The Wandering Outsider

The silence was deafening. Usually, as Aisha walked, although she was silent, her mind was a constant stream of various thoughts, about food, girls, and the numerous whims that came to her mind. But now her mindscape reflected the complete silence of the outside world.

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After a long, long time, Aisha finally couldn't take it anymore.

"Are you… real?" She whispered.

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And there was no response. Aisha stiffened.

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But after a while, the voice returned.

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(I don't know.) Aiyu whispered back.

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But that wasn't the answer that Aisha wanted. Aiyu knew that wasn't the answer she wanted. How could she not?

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"To begin with… We shouldn't even be separate. We have the same soul… the same memories. We share the same body. The same brain."

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(Maybe we aren't.)

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"What do you mean?"

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(Maybe we're just two parts of the same person.)

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"..."

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(There's no reason why we should be separate. So maybe we aren't.)

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(The Aisha, and Aiyu… are just two parts of the same being.)

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"But then, why are our thoughts separate?"

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(Maybe one of us… represents the 'Aisha' before… before she became a monster.)

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"...And the other represents the monster we have become."

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"A way to partition off the bad memories."

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"Or perhaps, protect the good memories."

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"But then… who is the real Aisha?"

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"Maybe we're both Aisha."

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"We have just… rejected what we have become."

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(Why did we even do it in the first place?)

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(It was the weakness.)

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(We failed.)

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(So why did we keep that part?)

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(Because that is the real 'us.')

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(We are failures?)

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(What does that even mean anymore?)

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.

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"...Are you still there?"

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.

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(...Yeah.)

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.

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"Sorry, we don't need any labor. Our village is set for the winter, and there's no one around to trade with."

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"Please." Aisha whispered humbly. "I just need a place to sleep. I-"

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"Listen traveler, we-"

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""Kill him." A voice whispered, barely a whisper in the air, but audible all the same. At first, the voice seemed to come from Aisha, but the girl also jolted slightly in surprise, eyes darting left and right rapidly.

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The man's face froze in fear, hand instinctively going to the dagger in his belt, but Aisha made no move to harm the villager. The few humans around him also grew alarmed, seeing his jerky, defensive movements, but they did not dare move against Aisha, her dripping saliva and sharp horns freezing them with fear.

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There was a visible reaction when Aisha's eyes locked onto the villagers, the red glow of her eyes scanning over their faces like spotlights. The eerie red light that locked onto their faces let them know exactly who she was looking at - as she observed them, staring.

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Eventually, her gaze broke.

"You aren't completely without issue." Aisha struggled out. "There is… something weighing on your mind… for a long time… it's been… Something… someone… "

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The way that Aisha watched them was unnerving, to say the least. And the way that she was able to pick the information out of them methodically was terrifying, using nothing but the reactions on their faces.

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"I can… solve this problem." Aisha growled. "You'll… be rid of me… just tell me where to go…"

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"I…" The elderly fey gulped. "It's… he's that way…"

.

.

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It was not difficult to find the issue. The reanimated corpses were… familiar, to say the least. It gave Aisha an intense sense of deja vu - turns out, the necromancer was not so isolated in his efforts in the forbidden arts…

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These reanimations were different. They had been cleaned, their skeletons on full display slightly yellow in color but looking well polished and maintained.

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Aisha had never felt the souls of the undead she had first fought, but even by observing the reanimated skeletons, she could tell something was different. Instead of a pulsing heartbeat, there was just a faint glow. And instead of a confused anger, they moved with a strange lethargy, their movements slow and aimless.

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Like they were… purposeless.

.

.

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"Hey!"

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"..."

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"Hey!"

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"...Wha?"

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"Your shoes!" The necromancer snarled, gesturing wildly at Aisha's feet. "Don't take a step further!"

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Aisha blinked, looking down at her feet. It was like they had carried her into the room without her knowledge. And well, to a certain extent, they did, but Aisha still felt, to say the least, disoriented.

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"...know about the secrets of the gods!" The robed man rambled on, gesturing wildly with his arms as he spread around various crystals and parchment, runes inscribed on literally everything in sight.

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Aisha had zoned out. She was… so tired.

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"...Reapers, mentioned in these texts, are the key to these secrets-"

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Wait, what?

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"They exist on a plane different from ours." The necromancer insisted. "It's not something you can see with your eyes, but when you're about to die - your soul knows! It starts to leave the body, and the reaction of your dying body - the eyes, the eyes begin to see into different planes! And this way-"

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"Wait." Aisha interrupted suddenly. "What are you doing?"

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"I am going to summon a reaper!" The crazed necromancer exclaimed, his excitement palpable through his wild gesturing, and wide eyes. "And I will bend it to my will! Such a thing has never been done before - I will be the first!"

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A reaper, huh. The man was clearly insane. But he was right, somehow.

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(Or maybe, I'm insane too.)

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Well, either way, she wanted to see what was going to happen. She was completely silent as the dirty, unwashed necromancer juggled around jars, chalk, all sorts of completely random items, seemingly with no relation to necromancy, or even to each other.

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An empty jar. An inert magicite crystal. A piece of parchment, with what looked like to be an entire jar of ink spilled on top, in a completely random splotch. A pen. A belt. A flask of alcohol. A pile of books…

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Aisha was starting to have her doubts about the ritual. But just as she was about to lose her patience and leave, a faint laugh echoing in her ears.

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She froze. Hallucination or not, the same desire to understand that plagued the crazed villager also crept its way into her mind.

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No harm had ever come from a bit of morbid curiosity, right?

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After what felt like ages, the man was done. At first glance, the setup before Aisha looked like merely a completely haphazard pile of miscellaneous objects, but having seen the necromancer place every object painstakingly by hand, there was a bit of a pattern in the madness.

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"Could you step over here, please?" He asked, waving towards a corner in the room.

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Aisha obliged, and-

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"Hey, what the-"

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Instantly, dozens of pillars of blue light erupted from the ground, the beams interlinking around her to create a latticed jail of pure energy. The gaps in the jail began to rotate around her, the transparent windows leaving little gaps in the jail for Aisha to glare at the necromancer.

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"So arrogant." He scoffed. "Did you really think that I was that insane?"

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Aisha narrowed her eyes. "No. Just stupid. This jail-"

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Aisha reached her hand forward, intending to jam her fingers into the barrier and tear it apart, but recoiled, surprised, when she met what felt like solid steel. Snarling, she tried again, using a bit more force, but was met with nothing but immense pain, as her hands were burned on contact with the barrier.

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"It's ancient magic." The necromancer explained, watching as Aisha clutched her burning hand, the skin rapidly rejoining "The same composition as the spells used by the gods."

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"..."

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"I would be surprised if even your demi-god could break it, outlander."

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Aisha just continued to glare at the man.

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"You will be a good sacrifice to the reaper." He breathed out. "I'm sure it will be dissatisfied without a soul… yours will do."

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"You don't know what you're doing." Aisha said, sitting down in her prison and closing her eyes.

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The necromancer scoffed, and before long, the room darkened as he began to chant, the runes and objects beginning to glow ominously. No, on second look, it was the opposite - rather than emitting their own light, the objects began to suck in the light around them, turning the room darker and darker, the trinkets themselves starting to turn black.

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Eventually, there was no light left in the room, and the air was frigid cold to match, like a cold mist. A very familiar sensation.

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A cage similar to Aisha's own erupted in the middle of the room, and with a unnatural crackling, space itself began to tear itself apart, a jagged crack appearing. Like a vacuum, a black mist began to spill forth from the tear, slowly coalescing into a solid shape.

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The mist condensed, first into a baseball-sized mass, but as more of the dense gas spilled through, the ball slowly grew bigger, increasing in volume at a slow rate, but quickly accelerating as the tear in space grew larger..

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Aisha frowned. The heartbeat she felt from the mass wasn't Feng's. Or rather, the fact that she felt a heartbeat at all…

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"Huh?" The necromancer frowned. "Something's wrong."

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Maybe she wasn't real after all. Everything pointed to her not being real. Maybe Sen wasn't real. It wasn't like she had any way to te-

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"Oh, it's been a long time since I've had to actually do my job…"

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Aisha froze as a hand reached through the portal, the sleek black gloves accompanied by the deafening sound of shearing metal. The sound of someone tearing through spacetime with their bare hands. And before long, two glowing red orbs appeared in the abyss beyond the rift.

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It was Feng. Or rather, Aisha knew it was Feng. The chilling air, that suffocating fear… that shrinking feeling… It was unmistakable.

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"Reaper of the underworld!" The necromancer cried. "You will do my bidding!"

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"How grandiose." The air whispered. "What makes you think I will oblige?"

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The eyes locked onto Aisha in her little corner, amused. Like they were mocking her.

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"You will tell me the secrets of the gods!" He demanded. "You are an ancient being, yes? I'm sure you will recognize Zaris's spell of ultimate oblivion!"

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The runes next to the binding jail glowed ominously, like-

"Yeah yeah." Feng sighed absentmindedly. "Hmph. You couldn't fathom the secrets of this world."

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"You have no idea what I've sacrificed to get here."

"I have known thousands of men who have sacrificed more." Feng said coldly. "You have no idea what I have seen… experienced."

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"Then you know-"

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"Yes yes." Feng interrupted, rolling her eyes. "Let's see… Then what if I told you… that I was older than Zaris?"

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"Don't lie to me. Do you think I'm a fool?"

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Feng laughed, a sharp sound that lasted barely a millisecond. "By twenty-three years."

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"Don't give me that bullshit!" The necromancer snarled. "Tell me what I want to know! I already know the secrets of your kind! I cannot kill you, but I can scatter your essence so thin, you won't join yourself together ever again!"

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"Serith was bisexual." Feng continued, her words clearly mocking and disdainful, but her face and tone completely stoic. "She actually created some of the races because she thought they were cute."

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"Enough." The necromancer sighed, frowning. "You are useless."

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"Everything I have said is the truth." Feng said, still monotone. "I told you that you wouldn't be able to handle it."

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"Go back to where you came from." The necromancer mumbled. "I will prepare the ritual again!"

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The necromancer scowled as he moved across the room, opening an old book to one of dozens of bookmarks, scanning through the page in a practiced motion, as if he had done so for many lifetimes.

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"Niko Sarvalis." Feng announced, to which an immediate reaction was evoked from the necromancer, his eyes panicked and wide. "346 cycles old. Vishaya by birth, but transmuted."

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The man's eyes bugged out of his head, wide and terrified. "How do you know-"

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"My job." Feng smiled lopsidedly. "Is not to reap souls… but to sustain the 'order' of this world. You are… what is known as an 'aberrant.' Someone who has lived for longer than they're supposed to… someone who is close to breaking this world's rules. If it were up to me… I wouldn't give a shit about what you did. But unfortunately. I have been once more tasked with the responsibility of a 'job.' So unfortunately, I am going to have to end you."

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"D-Don't you dare!" Niko narrowed his eyes, his voice even but his hands trembling slightly. "One step and there will be two great rifts in this world!"

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Feng didn't bother responding, instead reaching into her pocket with a hand, and in response, the necromancer hastily put his own hand on a slate, the runes outside of Feng's jail beginning to glow a brilliant, pure white, glimmering slightly in the darkness.

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But with a single wave of her hand, the runes went inert again. The rotating jail simply… disappeared with no trace, and with seemingly no resistance - it simply ceased to exist at Feng's beckon, like it had never even been there.

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As she advanced slowly towards the necromancer, he began to visibly panic, his body glowing bright blue as he attempted to throw a spell at Feng, palm outstretched in front of him.

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But nothing came out of his hand, and as the glow dimmed, Aisha, in her own cage, witnessed as the magics of the thing began to break down, drained away like it had lost power. Her arms and legs began to feel weak, and she was forced to drop to the floor on her knees - and soon, her breathing also started to labor, the air clean and full, but it was like no oxygen was actually getting into her lungs.

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Feng pulled her hand out of her pocket, revealing a long, black, L-shaped piece of metal, flipping a switch on the side and putting her index finger snugly on a lever.

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Aisha felt a sinking sensation in her stomach, looking at the object as Feng pointed the barrel of the gun at the necromancer's head. He looked utterly terrified, his magics rendered inert, and his stature completely dwarfed by Feng's massive seven foot frame.

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"I always hated this conscienules bullshit." She muttered, as she pulled the trigger.

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The sight of blood and brain matter splattering onto the floor was no new sight to Aisha. It was a sight that she had seen many times before, and a good portion of those times, she had been the one to cause it.

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But there was just something wrong, something so raw, about seeing Feng execute the powerless man, his limbs trembling and his eyes wide with fear. As he stared down the barrel of his death, knowing that it would come instantly, that there was no preventing it, that there was absolutely nothing he could do.

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There was no screaming. Little mess. Little effort. Perhaps that was the part that made Aisha sick to her stomach - Feng hadn't even so much as raised an arm. She had just pointed, and…

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Then it was over.

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Soon after, Aisha felt the strength return to her limbs, and the air return to her lungs. She shakily oriented herself into a sitting position, but decided against standing up. She held her breath, a little part of her hoping that Feng would just leave, without even acknowledging her -

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Hello, kid." She mumbled.

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"...Are you going to kill me?" Aisha muttered. "I'm an aberrant, right?"

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"That's true." Feng nodded, sighing as she placed a hand on the necromancer's body. Within a second it was completely gone - with no sound, no magic - it had simply been erased, like it had never even been there in the first place. "But I think you know very well that I have a soft spot for you."

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Aisha's mouth went dry, her hands instinctively reaching for the book she had hidden in the recess in her chest. "I…"

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"I know you have the book." Feng muttered. "What, you think I'm stupid?"

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"...No."

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"I will just take it off of you when you die." Feng sighed. 

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"...You can have it now, if you want…"

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"I don't… I don't really think I need to read it anymore. I was… I was there when he wrote it, so… that's enough for me." Feng said wistfully. "Besides… I'm not really interested in it while it's covered in your… juices."

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Aisha covered her chest shamefully.

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"I've been watching the whole time." Feng sighed. "And… well… I gotta give it to you, I was wrong."

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"...Wrong about what?"

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"You aren't like anybody that I've ever seen before." Feng mumbled. "There might be a happy ending for you yet. But for now…"

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"For now?"

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"I'm sorry about the way that things have turned out." Feng sighed. "I'm sorry for… how they are going to. I can no longer help you. You are an enemy of order, of eternity. And so this is the last time I can talk to you like this."

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"...You've been helping me?"

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Feng shot Aisha a sour look that could have corroded steel beams. Aisha shrunk a little.

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"The way that I see it." Feng continued, after a long pause. "In a few years… either you will be happily living out the rest of your life…"

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Aisha felt a sinking in her stomach. 

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"Or I will be forced to kill you."

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[

"Misswess?" Aisha play-mumbled.

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"Yeaaah?" Mistress giggled back, smiling brightly.

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"...I wuv you."

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Aisha's cheeks burned a deep scarlet as her heart pounded in her chest, resisting the urge to squirm and escape the burning embarrassment. It was insane, really. Just telling the big woman that she loved her elicited the same response as if she was jumping off of a high cliff.

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But she felt like she would have exploded if she didn't say it.

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Squirming wouldn't even have worked, though. Mistress's hold on her was tight, the woman's arms encircled around her chest and shoulders, and her head resting on Aisha's own. Overall, Aisha was completely trapped. Completely enveloped. Helpless.

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…It was nice. Aisha sighed contently, softly feeling the way that the woman's deep breaths made her chest rise up and down. So squishy. So fluffy.

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"You're so sweet." Mistress cooed back. "I love you too!"

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Aisha let out another deep breath, sighing contently as she turned her head slightly to the side, nesting the side of her face into those perfect pillows. Bliss. That was the feeling…

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Ah, she wished she could stop herself from squirming. She knew - they had been together for almost a year, and yet, she still couldn't stop her heart from racing, and her face from heating up. 

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Maybe it was for the best. Mistress did love to tease her, after all.

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"Mmmnnnn…" Aisha purred, contently. "Mnyahh…"

"So cute…" Lorian cooed back, letting out a deep breath of her own, resting her face on Aisha's head.

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And then, suddenly, Aisha frowned. It was just the smallest hitch in Mistress's breath, the slightest twitch of her mouth, but for Aisha, that was all she needed.

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"Is there something wrong?" She cooed, concerned.

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"Huh?" Mistress jumped slightly, surprised. "H-how- I mean… no…?"

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(There is definitely something wrong.) Aisha puffed out her cheeks, immensely proud in her ability to read her mistress.

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It was a small little victory in the game that Aisha was silently playing with her mistress - a competition of sorts…

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Fen would have called it silly. To compete with your own lover to see who loved the other more? Stupid. And Aisha, a few months ago, would have agreed whole-heartedly. But she was different now. She didn't really care about what anybody thought, save for her mistress.

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Yeah, she was a stupid, stupid, lovestruck little girl, but she was fine with it. She was fine being stupid - she was fine acting all lovey-dovey, and playing pointless little games, and wasting her time away just cuddling and hugging her amazing, loving, fluffy, warm-

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Aisha's cheeks burned slightly. But anyway… she was excited about the little victory. Mistress held all the power in their relationship - which of course, Aisha liked - but still, it was nice… Even if-

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"Oh, you look really pleased with yourself." Mistress smiled, half in amusement, half in irritation. "You look reeeeeeaallly proud of yourself."

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Even if it was a small drop in the bucket compared to the things that mistress could pull out of her.

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"Ehehe…" Aisha blushed sheepishly, unable to stop the corners of her mouth from curling up. "I just want… to help you… you know?"

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"Aren't you sweet." Mistress smiled, bright and genuine. "Okaay. Finee… I'll tell you."

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Aisha got into her best good girl listening position, her ears pointing straight up, and her posture nice and preppy. Mistress giggled at the enthusiasm, the melodic sound and response warming Aisha's heart.

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"I have homework." The big girl pouted.

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"..."

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"..."

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"...You're a student?"

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As her mistress's fingers came closer to her cheeks and ears, Aisha squealed in fear, quickly going on the defensive.

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"Wai-wai-wait! I-I-I'm sowwy miswess I was just joking!"

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"Hrrmmnnnn…" Mistress play-mused, the smile on her face betraying the act of disappointment. "Interesting."

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"You've never had homework before." Aisha said quietly, her voice gentle and curious. "Why now?"

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"Ah, well I usually finish it before you come home…" The warm girl mused. "I've never really had any trouble with it before."

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"Are your grades good?" Aisha asked, her mind struggling to recall anything that she knew about hume university. "U-um… I-I… I haven't gotten in the way of anything… have I?"

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"Oh no, it's pretty easy." Mistress smiled. "Straight A's."

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"You're so amazing, mistress…" Aisha blushed.

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"Aww! Thank youuu!"

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.

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After a good few minutes of pampering, Aisha suddenly found herself still in the lap of her mistress, but in a different room - they had moved to the bedroom, the wooden chair squeaking uncertainly under her mistress's massive a-

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"You're not thinking about…" She said dangerously.

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"Eep!"

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Mistress just smiled and pat her little kitten on the head, returning to the leaflet of papers in front of her, twirling her pencil in front of her absentmindedly.

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"So this is the problem." She explained, pointing to the blob of text in front of her. "Consider a graph in which any two distinct vertices have precisely one common neighbor. Prove that the graph has a vertex connected to all others."

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"Ah…" Aisha mumbled, her eyes roaming over the page. "Um… what's a graph… what's a vertex, and what's… a neighbor."

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"A graph is just a collection of vertices and edges." Mistress smiled, cuddling Aisha absentmindedly in her lap. "A neighbor is a vertex connected by an edge."

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"Oh… okay." Aisha mumbled, her eyes focused.

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"This is actually kind of a complex problem." The tall girl laughed softly. "And it's not due for another few days, so don't wo-"

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"The structure must be a triangle." Aisha mused. "Any more vertices and you break the one unique neighbor rule. Every single vertex has to have exactly two edges. A node can't have less than two edges because for any adjacent node, it must be both adjacent, and have a unique neighbor. A node also can't have more than two edges, because for every node connected, the selected node is the unique neighbor. But then there is no unique neighbor for the node and it's connected node. And adding a new node to fill the premise would violate our initial assumption."

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"...Whoa."

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"Next question pwease."

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It was only a few minutes before Lorian had finished the entire leaflet of half a dozen questions, meant to be mulled over an entire week.

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Finished in a single thirty hour session by a girl who had never even touched the subject before.

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"Wow, you're so smart." Mistress said, genuinely amazed. "You're like, a genius!"

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Aisha's blood suddenly ran cold at that phrase. 

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Oh no. It was just like - like in the clan… People were always so eager to coddle Aisha when they saw just a poor, stupid, helpless girl. But once they saw the intelligence, the calculating mind within, they quickly lost their interest. Like they were only interested in helping her because they thought they were smarter than her.

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Aisha bit her lip. She had never had a problem with it before - she had found the help… insulting. Condescending. She pushed away those people with ease, because she found the surprised looks proof of her intelligence. She wasn't helpless - she was just- just-

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She didn't want anything to change with her mistress! She wanted to be a pet - she didn't want to be treated with respect, or for her mistress to be scared of her - to be wary of her, thinking that she might not trust her! 

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She didn't want her mistress to treat her like she was smart. Aisha liked being pampered, being coddled. She shouldn't have asked to help - she should have just kept playing as that dumb, stupid, lovestruck little kitty-

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"You're so smaaaaart!" Her mistress giggled, fluffing and cuddling Aisha aggressively. "Oh woww! MY little genius. My smart little kitten."

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"H-huh?" Aisha said dumbly, blushing. "W-wwwww-"

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"Thank you for helping me with my homework…" The big girl cooed, smiling brightly as she peppered Aisha with kisses. "Now we can cuddle ALL day. Such a good little kitten."

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Aisha's thoughts were a literal mess. All that problem-solving skill just went straight out the window - she could no longer read her mistress - she could no longer analyze her behavior, or even the problems that she had literally done a minute earlier.

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It was like her mind had been stolen from her, by this big- big-

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Aisha blushed as she realized.

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That was right... how could you be afraid of something you owned?

]