This is the eighth part of the O Maker Mine plot, and is set after The Waiting Game and Transfer of Power.
Jikiro Takami | Takami Estate | Present Night
Jikiro stretched widely as he leaned back in his workshop chair, yawning. He might technically not need sleep anymore, but damn, he didn’t feel like it right now. Even having eaten good meals as usual and chugged his share of ink, he was still wiped.
But the spell was ready, or damn near close enough to it. He’d done a practice run using a simpler version with Linnae first, just to make sure it activated like it should and could be sustained without issue.
To his surprise Crista had also been a help, the word-wizard supplying their knowledge of teleportation to help with the spatial differences involved. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust their skill, but as a newer mage he hadn’t thought they’d have much to offer that he didn’t know or could look up.
He didn’t mind being wrong at all.
Apparently it had been Velour’s idea for them to pipe up; the guy’s education must be coming along okay, even if Kizuna could be a real shit sometimes.
It was nice to have other magic users around he could rely on, especially right now.
The tealblood looked over the neatly stacked sheets of paper on his desk, ink having finished drying so they could be allowed to touch.
To a layman, they looked like ordinary East Alternian script, but a mage would be able to tell how the characters shifted slightly in the light, gleaming with subtle iridescent colors.
A spell to contact someone in another universe.
If he wanted to be really technical - Himari’s voice ringing in his ears from a memory of pupahood - it was an incantation, combined with a sending spell.
Normally, he didn’t give a damn about being technical at all as long as he understood what he was doing, but…with Linnae involved, and with so much on the line, he had consulted his older signmates for a second opinion. Just to be safe.
He absolutely didn’t want to tell Hazard or Tira that things had gotten fucked up somehow, that he’d either failed to locate Lizzie or she hadn’t been able to communicate back with him.
They’d be pissed as hell, but even more than that, he’d feel so damn guilty.
This was what magic was for, ultimately. Sure, it could do fun tricks or give you an edge over your business competitors, but when it came down to it…
Nothing mattered more than keeping the people you loved safe.
Right now, no one had any fucking idea if Lizzie was safe or not. He could only hope she’d stay alive long enough in the chaos Civitrecce had become for him to communicate with his fellow tealblood.
He knew how lucky he was that Jamie had gotten out, even if he could still barely comprehend that the artifice itself had saved him.
Though Jamie had told him that it had known and cared for the cobalt’s ancestor.
Baffling, imagining that thing caring for anyone.
And yet…
Kana was more solemn now.
Her bug friends had gone.
She’d stand every night and wait for them outside, until someone came to find her and distract her.
Fucked up that it had still been here the whole time, but…
It hadn’t hurt anyone since that night. It had played with Kana. Enough that she had come to adore it and babble about it to anyone who’d listen.
Jamie said it had probably gone insane during its imprisonment.
Much as he still didn’t like the thing, he guessed that made sense.
Jikiro got up, putting the papers into a crisp business folder that he placed in his sylladex. He’d make a backup copy too; this would be something to record for the Takami spellbooks later, so future signmates of his could benefit. Though he hoped none of them would ever be in the same bizarre situation as his friend and his matesprit’s moirail.
Anyway. Time to get some sleep. He needed to be in perfect shape for the casting tomorrow night, and the sun was peeking through the blinds on his windows.
—
“Get up, sir.”
He groaned, but as always when Akiote came to fetch him, Jikiro knew better than to argue.
The tall yellowblood looked even more grave than usual, arms tucked behind their back and their one visible eye solemn.
The tealblood frowned, carefully getting out of his recuperacoon.
“Something happen?”
The lowblood looked away for a moment, then back at him.
“Sir’s in-clade, Mr. Ailaht. He cannot make it to the casting. He left a…distressed message on the main line.”
Jikiro tried not to look a bit relieved.
He liked Hazard, but not having the anxious blueblood around when he performed a very delicate piece of magic was a bit of a load off, he wouldn’t lie.
“I sense sir is not overly upset.” Commented the gardener dryly.
“Hazard’s nice, but he’s not the most composed guy in the world under pressure.” Jikiro admitted. “And I really have to focus. Better if it’s just me and Linnae.”
Akiote’s face flickered with a brief, grim smile.
“We have trolls waiting to greet and escort Mx. Ishimi when they arrive. We will await you at breakfast, sir.”
Jikiro chuckled. “Damn, how’d you guess the first place I’d go.”
“Immense experience, sir.” Replied the yellowblood in a voice of delicate politeness as they walked back out the door.
—
Normally Jikiro preferred to savor his meals, but tonight he shoveled ink-soaked rice and green tea down his throat, knowing there was no time. As the casting drew closer, he became painfully aware of what he’d been trying to ignore since they’d all gotten the news: it might already be too late.
It shouldn’t be. Lizzie was smart, she’d know the warzone Civitrecce had no doubt become was nowhere for someone without some kind of power up their sleeve, and as far as he knew, she didn’t have psi or natural abilities or anything.
At least if they managed to contact her, Mesier Beldon could help bring her back.
It had been a hell of a revelation to learn that Jamie’s boss’s matesprit - Chimer Latrai also now missing in the vanished city, fuck, he’d probably been one of the last trolls to talk to her personally before it happened - was also a powerful mage. On top of being Imperial Treasurer and a Grand Highblood.
Apparently he knew Hazard too, had been the one taking Goh Tat’s sorry ass to court after his archaeological thefts. Small world.
He finished eating, made the copy of his spell (the original might get water on it, or the ink itself might get used up, he wasn’t sure, not like he’d done this before) to later put in the bloodline spellbooks, and wasn’t that a damned good thing because no sooner had the teal copied the last character did he get the call that Linnae was here.
He smiled in relief. The fuchsia might be kind of naive in the ways of the world, but he was a true friend, and a very powerful mage. Jikiro would definitely owe him one for this.
The midblood greeted the highblood warmly as he arrived escorted by a few of the grounds staff, and the fuchsia laughed nervously as they often did. He nodded at him encouragingly, and took him to the spot where they’d do the incantation and sending spell.
It wasn’t too far from the koi pond, a grassy spot he’d prepared to be flat and warded to be clear of insects and ghosts, free of any possible distractions. He’d also brought some old, well-made clay pots - enchanted, ones the Takamis had had for generations - to contain the water Linnae would summon. They could hold a lot more than they appeared to be able to from the outside.
A slight wind blew, rustling the seadweller’s long strands of hair and Jikiro’s ponytail - but luckily there were only a few scattered clouds, and it wasn’t supposed to rain. He wished there was more moonlight - green moon was half, pink a crescent, but whatever, magic could make up the difference.
Jikiro snapped his fingers, and various floating teal lights surrounded the two mages as he took out the primary copy of his spell. Now they could see just fine.
“Okay, Linnae, your time to shine. Fill two of those pots for now, fill others if it seems like I’m struggling. I don’t wanna overcharge myself unless I need to.”
He was pretty good at drawing power - the nature of his magic meant he’d been naturally doing so with ink ever since he’d first started learning to cast - but it didn’t hurt to start slow and amp things up if they needed to.
The first part involved reading the incantation to hone in on Lizzie’s location - no point even attempting the sending spell if they couldn’t find her.
Jikiro didn’t need to breathe, but he inhaled deeply anyway and started reciting his spell in East Alternian.
Words to lock onto the faint frequency of his own magic that lingered in the other world, just as Viltau had suggested. When his matesprit had suggested it, he’d been thrilled by the possibility, if unsure that it would work.
But it had. It had taken a few spells and some waiting, but he’d detected it.
Now symbols made of water-turned-ink rose into the air from the pots Linnae had filled and floated around them - slowly at first, going faster as the tealblood spoke.
He was reminded uncomfortably of his deal with the ink demon.
Still he kept reading, voice steady, every word pronounced perfectly as he finished and waited for the spell to take full effect.
Then…the symbols froze. Became gray instead of iridescent teal-black.
His heart plunged.
“Linnae! More powe -”
Then they kept going, if more slowly, color mostly restored.
Jikiro blinked.
Now the spell stabilized, felt fine.
What the hell had that been?
Whatever. He could figure it out later - the connection they now had to the frequency of the other world wouldn’t last forever.
But he didn’t mind that there was now a third pot of water. They might need it if that happened again.
Now for the sending spell. He put the first sheet of paper back in its folder - didn’t need that for the moment.
If this worked properly, the words would appear in front of Lizzie, no matter where she was in the other world. If she was asleep, they’d wake her up, the magic insistently nudging her back to consciousness.
“Lizzie Eizzil.” He said, needing her full name to ensure it would reach her. “It’s Jikiro. Hold tight wherever you are, because we’re gonna get Mesier Beldon to rescue you - just uh, don’t freak out when you see him as a dragon. He’s there for his matesprit, Chimer Latrai, and then he’ll get you too. I’m about to send a beacon through; if you touch it, it’ll tag you with a magical aura he’ll use to find you easily.”
He summoned more of the same teal lights that illuminated his and Lizzie’s work, three of them joined together, whirling as the letters did, and then -
- vanished, gone to another world. He couldn’t sense them anymore.
Even though he knew what would happen - even though he’d been the one to confirm it himself - Jikiro still blinked his teal-black eyes in shock.
“And - Tira says third place is just the beginning, that he’s gonna make sure - “
The moonlight turned gray.
Just for a few moments.
For a few moments, everything stopped.
Then it came back.
Jikiro swallowed, but continued.
“ - he’s gonna bring home the gold before you get back.”
He cut the connection, trying not to freak out - Linnae was here, he had to keep it together.
He’d succeeded, he knew. He’d felt the sending go through - Lizzie must be alive.
But what the hell had happened?
What was that gray?
He couldn’t detect any lingering magical corruption or disturbance.
It was as if nothing had happened at all.
Jikiro knew what he’d seen, though.
For the first time since she’d died, he wished Izanam Takami was still alive.
He would have asked her if, in all her sweeps, she'd ever seen anything like this before.
=> You've dropped by to visit your Sanctuary, as while it is somewhat out of the way in the middle of a forest you've noticed it still attracts visitors from time to time. Mostly animals, based on the footprints left in the soft earth and occasionally bones belonging to smaller creatures that must have been a larger predator's lunch.
=> But, you also have found traces of trolls using the glade as a picnicking spot as well, despite it being rather off the beaten track. Either that, or maybe a bird has been using pieces of litter for a nest. Whatever it may be, you've dedicated yourself to keeping this area pristine so you and the forest's animals have a safe place to return to, so anything left behind by visitors needs to go.
=> You spy a glint of a chip packet in the moonlight, and it appears to have caught the interest of a rabbit as well. But just as you're about to walk over to pick it up before the curious animal gets its head stuck inside, the rabbit looks up suddenly, pricking its ears for a moment and then fleeing.
=> Then, you hear the rustling of someone emerging through the bushes.
"Oh-!! Um, ehe..."
=> You're too close to the water's edge of the lake to have any cover to hide behind, so you stay still. If this person is hostile, you know where you can flee to.
lil chibi ref for linnae, since idk when ill ever get to drawing proper ones for my newer trolls + ones that needed updates
regular outfit, version with shorts and no cardigan, and their mage outfit (handmade gloves + legwarmers, and the cape that was gifted to them from arctus)
