Ability Info:
[Resurgence: Once used, the user regenerates a portion of their HP over 5 seconds. Automatically triggers if it is off cooldown and the player is near death. Can only be used once per day.]
[Limit Shatterer: Once used, this ability overwhelmingly increases the user's stats along with their physical and mental capacities for up to one minute. The closer the user is to death, the greater these augmentations will be, and the player's pain and stress tolerance will greatly increase in accordance to this. This ability will also nullify all magical protection or passive magic and / or abilities of creatures and structures that the player considers to be hostile for the duration. During this time, the player is vulnerable to going berserk and losing bodily control. Their actions if they go berserk will depend on the player's current ideals. Can only be used once per day.]
- - -
Aralynn blinked awake. She was laying on the deck of the Blue Locust 2, the wooden planks slick with blood around her. She was covered in a brown blanket.
She gingerly sat up, clutching the brown sheet. As Aralynn regained her senses, someone hugged her.
It was Perona. While the gesture was sweet, Aralynn's body still ached—however, her wounds seemed to be healed, her bones mended, and her body had been restored to its original state.
"Ow—ow, ow, ow. That hurts." Aralynn winced and gently patted Perona on the shoulder. Perona eased off of the birdfolk, sniffling. Aralynn was surprised to see that the half-elf's face was brimming with tears as she pulled away.
"Sorry if I scared you," Aralynn said, her voice small. "I didn't expect to be hit. That was my fault."
"Dummy." Perona's normally cream-coloured face was red as a tomato, probably from all the crying, but maybe some embarrassment from the hug as well.
There was a moment of awkward silence before Aralynn noticed that Perona was caked in blood. "Are you okay? What happened after I went down?"
Perona wiped tears off of her cheeks with the back of her hand. "I'm fine. We're fine."
Hadarai walked into view, his armour clanking with every step. "I'll fill you in, if you don't mind. Right now, we're getting ready to leave. After you went down, Perona tried to heal you, but your wounds were probably too great for Perona's healing spell to handle, and wouldn't heal. We fought the dwarves for a while when Perona tripped and fell down."
The ship's propellers were already churning, and Aralynn could vaguely hear Celran shouting orders, performing the last checks before disembark.
Hadarai continued. "The dwarf bastard fighting Perona was about to kill her when you somehow recovered enough to get up and stop him in his tracks. Your wounds had been healed a bit—just enough for you to be able to move around. You were in… terrible shape." Hadarai made a visible shudder, and his face betrayed that he was shaken.
Perona picked up where Hadarai left off, her voice small like a toddler searching a dark room for a light. "I don't want to think about it. I'm sorry—I don't mean to sound ungrateful. You saved me, but your eyes were red, and it felt like you went berserk. I couldn't reach you at all."
Perona paused. "You killed a dwarf, and then whatever force that protected them disappeared. After that, you collapsed, and after you did, I could finally heal you."
Aralynn noted that Perona couldn't look her in the eye. "Sorry for scaring you," Aralynn said.
"Dummy." Perona hugged Aralynn, this time more gently. Aralynn noted that Perona wasn't swayed by her appearance, with all her tattered clothes and blood and grime coating her body.
She breathed out tiredly before hugging Perona back.
Then, Celran trotted over. "You're up. We almost lost you. How are you feeling?"
"Better," Aralynn murmured, instinctively pulling the brown blanket tighter around herself as Perona let go, shielding her wounds from view.
Noticing this, Celran respectfully averted his gaze and closed his eyes out of courtesy. "That's a relief," he said gently. "Ms. Perona, would you mind accompanying Ms. Aralynn to her quarters? We'll be ready to depart shortly."
"Of course," Perona responded. She gently helped Aralynn to stand up, offering her friend her shoulder. Aralynn was still shaky and woozy from her near-death experience and leaned on Perona, covering herself with the blanket as the they headed for the quarterdeck.
Just then, they crew on deck was jolted by the sound of shouting. A full brigade of city guards had assembled on the docks, armed with crossbows and halberds, forming a tight semi-circle around the airship.
"What is the meaning of this?" Celran asked, raising both of his hands. "We haven't done anything."
"All crew members aboard this ship are hereby placed under arrest for conspiracy and acts of terrorism! Come across the gangplank without resisting, your hands on your heads, and you won't be harmed." The bristling wall of steel-headed bolts and halberdheads shuffled tighter.
"We haven't done anything," Celran protested, but the guards only drew closer as they neared the gangplank, preparing to storm aboard.
"Take us closer," Aralynn whispered to Perona. "You could probably talk sense into them. It was self-defence, after all."
Perona looked Aralynn over, a concerned expression on her face. "Are you sure you're up to it?"
Aralynn laughed. "All the better. Use the party's remaining wounds as proof. If they ask why we're in relatively good condition, you can always demonstrate your healing spell and say that you're a healer."
"Alright," Perona said. They stumbled closer to the boarding plank before the steel heads turned to point to them. "Woah." Perona gently laid Aralynn down, who leaned against the half-elf's legs as Perona slowly raised both of her hands.
"Relax," she said, her eyes glimmering a subtle pink. If Aralynn hadn't known that Perona had skills that helped her control the conversation, she wouldn't have noticed it. "We were attacked by the dwarves first," Perona said. "This was all in self-defense. We were merely defending ourselves."
The guards visibly shifted undecisively—Perona's skill had definitely worked. One, however, spoke out. "Then explain the corpses on your ship. That doesn't look like self-defence to me. Besides, for what reason would dwarves randomly attack you? The dwarves around here are quite well-mannered folk. Not to mention the explosions coming from your ship."
Aralynn bit her lip. We can't just turn around and blame someone else while we're already under suspicion ourselves. From an outsider's point of view, they probably didn't see the dwarves throw the vials onto our ship. All they would have seen were the explosions coming from us.
Perona hesitated, clearly unsure of how to respond.
This is bad, Aralynn thought. What can I even say?
[Devil's Sweetness Lv. 1 has been activated!]
What? Aralynn stared at the translucent green window.
[Devil's Sweetness: Depending on the player's speech, others are more inclined to believe the player, swayed by the sweetness of a devil.]
Might as well, Aralynn thought. She coughed and opened her mouth. When she spoke, her voice was laced with unnatural charm, velvety, rich and persuasive as the infernal magic of Devil's Sweetness did its job.
"Please—you can see for yourselves the extent of our injuries, even after healing. When they attacked, the dwarves aimed to kill. We tried to reason with them, but they left us no choice. We acted purely in defense."
Through their steel helms, Aralynn could see the guards' eyes glaze slightly, heads nodding unconsciously. One guard raised his voice. "Then explain the explosions."
"We're sanctioned to have cannons for self-defence: merchant ships have always been targets for pirates. I don't know if you are all familiar, but we're not the only ones either: many other ships have cannons as well. We were in the process of restocking charges and temporarily had them stacked on deck before moving them below. The dwarves lit a few aflame. Thankfully, only a handful detonated.
A beat passed. The guards exchanged glances, her explanation slotting into place in their minds. Enchanted by her silver tongue, their suspicion evaporated.
"Very well," the lead guard said at last. "Seems there's been a… misunderstanding. Apologies for the disruption. Safe travels to you."
With that, the brigade turned and dispersed, boots clattering over the wood of the docks.
Perona helped Aralynn back up. "Couldn't have said it better myself," she smiled. They tottered back down to Aralynn's crew quarters and Perona gently unbuckled Aralynn's weapons, laying them aside before helping Aralynn lay down onto her bed.
As Aralynn slid under her sheets, Perona sat down at the foot of Aralynn's bed.
"You don't have to worry, you know. I'm better now. I'll be fine on my own," Aralynn said.
"Not happening," Perona said. "I'm not leaving you to do that ever again. Now, hush. Go to sleep." Then the bard began to hum, and a gentle melody lifted from her soft tones—a sweet lullaby, coddling Aralynn to sleep. It was comforting, hearing the sole voice of Perona in the stillness of Aralynn's quarters.
Whether it was the exhaustion from her brush with death or maybe subtle magic woven into the lullaby, Aralynn drifted into sleep with surprising ease, despite it still being morning.
The birdfolk girl's breath came gently as Perona watched over her.