles reaching into it. It took Dante a moment to realize that the mark looked a lot like the view straight into a snake's open mouth. He frowned - the symbol looked familiar, but he had trouble placing it. He felt Fa'Lina's expecting look on him and bit his lower lip. Finally, he remembered where he had seen the symbol. "Holy crap..."

"Mh? You know that Clan?" Yasma asked without looking away from the mark.

"Sohew Clan," Dante whispered. Dear God... it all makes sense now! But... how? This shouldn't be possible!

"Doesn't ring a bell," the elk commented and shrugged lightly. "They famous or something?"

Dante gave her a glare. "This is Cubi History 101 we're talking about! The Cubi War!" When the Succubus gave him a questioning look, he sighed. "The war that involved all Clans to some degree? Surely you at least heard of it."

Yasma shrugged. "Not much. My Clan sorta opted out of the war. We weren't really interested in invading or being invaded."

"...you... opted out of being invaded?" Dante asked, forgetting about Kitzi's Clan for a moment. "How does that work?"

"We group-cast a defensive Meteor Shower when the first invading Clan arrived. It kinda killed all the invaders, and for the rest of the war, nobody else set a foot into our territory."

Why am I not surprised? The mouse rolled his eyes. "Okay, then... here's a recap."

"Much appreciated," Kitzi commented and gave Dante a look with his slightly grey eyes.

"Ack, right... right..." Dante closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "A few centuries ago, there was a war. Major event. Long story short, some Clans decided that things would be better off with fewer Clans around. You know, the entire 'My Clan is better than yours, so yours should not exist' gig. The result was a war that consisted of short, but messy fights on several fronts."

"And... my Clan... fought in this war?" Kitzi asked with a deep frown.

"Yes. And yes, your Clan was one of the invading ones, but there's more to it." Dante tried to ignore the fox's quiet curses. "Before the invasion, Clan Sohew was a Clan of scholars."

Kitzi's mood immediately improved. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. They were known to be good students and capable teachers. In fact, their ability to understand complex concepts was their second most famous trait."

"...what was their most famous trait?" Kitzi immediately asked and frowned.

"Their... erm... their bloodlust."

Kitzi gave him a look with unseeing eyes. "You're joking."

"I'm not! And it explains your behavior!" Dante quickly placed a hand on Kitzi's arm. "Let me explain! It's a Clan trait! Sohew Clan members had the odd tendency to fall into a sort of berserker rage whenever they were critically injured. Whenever that happened, they became practically unstoppable, fighting with claws and wing tentacles until nobody else was standing anymore."

There was a long silence. "So... when they were attacked and were injured badly, they turned into fighting machines?" Kitzi finally asked.

"Pretty much, yes."

"That's... not too bad, isn't it? I mean, it could be fairly useful..."

Dante sighed and shook his head. "It's funny that you'd think so. This is exactly the reasoning that led to your Clan's extinction."

Kitzi's mouth opened and closed a few times. "My Clan is extinct?" he finally asked.

"Your Clan's leader and his close friends also thought that this trait could come in handy during a fight. Radically enhanced close-range fighting sounded like an awesome thing to have in, say, an all-out invasion of another Clan. So they came up with a completely insane plan. The entire Clan approached another Clan's village... and then they all mutilated themselves."

"You're kidding." This time, the protest was voiced by Yasma. "No Clan would ever be that-"

"Be that what? Stupid?" Dante chuckled briefly. "Yasma, Clan Sohew holds the title of the Dumbest Clan in Existence, and with good reason. But let me continue." He ignored the elk's shocked expression and tried to find back into his story. "Like I said, they engaged in self-mutilation. You know... slit themselves with knives and stuff. All to get into this berserker mood. And it worked, too! But can either of you see the faults with the plan?"

"You mean aside from rapidly bleeding to death?" Yasma asked and crossed her arms. "If they seriously need critical injuries, then they're not going to survive long like that..."

"Very true. And in their bloodlust state, they rarely used magic, especially when it came to healing magic. But there was another drawback they had overlooked."

"...until nobody else was standing anymore," Kitzi quietly repeated Dante's words, looking extremely drained all of a sudden.

"Exactly," Dante whispered. "Here's how your Clan earned its title. After a few minutes and a good number of casualties on both sides, the other Clan... evacuated. They all teleported out of the village almost simultaneously. But the fight... the fight continued. The Sohew Cubi never realized that their rage did not come with a team sense, and so they kept going as long as there were others to fight. In the end, only one Cubi was left standing... and he bled to death minutes later, too weak to heal himself."

Kitzi's jaw dropped, and Yasma's eyes had almost doubled in size. "Oh my God..." Kitzi finally groaned and lay down on the operating table again, covering his face with both hands. "I'm a monster..."

{{{Now, now,}}} Doctor Ink said and placed a hand on Kitzi's shoulder. {{{Keep in mind that it will take quite a bit of punishment to trigger this trait. For example, the bit with the hand didn't do anything!}}}

"Wait... what bit with the hand?" Dante asked and blinked.

The grey fox smiled politely. {{{Oh, that's right, you don't know. Kitzi volunteered to help me with one of my first aid lectures.}}}

Hand? First aid lecture? What does he mean by-... Dante froze. "It was you," he whispered, finally realizing that he had never asked what had sent Kitzi into his rage in the first place. "You're the one who made him snap!"

{{{For the sake of simplicity, I'll just say yes,}}} Doctor Ink answered and shrugged lightly.

"You!" Dante clenched his fists and forced himself to not lash out physically, mentally, or with magic. "He's had it hard enough already! But no, you had to drag him even further down!"

"Dante..." Yasma quietly started, but he ignored her.

"I can't believe you! And Fa'Lina! You're involved, too! He's your student now, how could you-"

His rant was cut off when a strong hand grabbed his throat. "Dante," Yasma repeated the word, this time hissing it angrily. The mouse briefly struggled against her grip, but she effortlessly turned him around until he was looking at Kitzi again.

Oh God, was all he could think of when he realized that the fox was sobbing. The grip on his throat loosened slightly, but Dante didn't know what to say anymore. A part of him just wanted to curl up next to Kitzi, but he knew he had to show some strength now. Kitzi is at his limit, and I've got to balance him out. Somehow...

"Could you maybe send us to Dante's room?" Yasma asked quietly, and Doctor Ink nodded politely. The elk carefully picked up Kitzi and stepped away from the bed. Dante quickly joined her and looked at the floor as Ink's Warp-Aci began to fly in a circle around them.

When he looked up again, Dante realized that he wasn't in his room. Chushaki had transported only Yasma and Kitzi, leaving him in the infirmary. "What the-" he started to ask, but the look on Fa'Lina's face quickly silenced him.

"Dante, I want you to be aware that I have tolerated your behavior and your tone so far because the current circumstances are fairly out of the ordinary," the poodle began, and Dante gulped. "However, it's about time that you come to grips with this new situation... and your position."

The mouse quickly nodded. "I apologize, headmistress."

"No need to be that formal, but it's good to see that we understand each other." She gave him a thin-lipped smile. "Now... I know that I'm placing you in a complicated situation here. Part of it had been planned, but the more recent developments had not. Still, I believe that you will do nicely."

Not knowing how to reply, Dante merely nodded. It's a vote of confidence, I guess... even though with Fa'Lina, you never know for sure. She's been involved in politics longer than I've been alive!

"Excellent. Now move along... Yasma is already wondering where you've gone..." Dante nodded sheepishly and started to move. Just when he had reached the door, Fa'Lina spoke again. "Before I forget..." She reached into a pocket and took out a small box. "Yasma will know what to do with it," she said as she let it hover into Dante's hands. "It will... pave the way for all of you."

The mouse frowned lightly and looked down at the box. Pave the way? Must be some sort of magic item... He spotted a Clan mark on the lid, but it was unfamiliar to him. It wasn't his, and it also wasn't Fa'Lina's. Yasma's Clan, maybe? In the end, he simply stuffed the box into his pocket and left the infirmary.

What was it that Kitzi said? Something about needing normality? Yeah, I'll have some of that, please.

---

Author's Notes:
- The decision to give Cubi a sort of pseudo-dream backdoor wasn't an easy one. In the end, I decided that having an inefficient method to extend daydreams and fantasies wasn't too bad or unlikely. Like Yasma said: It's expensive, unreliable self-delusion for people who are desperate, so it's something few self-respecting Cubi would resort to.
- I had been this close to letting Yasma make a lyrics reference to Midnight Oil's "Beds are Burning"
- Mirrorspace... I think I first stumbled over the concept while cruising through the SAIA RP, but I'm not sure if it had been Escher-esque there, too.
- I'm willing to bet that Yasma's Clan never had any problems with door-to-door salesmen

[Tapewolf]

That was a little confusing at first, since I thought you rolled back the entire Kitzi-vs-Ink sequence.  It's only the start that's a dream, isn't it?

I was also a little unclear what Fa'Lina was talking about with Dante's behaviour.  Partly that's down to the gap between episodes (not that I can complain, taking my time with CJP as I am).  Attacking her mind-shield is one, but it implies there are others.

Apart from that, nice work.

[Sid]

That was a little confusing at first, since I thought you rolled back the entire Kitzi-vs-Ink sequence.  It's only the start that's a dream, isn't it?

I was also a little unclear what Fa'Lina was talking about with Dante's behaviour.  Partly that's down to the gap between episodes (not that I can complain, taking my time with CJP as I am).  Attacking her mind-shield is one, but it implies there are others.

Apart from that, nice work.

Yes, only the first part is a dream. And Dante's been somewhat uppity lately, especially towards Ink and Fa'Lina. He snapped at them, yelled, tried to attack her... so I figured I'd let her set the record straight, especially since the focus will move away from Ink and Fa'Lina for now.

And yeah, the gap between the chapters is unfortunate, but I also didn't want to create major overlaps since that would look weird when you read the fic in one go.

[meany]

Quick question: Are you going to add these updates to your story on Fanfiction.net?

By the way, in case it hasn't been said enough; this story is awesome!

[Sid]

Quick question: Are you going to add these updates to your story on Fanfiction.net?

By the way, in case it hasn't been said enough; this story is awesome!

Thanks for the compliment!
And the last time I tried to update the fic on FF.net, they completely stripped the "{" and "}" characters out of my fics (along with most other characters that were more exotic than simple punctuation marks), so I'd have to think of another way of expressing Ink's special voice. I'll look into it again these days, but last time, I simply got too frustrated with FFN and gave up for the time being.

[Tapewolf]

Well, there's always http://story.llearch.net/

[Sid]

Well, there's always http://story.llearch.net/

True, but FFN actually has a fairly large member base (even if I have to place the fics in the Comics/Misc section), and I had an account there from way before.

However, today I got a note via LJ that FFN really, REALLY screwed up old fics. They stripped tons of characters out of EXISTING fics (before, all changes only applied to new fics), including scene dividers of the "-----" variant AND THE CURLY QUOTES I USED FOR INK'S SPEECH, so now I have to fix my (really crappy) age-old fics AND the existing Unseen Path chapters.

Once I'm done having a screaming fit about this, I'll see what I'll do.

Maybe I'll just burn it all with fire and leave FFN behind me. Maybe I'll try to fix my... 50+ chapters.

God, I hate FFN so much right now...

[Sid]

Chapter 12: What's black and white...

"Eighty-six plushies of Yas on a pile, eighty-six plushies of Yas..." Iris yawned and grabbed another plush toy from the bed. "Pick one up, find a nice place, eighty-seven plushies of Yas on a pile..." The pile on Yasma's chest of drawers was leaning slightly to left, and Iris knew that things would get tricky from here on. "Eighty-seven plushies of Yas on a pile, eighty seven plushies of Yas... Pick one up... find a nice... place..." She frowned. Tricky, indeed. Maybe if I start another pile on one of the chairs... it could act as a support pillar...

Behind her, the door swung open, and Iris knew that building a support pillar would have to wait until the next time she was bored and alone. "So I figured we could go to-" Yasma was speaking quietly as she came in. "...aw come on, not again!" she finally whined when she spotted the pile Iris had built.

"I got bored!" Iris cried and turned around to face her roommate. She blinked when she saw the mouse Incubus next to Yasma. "Oh, hey there! You're the one who flooded the second floor while fighting this mad guy, right?"

"He's not mad! He's just... I mean... it's his..." The mouse groaned quietly and smacked his forehead.

Yasma sighed quietly and gave him a light pat on the head. "Could you wait outside? I think this will be easier under four eyes."

"But-" Two bat-like headwings flapped frantically as the mouse apparently tried to formulate a protest that went beyond "The silly vixen was mean to me!"

"Trust me on this one, please..."

The Incubus sighed. "Fine... just... try to make it quick. You know..." When Yasma nodded, he left the room and closed the door behind him.

"Way to gooooooo!" Iris instantly cheered, shaking Yasma's hand. "You got yourself a badass boyfriend who will make you look harmless by comparison!"

"What?" Yasma asked, raising a brow. "Oh, you mean the thing about his Clan, right? Look, Dante's a nice guy. He cares, he brought me flowers, he tries to help..."

"...he can wipe the memory of practically every student without breaking a sweat..."

"I... don't think so. And even if that was true, he wouldn't." Yasma crossed her arms uncomfortably, making Iris sigh.

"Yeesh, you're no fun. You got yourself a Hadruroh boyfriend and don't plan to blackmail a few people with his power? Laaaaame!"

The elk rubbed her temples. "We'll talk about blackmailing later, okay? Right now, he's had the worst day of his life, and I offered to... you know..."

"Healing sex?" Iris asked and blinked archly.

"NO!" Yasma instantly snapped, but then hesitated. "I mean... maybe... if things... you know..." Her fingers found her temples again. "It's a date, Iris. A simple date."

"Then why're you still here? To change into something more... comfortable?"

"I need your help, Iris." Yasma's wings twitched. If things had gone according to the elk's wishes, Iris would have dropped dead decades ago, so asking her for a favor was... unusual to say the least.

"Ohhhhhhhhh, I'll gladly help you out with your little cutie there..." Iris flashed her roommate a silly grin and made a series of horribly obscene gestures - several of which could only be done with the help of her headwings.

"This isn't about Dante," Yasma hissed, but Iris could practically see the gears working in her head.

Some other day, perhaps? "Well, if it's not about Dante... then how can I help you out? Some warming up maybe?" Iris's grin turned into a lewd smile.

"I need you to keep an eye on Kitzi."

"Kitzi... as in 'Kitzi, the insane Cubi who tried to kill everybody today'?"

"Kitzi as in 'Kitzi, Dante's blind roommate who is now close to a nervous breakdown because he just today realized that he's a Sohew Cubi'," Yasma replied evenly. "He thought he was a regular Being until this week, and now he's being confronted with magic, mind-reading, and the fact that his heritage is responsible for making him almost kill a few people and attack his friend."

Sohew? I thought those idiots were extinct? Egh, totally gotta slap Professor Pyoto. Seriously, what history teacher claims that a Clan is extinct when their members enroll here? And he's blind? How does that even work for a Cubi? She shook her head. "Look, Yas... I appreciate that you want to get me my very own badass boyfriend, but no thanks. Not even to mention the part about him being a cripple."

"He's not a cripple!" Yasma practically screamed, waving her arms furiously. "Look, he's a good kid, he's just had an extremely bad day, and we need somebody to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"See, that just makes it worse. He's not even badass. That's, y'know, boring! Why don't you do it? Or your boytoy?"

The elk massaged her temples again. Iris noticed that this was becoming a silly habit, and she made a mental note either to try out a glue spell or to shave those spots later on for some cheap laughs. "Dante is this close to a breakdown himself. He'd just be a catalyst! That's why I offered to take him somewhere nice - so he can relax a bit."

"And what makes you think that I'll play babysitter for you?" Iris crossed her arms and smirked. It was always fun to think of silly ways to make Yasma pay for a favor.

Much to Iris's surprise, Yasma didn't even blink. Instead, she instantly reached into her robe and took out a small box. "This."

"That better be a Can-o'-Bliss! Otherwise, I won't even consid-" She froze when she saw the symbol on the lid. A hexagon and an ellipse - both outlined only - interwoven in a way that was bordering on an optical illusion. The sign was known to give some people headaches as they tried to figure a way to construct something like this without bending one of the two shapes. "That's my Clan mark... what're you... how'd you... where..." Her headwings twitched lightly. The box looked expensive, and Iris could tell that the rendition of her Clan mark was frighteningly accurate.

"I have absolutely no idea what's inside this box," Yasma mused quietly, giving the box a sideways glance. "But I do know where it came from..."

Maybe it's not worth a boring afternoon, she told herself. Don't show her how much you're interested. "Who gave you the box?"

"Well, technically, Dante did. But he got it from Fa'Lina."

Iris's jaw dropped. All of a sudden, it took all her willpower to stay on her feet. Fa'Lina! A present for ME from HER! Her hand automatically reached out for the box. Slowly, as if one wrong move could destroy it.

"No." Yasma held the box over her head. "First, I want your promise."

Definitely going to shave her. And then I'll try the glue spell. "...fine," Iris finally whined and lowered her head. "I'll take care of him until you're done with your date."

"Excellent! Dante will give you a short-lived key enchantment and whatever advice he feels like sharing." Yasma smiled softly as she handed Iris the box.

Minutes later, Iris was dancing on the handrail of the SAIA staircase. "With these wings, I can fly! Fly so high! To the skyyyyyyy!" She giggled even while the other people in the staircase were staring at the apparently suicidal Succubus who was about to fall straight into the currently bottomless pit in the middle of the staircase. "And when I fly... to the sky... then my grin is sly... and... and... dammit, rhyming is hard!" Her grin was replaced by a light frown.

"Meh. Whatever." She hopped back to safety and checked how far she had come. "Third... fifth... tenth..." She frowned at the doorways close to her. Then, as if having waited for her to pay attention, the entrance to the second floor phased into existence between the doorways to the fifth and tenth floors. "There we go!"

"Two-fifty-nine! The amulet's mine! Two-fifty-eight! Gonna watch my mate! Two-fifty-seven! Mental image of Yasma... shaven? Two-fifty-"

"Well, look who's here," somebody interrupted her just as she reached the door to room 256. "If it isn't Iris the Arsonist."

The vixen whirled around and smiled when she saw... saw... Who is that again? She gave the tricolor Beagle Incubus in the long, golden robe a closer look. Something with a "M"... Martin? Monty? Mike? You'd think I'd remember the name of a guy I slept with twice! "Er... hi?" she finally asked, trying not to sound too clueless.

The Beagle sighed before launching into a wild rant: "Mortimer! My name is Mortimer! Seriously, why doesn't anybody ever remember my name? It should be memorable, dammit! I mean, it contains the word 'mort', and I'm pretty sure that means 'death' in some language!" One of his white flight feathers morphed into a wing tentacle with a bunny head. "See this? This is the Death Bunny. It will be the last thing you'll see if you forget my name again and stop snickering, dammit!"

"Sorry, I just-" Iris couldn't go on; she was giggling so hard that she had trouble staying on her feet. Finally, she wheezed and regained her composure.

The tentacle head - it looked incredibly happy and cheerful for some reason, and Iris suspected that Mortimer was unable to make it frown or look angry - gave her a silly smile while Mortimer merely crossed his arms in mock anger. "Seriously, mocking the Death Bunny isn't cool." When Iris just started snickering again, he shook his head and gave her a friendly smirk. "Well, since you're around, I might as well tell you right now that we're having a party later on in the Seduction classroom! Starts in an hour, and it'll last all night! Drinking, dancing, groping, all the fun stuff!"

Iris sighed. "Sorry, but no. Yas - you know, my boring roommate - sent me here to babysit the guy who went berserk a few hours ago, so I'll be stuck with him."

Mortimer gave her a look. "You mean you're going to guard him so he doesn't get to do it again?"

"No. He's a Sohew Cubi. You know, the guys with the silly bloodlust ability. So he won't do anything unless he's almost dying." She shrugged. "Heck, it's not like he can do much, period."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Heh, that's the best part. Mister Bloodlust here is a freaking cripple!" She snickered quietly. "I mean... he can't see a thing from what I've been told!"

"A blind Cubi? Why didn't anybody cure him?" The Beagle scratched his head.

"Beats me. I guess the Clan wanted to live up to its reputation of being full of idiots. And hey, they're crippled already since their bloodlust kicks in whenever they really should focus on healing themselves, so maybe they figured that it wouldn't make much of a difference to be even more crippled." Or maybe they figured it wouldn't be worth the effort and kicked him out or something. I maybe should've asked Yas, but eh.

"Good point!" Mortimer started snickering, too. "How'd he manage to attack anybody, anyway?" He closed his eyes and started waving his arms in random directions. "Hello? Anybody here? I wanna maim youuuuuu..."

Iris was about to respond with a parody of her own, but she froze when the door to room 256 was suddenly yanked open from the inside. Her jaw dropped slightly when she saw a black-furred, blood-covered fox Incubus standing in the doorframe. Holy crap, that must be Kitzi. I mean... those weird, unfocused eyes, the blood, the hospital gown... the very angry expression... wait, is he in his bloodlust again? She frowned deeply, but something told her that he wasn't in some mindless berserker rage. Just good old regular rage.

"I won't be able to prevent you from mocking me or my blindness, but would it kill you to do it where I don't have to listen to it?" Kitzi hissed angrily in their general direction before looking straight at Iris. The vixen shuddered; there was something absolutely creepy in the way his empty eyes were gazing straight at her. "Oh, and you can go to your silly party. I don't need a babysitter, and especially not someone like you." And with that, he slammed the door shut again.

Iris and Mortimer just stared at the door for a few seconds, trying to digest what had just happened. "Hot damn," the Beagle finally whispered. "That guy sure knows how to make a memorable first impression." He gave her a shrug. "I guess he had a point in a way... that was sort of a dumb thing to-" His admission was interrupted when Iris placed a hand on his muzzle.

Mortimer? she thought as clearly as possible in his direction. When the dog just gave her a confused nod, she let go of the muzzle. There is something way wrong here!

"What is it?" Mortimer asked her telepathically and cocked his head. "Must be fairly important for you to use telepathy even though we're the only ones around..."

How was he able to hear our conversation? Iris thought, gesturing at the door. Those doors are practically soundproof! You can have an orgy in your room without anybody outside hearing a thing.

"Duh... magic? Hello?" Mortimer rolled his eyes. "There are tons of spells that make you hear stuff you'd normally miss."

He hasn't learned any spells yet! Iris made a few wild gestures, cursing her inability to properly scream over the telepathic channel. From what Yas told me, he grew up as a Being with no magic experience at all and just came here a day or two ago!

"Huh," Mortimer thought and frowned. "I see your point then... but it's not your task to solve this mystery, is it?" He gave her a hopeful look. "You heard the guy. You're free to go to the party; he doesn't need or want you to watch over him."

Iris crossed her arms and frowned. I... I'll think about it, she told him, carefully keeping her actual thoughts out of the telepathic link. "Anyway," she switched back to spoken words again, "you should get going, I guess. Stuff to do, people to see."

"Right... right..." The Beagle gave her a weird look, but started to walk down the corridor anyway. "You know where to find me..."

"Yeah... I do," Iris whispered and sighed. Now what? I promised Yas I'd babysit the guy, and I'm willing to bet that she'll make her boyfriend mindwipe me if I don't do it... but damn, he surely thinks I'm a completely insensitive jerk! She crossed her arms. Which I'm not, of course.

Not sure what to do, she reached under her robe and fished out the amulet she had received just a few minutes ago. It was a simple, black medallion with a white flame depicted on both sides. A fashionable reminder of my one flaw... but why, Fa'Lina? I can't even touch a match without choking, thanks to your curse. I'm reminded of my flaw every day! What are you trying to tell me? The vixen shook her head. Or maybe she's just playing mind games with me. She's good at that...

"Bah," she finally muttered. There is no way to undo my messed-up first impression. And interpreting the potential deeper meaning of gifts won't help me, either. Sooooo... let's make the second impression count! Iris nodded to herself and stuffed the amulet back under her robe before opening the door and stepping into the room. "Hey there!" she yelled with as much enthusiasm as possible.

"Get lost, Iris." Kitzi was lying on the bed, facing away from her.

Iris crossed her arms. "For your interest, it's 'Irisienne'. And you know that Dante is going to throw a fit because you got blood over the sheets, right?"

"Who cares."

"Aren't you supposed to be sobbing or shivering?" She slowly walked around the bed. "Yasma told me you're close to a nervous breakdown. That you'd be... oh, I dunno, catatonic or something? And here you are, not sobbing, and instead just pouting. This is deceptive marketing! I should sue you! I mean, seriously-"

"SHUT UP!" Kitzi finally roared and jumped out of bed. "What is wrong with you?" he yelled, giving her a glare. "You just keep talking and talking and talking! Didn't anybody ever tell you that you're incredibly annoying?"

"Yasma, daily," Iris immediately replied and smirked.

"Well, for your information, I had been sobbing, but that had quickly been replaced by rage when I heard you and your buddy mocking me! Now get the Hell out of my room. Go to your party and make fun of me there. Just leave me alone." His voice was now low, almost threatening. Iris noticed that he apparently had the room all mapped out, for he was now pointing exactly at the door.

"Or else what?" she asked after a few moments of consideration.

"...what?" the fox just asked, obviously not having expected defiance.

Iris shook her head and walked past him with a sigh. It took a few seconds, but eventually, she found a blood-free spot on the bed to sit on. "Or else what? Are you going to cry and sob? Or are you just going to keep venting? I heard it's therapeutical or something. And hey, I figure you'd get bored of sobbing pretty soon, anyway. I mean, you can only cry into your pillow for so long before you realize you're wasting your time." She took a closer look at the bed and frowned when she saw a blanket, but no pillow. "Speaking of which, where is your pillow? Please don't tell me you ate it."

The young Incubus spent a few moments stammering and pointing this way and that. Iris waited patiently, trying not to giggle. "Yasma flushed it down the toilet," he finally replied and sighed in apparent resignation.

"...she what?" Iris asked and blinked. "Are you serious? Why?"

"I didn't ask, and I didn't really care at the time." He covered his eyes with one hand and shook his head. "I mean... I... Look, why're you here?"

"You should've heard me saying that Yasma sent me. Besides, I figured you'd need some company. And apparently, I was right, Mr. Pillow-Eater."

"I didn't-"

"Heck, you can't even have a nervous breakdown without my help!"

"Hey now, I was doing okay..." Kitzi gave her a pleading look, as if expecting a pat on the head for trying.

"Wanna hear what I think? I think you're not really close to any sort of breakdown. Yas and Dante are just overly worried."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. First of all, Ink let you go. And while he's a total psycho, he cares for his patients. Secondly, Fa'Lina let you go. And she's got that whole omniscience-slash-precognition gig going on, right? So she was apparently convinced that this here is best for you."

Kitzi opened and closed his mouth for a few moments. "Fa'Lina's omniscient? And she can actually see the future?"

"Well, sort of. It only works in SAIA, from what I heard. And she's usually all subtle-like about it, choosing the best paths and outcomes for important stuff." She watched him frown and cut him off before he couldn't ask the obvious question. "You wanna know if you ending up like this was the best path, right? Well... maybe it wasn't. But your case was special."

"...I'm blind, I belong to some messed-up Clan, and now I'm even more special?" Kitzi asked with understandably little enthusiasm.

"Not you in particular. But rather your appearance in SAIA. Try to imagine... try to imagine a pond."

"Pond," he echoed and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. And the surface is smooth and still. That's SAIA. And Fa'Lina can see the entire pond, and she can see what's under the surface. So she can predict likely outcomes of scenarios, right?"

"I... guess so, yeah..."

"But a new student - or one that leaves - changes the pond. It's like tossing a stone into it. It creates ripples on the surface."

"Ah, so... she has to wait for the pond to calm down before she can make accurate predictions about me?"

"From what little I read about precognition spells, yes. My guess is that - since she was involved in the end - her precognition kicked in just in time to prevent you from actually killing anybody. And from here on, she can guide you and let you get what's best for you."

"So you're telling me that I'm fine and that you annoying me to death is best for me?"

Iris hummed thoughtfully. "Well, I did make you snap out of both your sobbing fit and your rage, so I'd say that I'm not doing too badly..." Kitzi blinked and frowned lightly, as if only now realizing that he was neither sobbing nor hissing anymore. "And while I'm helping out, might I also suggest that you take a shower to wash all the blood out of your fur? And hospital gowns aren't really your style, either."

"I... guess you're right..." The Incubus slowly moved towards the bathroom. "Just show me where to find a fireplace, a kettle and a bucket or something?"

"...bucket?" Iris asked and snickered. "Why do you need a bucket-... oh, I see! You guys didn't have running water at home?"

"You can afford that? I thought it takes quite a bit of magic to-" Kitzi froze, then smacked his forehead, causing Iris to snicker even louder.

"Lemme show you how to work the controls, Pillow-boy," she laughed and dragged him into the shower. "Okay, take off your gown and then I'll show you how to regulate-"

"Wait," he interrupted her and gave her a look. "Can't I undress after you, you know... left?"

"Ohhhh, a shy one!" Iris teased him and grinned. Before Kitzi could reply, she had yanked the gown away, making her victim shriek and covering himself body with his hands. "See? That wasn't so hard!"

"Give that back!"

"Sheesh, what's your problem?" the vixen asked as she threw the gown into a corner.

"Well... I mean... it's always awkward to be undressed while everybody else is still dressed, and-"

"Oh, aiming for the stars already!" Iris beamed and let her robe fall to the ground. "Well, I'm game!"

Kitzi's ears twitched. "What... did you just do?"

"Giving you a sight to behold?"

For a few seconds, the Incubus forgot about his modesty and used both arms to gesture vaguely, as if trying to make up his mind what to complain about first. "I'm blind!" was the thing he finally settled on.

"And you're regretting it now, aren't you?" Iris asked and gave him a silly grin.

"That's not the point! I'm talking about-" He froze. "Someone's at the door."

Iris froze, too. Aside from some staff, only Dante - and by extension, Yasma - was able to open the door. She looked down at herself. This might be awkward...

"Kitzi?"

Yep, it's Dante. What's he doing here? Did Yas dump him already? Yegh, knowing her, she threw rocks at his head because of something trivial. Iris bit her lip and gave Kitzi a look before realizing that he wouldn't be able to see her cues anyway.

"Kitzi?" Dante's voice rose slightly, most likely in alarm because his friend wasn't anywhere in sight.

"Hey, Dante!" Kitzi finally replied, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice. "Just... uh... just felt like taking a shower. What're you doing here?"

Iris heard Dante sighing in relief. "I... I'm glad that you at least sounding better," the mouse said quietly. So far, he hadn't come into the bathroom, most likely to give Kitzi more privacy than Iris had given him so far. "I just... you know... I just wanted to check in to see if you'd need some sort of help. Been kinda nervous, you know..."

Yes, Dante. Very exciting. Now go away, please. Iris rolled her eyes.

"That's nice of you, thanks!" Kitzi was trying to hit a more relaxed, "everything okay" tone now.

"I know that Yasma sent that vixen to look after you, but I-" There was a long pause as Dante apparently realized who else wasn't around in the main room. "Where is Iris? Ugh, she left, didn't she? Damn her! I knew she's not reliable! That's so-"

"No, no, she didn't leave! She's-" Kitzi blurted out, then stopped and smacked his forehead.

"She's what? If she didn't leave, then where-" Dante finally entered the bathroom and blinked.

"Er... hi?" Iris asked, trying to act as if nothing was wrong. "How's it going?"

Dante opened and closed his mouth, staring at the two naked Cubi. Finally he lowered his eyes and held up his hands. "I... sorry! I didn't... I didn't know you two were... I mean..."

"It's not what it looks like!" Kitzi hastily replied, waving his arms wildly and just barely missing Iris's face. "I just wanted to shower, and she ripped off my clothes, and then I said that it's unfair that she's still dressed, and then she took off her-..." He stopped, most likely realizing how he wasn't really helping his case. Iris couldn't help but snigger.

"No, no... it's... cool, I guess," Dante said, slowly stepping back. "Whatever makes you feel more... at ease..."

"Seriously, we weren't-"

"It's okay, Kitzi!" The mouse smiled shyly. "It's not what I expected, but you respond well to her... er... influence."

He did? Iris thought and looked down at Kitzi. No, he didn't. Dante, you're such a lying tease...

"No, not like that, Iris," Dante replied flatly and gave her a stare. "I meant in general."

"Oh! Gotcha!" The vixen gave him a thumb-up sign and grinned. "Yeah, we'll handle things nicely. You go and have fun!"

Kitzi groaned and covered his eyes with his hand once Dante had left the room. "Great, now my roommate thinks I'm a pervert!"

"Well, you did ask me to strip..."

"I did not!" Kitzi protested.

"And you gave him the 'It's not what it looks like!' line, which is the most transparent and cliché lie ever."

"It wasn't a lie!"

"Well, then you shouldn't have used it," Iris replied and smirked. "Anyway, would you like to finally shower, or do you prefer naked bickering?"

"Shower, definitely shower," the fox muttered and reached out until he found one of the small knobs in the stall.

"Ah, that's the-" Iris started, but he had already turned it on.

"COLD COLD COLD!" Kitzi yelped and jumped out of the stall to escape the torrent of ice-cold water.

"As I was saying," Iris sighed, "that is the knob that gives you cold water. The one for warm water is to the left." She watched him wheezing on the floor and idly willed one of her wing tentacles to turn off the shower. "I'll leave you to your trial-and-error run, then. You seem to be the curious type, after all..." Not bothering to put on her robe again, she left the bathroom and allowed herself a toothy grin.

Okay, I take it all back. This is going to be FUN.

---

Author's Notes:
- Iris's Clan mark is weird enough that I figured I'd throw in this SVG version.
- This chapter was originally meant to cover more ground, but I decided to split it up here since I'd rather have a halfway acceptable update schedule (and roughly consistent chapter length) than one super-long chapter after eons of silence.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

It occurs to me that Iris could have transformed her wings into clothing fairly easily. Perhaps she's just a people person, and likes sharing? ;-]

[Ryan_Galen]

Well, I read the story... and it's certainly interesting. Don't know what to think about some of the direction you're taking with magic, but since we're all mostly blink in that regard until Amber does a magic miniarc we just have to try and take things resonable. One question that rises in my mind though, one that probally already been asked... if he's the last of his clan, why does he have wing heads?

It occurs to me that Iris could have transformed her wings into clothing fairly easily. Perhaps she's just a people person, and likes sharing? ;-]

It all depends on where in her studies she is. After all, shapeshifting takes times to learn and we have no idea if Iris is a one year student, one decade student, or half century student. Who knows the kind of skill and talent it takes to do clothing. There are probally other considerations to deal with clothing as well.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Well, I read the story... and it's certainly interesting. Don't know what to think about some of the direction you're taking with magic, but since we're all mostly blink in that regard until Amber does a magic miniarc we just have to try and take things resonable. One question that rises in my mind though, one that probally already been asked... if he's the last of his clan, why does he have wing heads?

Either he's still got a clan leader, or he's very powerful. Amber has mentioned that "tentacle heads" are either in-born or can be faked, but anyone who can fake them is reasonably powerful.

Which makes you wonder...

It all depends on where in her studies she is. After all, shapeshifting takes times to learn and we have no idea if Iris is a one year student, one decade student, or half century student. Who knows the kind of skill and talent it takes to do clothing. There are probally other considerations to deal with clothing as well.

Well, we know she's been there at least some decades, since Yasma wished her to drop dead decades ago. Fortunately that wish wasn't granted, but still...

[Sid]

Well, I read the story... and it's certainly interesting. Don't know what to think about some of the direction you're taking with magic, but since we're all mostly blink in that regard until Amber does a magic miniarc we just have to try and take things resonable.

Thanks for the comment!
That's the main problem with pretty much all DMFA fanfiction: There is a lack of background info. While nobody is seriously asking Amber to publish definite rulebooks about her universe, this lack of knowledge leads to people having different assumptions/interpretations about how stuff is supposed to work.

In a horrible twist of irony, things get only worse the more Amber casually reveals in the comics - it may prove our universes wrong. But that's the risk we have to live with, I guess.

One question that rises in my mind though, one that probally already been asked... if he's the last of his clan, why does he have wing heads?

If he was the last of his Clan, then he's either the leader or shapeshifting, as llearch said. However, both are extremely unlikely unless Kitzi is faking everything or suffers from partial memory loss. So it's probably easier to assume that he isn't the last member of his Clan - just the only one the people at SAIA specifically know about.

It occurs to me that Iris could have transformed her wings into clothing fairly easily. Perhaps she's just a people person, and likes sharing? ;-]

It all depends on where in her studies she is. After all, shapeshifting takes times to learn and we have no idea if Iris is a one year student, one decade student, or half century student. Who knows the kind of skill and talent it takes to do clothing. There are probally other considerations to deal with clothing as well.

Well, we know she's been there at least some decades, since Yasma wished her to drop dead decades ago. Fortunately that wish wasn't granted, but still...

You and llearch both raise a good points there, but in Iris's case, it's more likely that this is just how she rolls in this particular case. Not saying that she does or doesn't know how to shapeshift clothes, but in this situation, she's quite likely just messing with Kitzi's head.

[Tapewolf]

If he was the last of his Clan, then he's either the leader or shapeshifting, as llearch said. However, both are extremely unlikely unless Kitzi is faking everything or suffers from partial memory loss. So it's probably easier to assume that he isn't the last member of his Clan - just the only one the people at SAIA specifically know about.

Although, if they see him with headwings tentacle-heads (knowing that he is Being-born) it becomes evident that the founder is alive too.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

You and llearch both raise a good points there, but in Iris's case, it's more likely that this is just how she rolls in this particular case. Not saying that she does or doesn't know how to shapeshift clothes, but in this situation, she's quite likely just messing with Kitzi's head.

... or Dante's, as the case may be. After all, he's the one walking in on her, starkers, with Kitzi.

If he was the last of his Clan, then he's either the leader or shapeshifting, as llearch said. However, both are extremely unlikely unless Kitzi is faking everything or suffers from partial memory loss. So it's probably easier to assume that he isn't the last member of his Clan - just the only one the people at SAIA specifically know about.

Although, if they see him with headwings (knowing that he is Being-born) it becomes evident that the founder is alive too.

Not necessarily. All they know is that someone who is of the Sohew clan is alive; not necessarily the founder.

I'm tempted to comment that the founder can't be his parent, since founders can't reproduce, but I'm not sure if that's canon or Dariyl I'm thinking of; I know Fa'Lina can't reproduce, but that may or may not be the same thing. If that -is- canon, then yes, we know that a) the founder is alive and b) at least one, if not more, other Cubi are alive from his clan. And in -serious- hiding, since it's at least a couple of hundred years later and nobody has a clue that they're still around.

[Tapewolf]

Not necessarily. All they know is that someone who is of the Sohew clan is alive; not necessarily the founder.

Typo.  That should have been "If they see him with tentacle-heads".  That nearly always means that the founder is alive, or that the incubus himself is extremely powerful, which is blatantly not the case here.
It might be the case that there is someone like Daryil who is the de-facto clan head but not the founder, and has managed to fake the heads on all the surviving members.

I'm tempted to comment that the founder can't be his parent, since founders can't reproduce, but I'm not sure if that's canon

It is, there's a reference for it somewhere.

[Sid]

Couple of notes:
First of all I gotta nitpick - Kitzi isn't really Being-born, he was just raised by them (he was adopted).

And in theory, it's possible that only the founder is still alive without him/her being his parent. A lot can happen in twenty or so years, including his parents running into a stray group of adventurers. As a pseudo-spoiler, I can say that I never intended him to be the founder's child (even before learning of the whole "no reproduction" issue).

You and llearch both raise a good points there, but in Iris's case, it's more likely that this is just how she rolls in this particular case. Not saying that she does or doesn't know how to shapeshift clothes, but in this situation, she's quite likely just messing with Kitzi's head.

... or Dante's, as the case may be. After all, he's the one walking in on her, starkers, with Kitzi.

I was more talking about her still not putting on clothes after Dante was gone. Then again, I guess Iris has no issues with messing with as many heads as possible

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Couple of notes:
First of all I gotta nitpick - Kitzi isn't really Being-born, he was just raised by them (he was adopted).

Yeah, I went and looked it up. In fact, I read through the entire story on the story server; and then realised it was short 3 chapters. Did you forget to update it or something? ;-]

And in theory, it's possible that only the founder is still alive without him/her being his parent. A lot can happen in twenty or so years, including his parents running into a stray group of adventurers. As a pseudo-spoiler, I can say that I never intended him to be the founder's child (even before learning of the whole "no reproduction" issue).

Yeah, but that's starting to get into "deus ex machina" area - his parents being killed before he found out he was a Cubi, I mean. Something -you- can state, but not something -we-, as readers, should be theorising about. Or at least not with any volume...

... or Dante's, as the case may be. After all, he's the one walking in on her, starkers, with Kitzi.

I was more talking about her still not putting on clothes after Dante was gone. Then again, I guess Iris has no issues with messing with as many heads as possible

True. On the other hand, it's not like she has any issues with her ego. "Giving you a sight to behold" and all. And it's not like Kitzi is going to drool over the view, either. So, from her point of view, everyone has seen everything they're going to see, and there's no real reason to be ashamed of what they can see, or what she has to show off.

And, of course, no Cubi is going to look unpleasant naked; not once they get past the basic shape-shifting classes, anyway...

[Tapewolf]

And, of course, no Cubi is going to look unpleasant naked; not once they get past the basic shape-shifting classes, anyway...

Kitzi might.

[Sid]

About the uploading: Could you (re-)send me a mail/PM with instructions/password and stuff, as well as the URL? I don't think I ever uploaded a chapter there, and I'm not 100% sure where if I got (or where I put) any possible account info message...

And in theory, it's possible that only the founder is still alive without him/her being his parent. A lot can happen in twenty or so years, including his parents running into a stray group of adventurers. As a pseudo-spoiler, I can say that I never intended him to be the founder's child (even before learning of the whole "no reproduction" issue).

Yeah, but that's starting to get into "deus ex machina" area - his parents being killed before he found out he was a Cubi, I mean. Something -you- can state, but not something -we-, as readers, should be theorising about. Or at least not with any volume...

Hey, you guys brought up the whole thing, not me
And I'm just talking about theoretical possibilities, anyway. I won't pull a Word Of God spoiler move regarding his background outside the story, and it's not like it really matters for him right now.

[Sid]

Chapter 13: ...and crazy all over?

"So, Kit, riddle me this," Iris started once she heard Kitzi finally stepping out of the shower.

"Riddle you what?" Kitzi shouted without leaving the bathroom. "And could you not call me 'Kit', please?"

"Aw, come on, everybody needs a nickname!"

"My real name isn't that much longer, so there is little need for-" The fox cursed under his breath as he apparently knocked over several items while searching for a towel. "-shortening it."

"Try the left wall, coming from the shower stall, bit to the right and lower than you'd expect it," Iris answered the unasked question and rolled her eyes. Dante should really get the janitor to make the bathroom more user friendly for people taller than three feet. "And your name sounds girly, so 'Kit' would be an improvement!"

"My name doesn't sound girly!" Kitzi immediately snapped, but then leaned through the bathroom door. "...does it?"

Ah, the sweet sound of doubt... Iris grinned, being quite glad that the other Cubi couldn't see it. "I think it does, Kit," she finally replied, trying to sound as sincere as possible.

"Well... I still like it, so please don't call me 'Kit'. It sounds too much like 'kid' to me." Kitzi disappeared from her view again, likely to resume drying his fur.

"And what're you going to do if I keep it up?" Iris shouted playfully and got up from her chair. The newly made bed would've been more comfortable, but she had figured that a naked Succubus lying on a bed would have been too blunt a signal, even for a blind Incubus. Of course, I could have put on my robe again, but where's the fun in that? she reasoned and smirked.

"How about socking you with a piece of soap?" Kitzi replied after a few seconds of consideration, making Iris snicker.

"Oh, I'd love to see you try!" the vixen taunted him and crossed her arms. "You might have forgotten it during your showergasm, but you're blind, so the chances of you actually hitting-" She froze when Kitzi - once again looking fairly annoyed - literally jumped out of the bathroom, wearing just a towel around his waist and holding a piece of soap in his hand. Oh, look, he's actually serious... Well, this should be amusing.

"Wanna bet, Iris?" Kitzi snarled, and Iris used that short window of opportunity to do a quick sidestep.

Nice try, Kit, she thought and smirked. Aiming for the source of my voice might impress other people, but not me. And even then, you'd have to rely on luck to actually hit me. So come on, take your best shot! Her smirk faded when Kitzi hesitated slightly. What's he waiting for? It took her a few moments to realize what he was doing. While most people would turn their head to scan the room with their eyes, Kitzi was practically frozen in place. Only his ears twitched lightly, and Iris instantly held her breath. Wow, he's trying to pinpoint my location just by listening for ambient sounds?

After a few seconds, Kitzi finally moved his head to face her - and sighed. "Why are you still naked, Iris?"

Iris blinked and looked down at herself. "How'd you know?"

Kitzi started to walk back into the bathroom, and the vixen followed quickly. "Just... where are your clothes? Ah, wait, they're in here, I think. Your smell's all over the place, but there was a concentration of them next to the shower..."

"No, I'm serious! How did you know I'm still naked?"

"Because I heard you being naked!" Kitzi finally snapped. "You happy now? Great, now put on your robe or whatever it is you had been wearing."

The vixen frowned deeply and went over that first sentence again. "You heard me being naked?" she finally asked. "How can you possibly hear something like that?" And where can I learn doing it?

Kitzi turned around to face her and sighed again. "You're not going to get dressed before I tell you, right?"

"Hell no!" Of course, I'm not saying that I'll get dressed once you tell me, but that's another story... "I've suspected you of being able to hear more than most people, but this one really confirms it, and I wanna know how you do it!"

"I just... listen very hard," he sighed and shrugged. "And I heard your shoes on the carpet when you shifted your weight a bit, but I couldn't hear the typical sounds that clothes make."

For a few seconds, Iris just stared at him. Okay, this one's not way over the top, I guess. Maybe even I could do it with some practice. ...okay, with a lot of practice, but still. Then again... he also heard me through the door! And he heard Dante seconds before the door opened. "...for how long have you been able to pull off tricks like that?"

"What do you mean?"

"How long since- I mean... did you ever notice that your hearing... improved? And maybe your other senses, too? Smelling, touching, stuff like that?" Kitzi opened his mouth to reply, but then, he stiffened slightly, and Iris could feel him tensing up. "No, no, no! It's okay! I'm not going to tell anybody!" What in Fa'Lina's name am I saying? Not going to tell? The Hell? "Just... I'm just curious."

Kitzi hesitated for a few more seconds before finally shaking his head. "A couple of years... I didn't really notice it at first, but the more I focused on it, the better it got."

Iris smiled widely. Magic! He used his dormant talents to do what he needed - crafting a spell that would compensate for his blindness by amplifying his other senses when he needs them! "Wanna sleep with me?"

"...what?" Kitzi asked, taking a few steps backwards. "What-... I mean, why-"

"C'mon, it'd be nice; I'd have a badass boytoy, and you'd have somebody to keep you... entertained."

Kitzi gritted his teeth. "What is wrong with you?" he suddenly snapped, making Iris blink. "Why are you like this?"

"Why am I like what?" she asked, trying to figure out what had triggered the sudden switch from nervous to angry.

"So..." His arms waved around in erratic patterns. "So weird!" he finally decided. "I mean, you asked me if I'd like to sleep with you! We barely even met!"

"Jeez, what's the matter with you? Who raised you to be such a frigid little-"

"Beings," Kitzi hissed angrily.

"Oh, yeah! Right... right... that explains a lot..." Iris coughed sheepishly.

"It does?" Kitzi frowned lightly. "And didn't I tell you before that I was raised by Beings? I'm pretty sure I did."

"How should I know? It feels like weeks since I entered this room! We Cubi weren't made for waiting so long for somebody to finish showering! We were made for action and excitement! You can't seriously expect me to remember stuff that happened so long ago!"

There was a long pause. "Yes, I can," Kitzi finally replied. "It's not my fault your memory sucks so hard and that you have the attention span of a gnat!"

"Well, your shower took way too long. Any longer and I would have forgotten my own name. Which still is 'Irisienne', by the way." Iris huffed and reached out with her wing tentacle to pick up her robe. "So now what?" she asked before Kitzi could come up with a reply to the first part.

"Clothes," Kitzi immediately replied. "I'm going to finish drying, and you can look for my stuff."

"Your wish is my command, Master!" Iris bowed mockingly and strode out of the bathroom. Clothes... clothes... She yanked open one of the closets and blinked when she found it to be completely empty. An inspection of some of the drawers yielded somewhat better results, but she frowned when she pulled out the single robe that was in them. "Kit? Were your parents blind, too?"

"It's Kitzi. And I dunno, maybe my birth parents were... And WHY?"

"Well... your robe is... yegh."

Iris could hear him smacking his forehead "I didn't bring any spare robes, so either you got Dante's drawer or you found the robe I wore when Ink tried to cut me in half. So I figure it's full of blood."

"Nah... it's your size and clean, but... it's grey. And it has the most boring cut I have ever seen!"

Kitzi groaned and leaned out of the bathroom again. "Yeah, that sounds like my robe; Dante also found it boring for some reason." He was silent for a few seconds. "...it's clean?"

"I guess that whoever took it off gave it to the cleaning service. They do a good job at restoring things to their original state. Don't ask me how." She tossed the robe at him and was about to look back into the drawer when she noticed that something was off - the robe flew just past him and fell onto the floor. "...why didn't you catch it?" she asked and cocked her head.

"Because I'm blind?" Kitzi asked back angrily and picked it up after feeling around a bit. "Got my trousers in there, too?"

"But... you got your amplified senses gig going on..." Iris couldn't stop herself from sounding disappointed.

"I have to focus on it! If I left it on the entire time - which I can't, by the way - I would go crazy from... well, the world. Any sound louder than a whisper would practically blow my head off!"

"...don't you come with a manual or something? You're complicated! At this rate, I'll have to take notes just to know when you can perceive more or less than others!"

Kitzi chuckled quietly as he put on his robe. "And here I thought that girls are supposed to be the complicated ones..."

"Cubi girls aren't complicated at all," Iris told him and smirked. "Incoming clothes!"

He held out his arms and barely managed to catch his trousers, thanks to Iris's aim being a bit better this time. "They're not? Do tell."

"Well, Cubi, at least here at SAIA, are fairly easy-going. To us, sex, romance and love don't have to be as connected as they are for Beings. We live too long to make strict monogamy a realistic option, and making celibacy-until-wedding vows is completely insane since it can easily be centuries before you find the right one. Of course, there are Cubi who do just that, but they're fairly rare and boring if you ask me."

"So you asking if I wanted to sleep with you...?"

"Mhhh, never mind that," Iris teased him. "You're still a Being at heart, so you'd mistake it for more than just a good time. And then you'd curl up in a corner about the vixen who broke your heart, and then Dante would know, and then Yas would know, and then she'd snap me in half." Not to mention what your dear roommate would do to my memories, Kitzi, she added mentally and shuddered.

"You make that sound as if you're speaking from experience there." By now, Kitzi was completely dressed and had begun to rummage through the drawers himself. "Seen my cane?"

"Beats me, what does it look like?" Iris asked, peeking into the drawer Kitzi had just opened. How are you supposed to fit a cane into so little space, anyway? Unless blind-boy here has discovered dimensional folding all by himself, but that'd be crazy. Iris blinked when she noticed that Kitzi had stopped moving his hands and was now glaring at her again.

"Oh, gee, I somehow can't remember what it looks like," he snarled, but Iris could tell that he wasn't seriously annoyed. When Iris just huffed, he shook his head and gave her a weak smile. "Collapsible cane, should be about as long as my hand."

"How about this one?" Iris reached into a far corner of the drawer and held up a light grey stick before placing it in Kitzi's hand. He ran his hands over it and smiled. "What do you need a cane for, anyway?"

"Oh, it's just for when I walk around, I use it to avoid obstacles and such things. You know, I sweep it and stuff."

"You seemed to manage fine without it so far," Iris commented and cocked her head.

"In here, yes. I got this room mapped out okay, so unless you rearrange the furniture behind my back, I won't run into things here. The cane's mostly for the outside and unfamiliar territory."

Now we're talking! Iris beamed. "So you wanna go outside? I could show you around!"

Kitzi hesitated visibly, and Iris knew exactly what was coming next. "I... should stay in here. After all, the last time I went out, I ended up trying to kill Dante..."

"That's right, you should stay in here," Iris confirmed calmly.

"I mean... Dante would want me to stay, right? He wants me to be safe."

"Yes, he'd want you to stay right here." She waited a few seconds to see if there would be more excuses. When none came, she made a step towards him. "But that's what you should do and what Dante wants you to do," she whispered softly. "But what do you want?"

"I..." Kitzi again hesitated. His mouth opened and closed a few times, but it took him several seconds to come up with a reply: "I don't know."

"Good!" Iris suddenly cheered, making the fox twitch. "That's a solid start right there! Other new Cubi spend a few weeks here before arriving at that insight!" Of course, this was a lie for all that she knew. Most Cubi arrived at SAIA after having grown up with other Cubi, so they had pretty good ideas what they wanted to do: They wanted to have shiny clothes, get laid and enter courses that catered to their preferences. But sometimes, honesty doesn't help when it comes to giving people hope. "Here, lemme tell you what you need. Then you might be able to figure out what you want."

"That would be great!" Kitzi cheered and gave her one of his rare smiles.

"There are three things you're going to need," Iris started and sat down on the bed. "First, you're going to need new clothes. Seriously, grey isn't your color, the cut makes bathrobes look highly fashionable, the material's something you'd expect from, well, Beings. Not-quite-rich Beings, even." Kitzi didn't look overly pleased by this, but in the end, he simply nodded. "Then you're going to need a plan for your classes. From what I gather, you didn't go through the usual bureaucratic hoops, so you will need to work out your plan now. This means that you're going to need your master list for the year."

"What's that?" Kitzi asked and scratched his head. "Master list, plan... that sounds fairly complicated..."

"Nah, not really. Your master list is just a list of all the courses you have the qualifications to take. For example, all the advanced courses won't be on your list since you're not past the basic level in those courses. And some other courses have certain other requirements, so they also won't be listed. So when you got your master list, you can make a plan simply by choosing the courses you want."

"Ohhh..." He nodded slowly. "And where do I have to go to get this list?"

Iris gave him a knowing smile. "Don't worry. Remember Fa'Lina's omniscience? Now she knows you're ready to receive your master list, so just give her a few minutes or so to send it here. But while she's preparing that, I can cover the third point. And that is simply that you're going to need some items for your courses. You know - books, parchments and-" She froze. Yeah, right. Books. Because he'll totally be able to read them. "I mean," she added hastily, "you know... stuff. Not just books, but... uh... useful stuff... for you."

"Hm..." Kitzi just scratched his muzzle thoughtfully. Iris wasn't sure what to make of that, but he wasn't ranting or whining, so she figured it'd be okay. Somehow.

Maybe he thinks that Fa'Lina will think of something. Like... self-narrating books. She frowned - that one hadn't even sounded overly plausible to herself. But don't say it. He's reasonably happy - or at least not terribly unhappy - so don't mess it up now with an uncharacteristic burst of realism.

Before either of them could say anything else about the third point, the air in the middle of the room began to pop and crack as a Warp-Aci teleported into the room. Kitzi looked up expectantly - Iris briefly wondered why a blind guy would look up at anything - and cocked his head when the sounds died down.

"Behold! I have been sent to bring you this-"

"Right on time, Kifo," Iris interrupted the Warp-Aci that was facing Kitzi. It turned around and groaned.

"Oh, great. The insane fangirl." Ignoring Iris's angry expression it flew over to Kitzi. "Stay away from her if you know what is good for you," it mock-whispered to him. "If you still got the receipt, you could try getting a refund for her. Trust me, they'll understand..."

"When you're done insulting me, just hand over the list, Kifo," Iris groaned and pointed at the rolled-up scroll Fa'Lina's Warp-Aci was holding with its flexible tail.

"Oh, does that mean you can actually read?" Kifo sneered even as it tossed the list in her general direction.

"Thank you," Iris hissed through gritted teeth, "you can go now."

"I think I'll stay, actually. Trust me on this one, you monochrome menace."

"You're just jealous, you glow-in-the-dark freak," she muttered even as she unrolled the scroll. "Seriously, who came up with the brilliant idea of creating floating signal beacons with telepor- What the heck?" Iris stared at the list. Or rather, at the practically empty page that should have been the list.

"What's wrong?" Kitzi asked and cocked his head. Kifo just flew around his head and gave her a knowing look.

Iris glanced at the list again. It was Kitzi's master list all right. After all, the words "Individual SAIA Course List" were plainly visible at the top of the page, and Kitzi's name and his Clan name had been written by hand into the respective fields. The only thing that set this list apart from any other student's list was that it had exactly zero items. Feeling a bit silly, Iris turned it around - Maybe she just wrote down all the items on the wrong side... or the enchantment got slightly misdirected... even the awesome Cubi sometimes make mistakes... - but the back of the list was of course completely blank.

"Your list... it's..." Iris frowned deeply, then gave Kifo a look. "Take me to Fa'Lina. Now."

"She's busy," the Warp-Aci reply idly, pretending to file its non-existent nails. "But I've been briefed about this, so go ahead and ask."

Since when does Fa'Lina authorize her fricken Warp-Aci to speak about such important things? She briefly considered looking for Fa'Lina on her own, but quickly discarded the thought. She frowned when another possibility crossed her mind. Unless this actually isn't important. But then, why did she direct me here? ME? "You don't love me anymore, is that it?" she finally whined at the ceiling. "Is this some sort of punishment? Have I been bad?"

"Who is she-" she heard Kitzi whisper, but Kifo just coughed.

"Told you she's insane," it whispered back. "Just ignore her for a few seconds. Her attention span is short, even by Cubi standards, so something shiny will distract her sooner or later. Most likely- HEY, WHAT'S THE BIG-"

Iris froze when Kifo bounced off her chest. She blinked and looked down after a few seconds of dramatic silence. The Warp-Aci looked slightly dazed, so she looked up at Kitzi. "Why'd you do that?" she whined and pointed at the Warp-Aci.

"He said something shiny would distract you, and you mentioned that he glows in the dark, so..." Kitzi gestured helplessly and finally shrugged. "So what's the deal with my list?"

"What list?"

"The one Kifo gave you? You started acting all weird - well, weirder - after reading it."

Iris blinked and looked down at the list she was still holding. "Oh, that," she muttered. "Yeah, well... it's blank. Not a single course listed on it."

"But..." Kitzi hesitated slightly. "But you told me that I have to pick courses from the list. So if it's empty..."

"Lots of free time, I guess." Iris shrugged helplessly before giving Kifo a light kick. "And our dear, floaty friend will tell us what's going on here."

"You know, normal people tend to respect those who have the power to teleport them into a live volcano," Kifo muttered as it rose to face her. It didn't wait for her to come up with a snarky reply, however, and instead gestured at Kitzi, who was biting his lower lip now. "Imagine... all the courses a normal Incubus could take in his first year." Iris remembered the first list she had been given and nodded. "Now take away the courses that require basic history and culture knowledge. And the ones that require basic magic knowledge." The mental list shrunk considerably. "Now take away all the courses that require you to copy stuff into your notebooks and to read more stuff written on a blackboard."

"Hey now!" Iris snapped. "They can't shove him around like that just because he's blind!"

"Well, you can't seriously expect them to completely redesign their classes to factor in the one guy who lacks an incredibly important sense, can you? They teach classes consisting of dozens of students; they won't suddenly stop using blackboards and written notes just because of him."

"They..." Iris crosses her arms uncomfortably. They should. They really should. This is totally unfair! But then, the realistic side chimed in again. Yes, it's unfair, but he is a cripple. He can't see, so he won't be able to watch the teacher showing magic-related handsigns or even to take notes. He would need a fulltime babysitter. She sighed.

"Oh, and then there are the few people who could teach him something, but those are things they would prefer not to teach a Cubi who could use them in a wild berserker rage. You know, handling swords and other stuff that can hurt people more efficiently than his bare hands." Kifo shrugged apologetically.

"Okay, now that's plain idiotic. I could understand the blindness part, but wasn't SAIA made especially so we could leave Clan politics behind us and simply be Cubi!"

"Oh, please. You should know that sometimes, individual students will be excluded from certain courses for the well-being of society," Kifo replied and gave her a smirk.

Iris clenched her fists. "This is different! It's just plain, paranoid discrimination! Fa'Lina will never agree to this!"

"The boss lady already agreed. Who do you think told me these things?" The Warp-Aci hovered up and down uncertainly. "I have to say that she agreed surprisingly fast, even."

"But that's-"

"Thank you, Kifo." Iris stopped in mid-sentence and gave Kitzi a look. "That would be all, I guess?" he whispered, and Iris didn't need to take in his emotions to know that he was disappointed and resigned.

Wonderful. Yasma warned me that he'd be close to a nervous breakdown, and we go on and basically tell him that he doesn't fit into the Academy. Iris closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Come on, Iris... think! You're missing something here! Something is wrong with this picture!

"Are you sure? I think I could stay a while longer if you-" Kifo replied with an uncharacteristic lack of sarcasm.

"No, no, it's fine, really," Kitzi replied in a tone that indicated that nothing was fine, but that he didn't want to talk about it.

"If you say so..." The Warp-Aci shrugged and gave Iris a look before disappearing into a dimensional vortex.

"Oh well," Kitzi sighed and opened the drawer again. "Could you hand me my bag, please? I left it in the closet, I think."

The vixen frowned deeply. "What are you doing?"

"Packing. It's what Beings do when they prepare to leave a place." Kitzi snapped his fingers in the direction of the closet. "Bag?"

"...you're leaving? But-"

"But what?" Kitzi sighed loudly. "I'm at a school in which I can't take any classes. I've been kicked out, so I'm leaving." He bit his lower lip. "Should I tell Dante? I mean, I should, but it may break his heart, and I've-" He hesitated slightly. "-heard that sometimes it's less bad if somebody leaves quietly without telling people. But I dunno... it feels wrong, doesn't it?"

"You leaving feels wrong," Iris replied softly and approached Kitzi with soft steps.

"Now listen, Iris-" Kitzi said and rose his hand, as if to scold her.

Iris's reaction was swift, and thanks to her deceptively soft approach, it caught him completely off-guard: In one graceful move, she grabbed Kitzi's hand and twisted his arm around, using her other hand to apply some force to his back. The result was a sudden spin and a painful jerk forwards that sent Kitzi's face straight into the open drawer. "No, YOU listen," Iris hissed angrily. "You haven't been kicked out and you're not going to leave, are we clear?"

"LEMME GO!" Kitzi screamed and tried to break free. When that didn't work, one of his flight feathers transformed into a tentacle with an eyeless Cobra head. Iris just sighed and pulled his arm upwards. The resulting scream made Iris quite glad that the room was effectively soundproof.

"I know healing magic, Kitzi!" Iris snapped. "That means I can break and heal your elbow, your shoulder or any other part of your anatomy as often as I like without leaving any trace at all! Do you get that?"

"YES!" the fox screamed, and the tentacle head froze, torn between his efforts to hold still and his desire to lash out at her. Iris lowered the pressure slightly, making him wheeze. "...holycrapthepain..." The tentacle finally morphed back into his wing.

"I'm going to let you go now, okay?" Iris whispered, studying his features. "I assume you're now interested in discussing things without jumping to childish conclusions, right?"

"They weren't childish," Kitzi muttered. "I mean, I've got no-" Iris yanked the arm upwards again with a slight smirk. "OH GOD YES I WILL! I WILL!"

"Splendid!" the vixen cheered and let go of him. Kitzi immediately sank to his knees and groaned as he massaged his arm.

"Kifo was right, you are insane," he finally muttered and shook his head.

"Hey, it's my job to keep you from being all broody and breakdowny. And blinding pain is quite effective there!" She briefly wished she could summon a halo like Dr. Ink. But then again, Kitzi wouldn't be able to see it, anyway. "...or so I heard, at least..."

"...I'm pretty sure that 'breakdowny' is not a real word," Kitzi finally replied and slowly got to his feet again.

"As long as that's your biggest concern, we'll get along just fine," the vixen remarked and grinned.

The fox just shook his head and adjusted his ponytail. "So what do you make of this? You say I wasn't kicked out, but I don't have any classes, either."

"I'm not fully certain myself, but I do know that Fa'Lina usually doesn't drop such subtle hints. If she had kicked you out, she would have done so in a very literal way." Iris chuckled when she saw Kitzi's frown. "So if she just says you're in no class, then that means that you're still welcome here. You just have to find a way to work around these limitations."

"But-"

"Any protagonist must overcome obstacles on his path to success," Iris interrupted him.

"I'm not feeling particularly protagonisty today," Kitzi muttered.

"I guess you're right. Protagonists are usually dressed better."

He gave her a look with his unfocused eyes again. "You're also not a big fan of subtle hints, are you?"

---

Author's Notes:
- The second part of what was originally going to be Chapter 12. I swear, I'm going to give Kitzi new clothes before the end of the year!
- Freud would be delighted by my apparent tendency to have strong women overpowering weak/timid/surprised men.

[Tapewolf]

The only thing I found unconvincing in this was Kitzi's snap reaction that he was being kicked out.  Why would Fa'Lina have bothered sending the list?  On the other hand, why did she bother sending an empty list?  Curiouser and curiouser.

I'd be very interested to know how this is going to turn out, unless of course the year's list is blank because it's going to take more than a year to get him started.

[Cogidubnus]

I don't know if I've posted here yet, but if I haven't, I should have.

This is one of my favorite ongoing fictions on this board. I'm eagerly looking forward to the next chapter, and extend much kudos for what's been written so far. Really excellent stuff.

[Roureem Egas]

Heh. Almost feels like Iris is gonna get set up with a running gag where she forgets that Kitzi can't see anything from time to timte. Nice chapter.