Chapter Three, Starshine

"Alright! Well then we have to get things sorted from here! Thank you for accepting." she said with joy.

"Yeah…" I said. Shes shockingly eccentric, what even is she-? "So… what are you?" I asked, digging at her biology.

"Ha! Well see there are many different species and creatures here, i'm a bit different. When you obsess over something so much that it consumes your life it… consumes your body too. In this word we call them "The Forbuges," creatures which have been so consumed by something mentally that it melts their body and causes them to fall apart. The Forbuges are terribly strong but lack a mind as they have mentally degraded into nothing."

"Well you clearly arent one of thoes, you are talking to me right now?"

"I am partially myself and part Forbuges. It shouldnt be possible but Me that exists is under protection. Luckily the situation i'm in helps me." she extended a paw and made it turn into a black goop which sloughed off onto the floor and disentegrated before she turned her paw back to normal. "Its not just becoming a goop, I can do a lot more stuff due to my bodily structure! It doesnt let me morph into whatever I want though. I have to follow certain constraints which identify me. The Xes on my eyes, the XIII on my back and belly, yellow fur, the markings on my paws, arms and legs, the Purple hair. All of that. If I don't maintain my appearance as it is and attempt to become something that I am not then it ends with me losing control to the Forbuge."

"So, what would happen?"

"As I try to regain control the Forbuge goes on a rampage, though I can briefly maintain the forbuge's appearance without losing control."

"Wait so what did you obsess over?" I asked.

"The blade."

"Then where does the number Thirteen come from?"

"It simply defines me, I would also be known as "'The Blade of Thirteen'" or just XIII in a professional setting."

"Oh, so Trisk is a nickname and XIII is your legal name?"

"You could say that." she said with a shrug, "Since you know the basics of this world I think its time to get you a housing unit."

"Already?"

"Here in Epoch we value housing as a basic necessity so we assign it for free. Although it is free you will be staying with me, my home is bigger and better than the standard housing unit." She begun walking out of the room, heading towards the exit.

I asked her as I walked to follow, "Wait but- why don't I get to live alone??"

"Because, you are my disciple. Don't worry, you will have full privacy, a big room with a biometric lock on it." She said as she slipped her jacket back on, Icy looked up from their cubicle confused

"But-"

She interrupted me, "its legality, plus as a disciple you will be paid a portion of my work, even if you don't participate." she turned to icy and spoke, "Icy, fill out the completion of the teaching with all hundreds, if anyone questions it then just tell them its XIII approved." She began opening the door and a gust of cold wind blew in, making my fur stand on end.

"Yeah, yeah, ill get it done." they said as trisk and I left.

She looked determined with a smile as she walked through the snow, the open front of her jacket seemingly not deterring her from the cold. "Follow me!" she said as the began to walk a bit faster.

The wind picked up as I followed her movements, turning around bendy streets and careening around turns. Epoch was beautiful, full of life and joy, not a single person was sitting on the side of the road begging for cash. It is far nicer than where I came from, like a town in a futuristic storybook, a utopia.

"This place is perfect…" I said, following trisk.

She turned around, still walking backwards and said, "Epoch may be nice but it's us that pay to make it nice!"

"What?" I asked, how do we pay?

"This place is built on Ichor, the blood of gods. Killing one gets us a lot of resources and sometimes thoes gods arent simple. Some of them will make you forget who you are, some will turn you into a monster that you are a captive audience to the destruction of people you know, some will make you insane. This place may not be perfect but its nice, and well outside is far, far worse."

"Oh-" I said.

"Come on, we need to get to my house!" she said, trying to raise the mood, starting to jog a little.

I followed her as I exclaimed, "Ahhh!" trying to keep up.

We kept walking, eventually reaching the end of the city, a large blue transparent wall separated us from the outside world. There was frost covered hills, trees and shrubbery outside, just like home, though I recognized none of them. Trisk paused a moment to stare outside, seemingly admiring the scenery. After taking in the frost covered scenery she turned to the right and began walking to a large metal structure, set into the barrier. It wasnt a long walk so we arrived at it quickly. Trisk spoke with the guard who looked like they were some kind of officer, she handed them a card and the guard nervously opened pulled a lever while saying, "careful, we have had reports of rouge angels lurking around the gate."

She looked a bit annoyed and said, "you say that every time I go through your gate, you don't have to tell me every time."

They responded, "Just policy. Opening main gate."

She stared at the gate and summoned her sword and readied it while saying, "Stand back, ill deal with any threats."

The cold nipped at the tips of my paws as I stared at the gate, slowly opening. She stared at the gates for arriving threats. Only now I noticed the blood stained floor and walls surrounding us, it looked like a kill room.

As soon as the gates opened a couple feet two creatures dashed in carrying spears, each attempting to pierce trisk who was prepared. She saw the hostile angels and immediately retaliated with two quick swings of her sword. The angels paused seeing her near instant reaction to their attack. They floated there as they checked their bodies for injuries. As they checked the ends of their spears fell to the ground.

The left angel looked with terror and shouted, "Who art thou!"

Trisk smiled in response as the kicked off the ground, almost instantly arriving at the angel on the right, kicking them in the stomach and taking them to the ground. As the angel hit the ground ad began coughing up blood the other angel stared with anger and immediately began charging an attack, I saw the energy surrounding the angels hands as trisk kept the other angel down. Did she forget abou the other one!?

As she kept the other one down I panicked for a moment and quickly realized I would have to do something to save her. The angel created a spear from golden light with a bloodthirsty smile. I quickly ran between trisk and the angel while thinking of a way to block the angels attack. If I spread the tingly energy across a plane and condense it then maybe I can create a shield and block the angel.

I quickly tried to do it and a blue barrier soon formed from my paws, right as the angel threw the spear. Time passed as if it were moving a hundred times slower, the spear flew through the air like a bullet, struck my barrier and… Broke. She angel smiled wider as I watched the spear speed towards my chest. I shut my eyes tight ready to feel the pain radiate through my body but it never came.

I opened my eyes to Trisk smiling, holding the spear an inch from my chest. She immediately gripped it tight, the magic holding it together shattering into a million pieces. The angels expression quickly soured as trisk approached the angel slowly. It panicked and threw its stick at trisk and she simply parried it with an ominous smile. Once the angel was cornered she lifted her sword and in an instant, golden blood was spilt and the angel was split in two.

We walked out of the gate after the guard said he would clean the mess up after us and I was… somewhat shocked. Trisk maintained her smile and I was just shocked. She just killed someone. Ill get over it… eventually.

We kept walking, through the frost covered grass leaving trails behind us.

"Why do you live so far out?" I asked.

"I'm a solitary person so I live out here. Its dangerous enough to where nobody wants to try and find me." she responded.

"Dangerous?!" I exclaimed.

"Just angels, they don't go near my home because of the barrier I made." she turned to look at me and said, "by the way, good job back there, despite getting in the way you were able to make a simple barrier, congratulations! You are already on the path to magical success!"

"Thank you-" I said, "it wasnt exactly good though- that angel easily broke it."

"Thoes were twin seraphim, some of the higher level basic angels, angels that you have to be at least a D rank slayer to beat. You shouldnt have been able to block it, no matter how good at magic you start with." she said.

"Hm. Okay-"

She looked at the path ahead and said, "Here we are! Home sweet home!"

Looking up I saw the giant mansion that she called home encased in a large barrier. it was fucking huge. It was three stories of magnificence, made of some kind of dark wood. The windows were black and there was a circular path around a garden which surrounded a tree that had a fountain built into it. The path led from the edge of the barrier to the door of the home.

I followed her to the edge of the barrier and she outstretched a paw and a hole opened in the barrier. We both walked through as I looked around. The inside of the barrier was full of life, a couple mice the size of footballs, a giant fox with antlers, a deer with eight legs, a dog with three heads, a dragon, a cloudlike tiger, and a five foot tall spider with the head of a wolf. Each of these creatures rose from their spots and approached and greeted Trisk.

My heart beat hastened as I stared at the enormous beasts. Trisk without a word turned and introduced me to the creatures. "This is Lumin! He is a friend, do not hurt him."

I stared frozen as trisk began walking towards the door of the home, I quickly followed and took a deep breath as all the beasts turned and returned to their spots.

She opened the door and led me into the mansion as she said, "welcome home!"

I looked around the room and saw a grand stairway in the middle of a room lined with bookshelves and couches. "Thank you-" I said.

"Don't worry about the pets outside, they would have been alone if I didnt take them home so they trust me and I trust them in the case we are under attack and i'm not home."

"Alright…" I said hesitantly.

"Now let's find you a room!" She looked around pointing at random points in the room mumbling to herself before saying, "ah! I know!"

She dashed up the stairs and shouted "follow me!"

I followed behind her, running with her and making several turns in the home. Up some stairs, to the left, around a bend, up some smaller stairs, door at the end of the hall. She opened the door to a room that contained a bed, a beanbag, a desk, a computer, a couch, a bookshelf in the walls on the side of the room with a window which had a cubby hole built into it with a nice shag carpet which was very soft under my paws.

Trisk looked at me and asked, "Is this good?" She looked around the room and seemed proud of how it was designed. She did a good job with this room.

"Yes! It's perfect!" I responded, happy that I got such a place to call my own. I threw myself into the bed and felt my own accumulated exhaustion pressing on my body.

"clean yourself then sleep, i'm going to leave you here while I work a bit. we are going to learn how to smear when you wake up."

"alright! where is the bathroom?"

"It's in the room across from yours." she said, closing the door behind herself and leaving me alone, for the first time since I met her in the poke through.

"got it." I said, rising from the comfort of the sheets and taking lazy steps into the hall and out into the bathroom. I fiddled with the knobs on the shower, figuring out how it functioned. Once I had the optimal temperature, I bathed myself and dried my fur, eventually reaching the end of this long, long day, laying in the bed, gifted to me by trisk, the sheets consuming me with softness and comfort.

As I drifted off, I slept with dreams full of nothing. I rested for several hours, from evening to night to morning, which I awoke to.

I browsed the books, looking through their spines, simply scanning through the rough and rubble of knowledge. I looked out the window to see stars? Hundreds of thousands of stars dotting the sky. Just off the edge. Skirting the thin rim of nothing, where the unspoken is spoken. On one edge the margins of everything and on the other, naught.

While I had slept it rained, washing the frost from its post. Bringing in the aroma of petrichor. Simple, calming.

Despite my situation i'm happy with this. I like this world.

I left my room after slipping on some clothes I found in the closet. Turns out I had slept in the clothes from the pebble. I grabbed a shirt and some jeans. After dressing I got up and looked around the house.

After looking around the first floor I found the dining room, a bowl of dry cereal sit at the end of the table. Light flowed in through the window, lighting the room naturally. A sense of calm flowed over me as I walked to the bowl. A note was on the table, it read "Trisk here! The milk is in the room adjacent to this one in the fridge door. If you don't want any you can cook some bacon and eggs yourself. Its also in the fridge, just look."

It was calm. It was nice.

I put milk in my bowl of cereal and ate it leisurely. I havent had cereal in five years. I'm happy the comforts of home still exist. It seems like Trisk came from a world not too different from mine. I wonder when she will come home. I looked out the window to see the spider wolf laying on top of the eight legged deer, the cloud tiger and antlered fox frolicking around and the dragon return to its cave, likely for a nap. All was well. maybe these creatures werent so dangerous.