Collide Gamer

Chapter 74 – Illuminare

They were not going where he expected. When Rave said she wanted to get stronger he had thought that there was a secret martial arts society or a cave filled with ancient spirits at the edge of town or…well some high-end fantasy thing. What he least expected and what he finally got was the most mundane of all answers: they were going to her house.

Rave turned the key and they stepped in. After a few steps, birthday crackers went off all around them. The air was filled with confetti and in the distance John heard a party horn. He could barely see anything. Only after the glitter started to gradually sink to the ground, could he make out the form of Regan Hollmey.

Dad Extraordinaire, Abyss Auction employee, Pun Master, 40k Tactics Genius, Rave’s father had many titles (many of them self-bestowed) he could decorate himself with. The ability to pull off a clown costume was not amongst them. This was partly because with his somewhat lean figure he just lacked the body type to do it correctly but mostly because of his inability to choose one clothing style and stick with it.

Regan may have worn the complete make-up of a clown and a fitting red and yellow shirt with bright blue buttons. He may have had proper, oversized gloves and a green vest over all of that. He may have made himself a living monument of the headache one might get when looking at contrasting colours…

…but the adidas pants, socks and sandals did not put the clown look together.

He adjusted his red plastic nose and said, “Tadaaa! Just for your birthday I came back early!”

“Does he do that every year?” John asked, thoroughly baffled.

“Ja, since the divorce.” Rave’s voice was loud enough that her dad could hear it. If there was any doubt she hated it, it was cleared out with that one sentence.

“Come on, Jane.” Regan came closer and attempted to hug his daughter, “This is a day of fun and festivities so turn that frown upside OOOOMPH!” That last sound was Regan getting punched in the stomach by his own flesh and blood. He flew back about two metres by the unexpected violence before coming to a halt and rubbing the impact spot. “On one hand I am very happy that my little girl can punch that hard, on the other I want to know what is going on?”

“I just had a very bad day.” Rave pointed at her dad with a disapproving look, “And we both know that I don’t like celebrating this day.”

“Well, yes, because we never really got around to it, your mother and I. I thought that I should make amends this year, you know? Little girls should have the-”

“I am twenty now.” She interrupted his defence. “No more little girl stuff!”

Regan seemed to shrink physically at that idea. “I just thought that with all the stuff that has happened lately and…” he mumbled.

Rave sighed and walked up to her tough old man. Slowly she dropped down next to him and put her arms around his chest. “I appreciate the gesture dad… but it’s really okay… you don’t need an excuse to come home early and ask for a hug.”

John felt a little helpless just standing there and watching a forty year old man blink back tears. For the moment his existence was ignored and that was for the best. He didn’t want to weigh in on it. Regan’s Adam’s apple bounced, as he swallowed and returned the embrace. Even in his ridiculous outfit, or maybe because of it, he looked like a proper father in that moment.

Eventually they separated and got up. “I still insist on getting you a gift,” he told her. Puffing out his chest, he tried to take on the appearance of the embodiment of fatherly love. In a deep, magnanimous voice he asked, “What do you want, young lady?”

“Illuminare.”

The single word caused an immediate shift in the mood. From sombre, to gracious and now to serious, nothing was working out like Regan had planned, John reckoned. The Abyss Auction employee reached into his pocket dimension and pulled out a handkerchief. After tossing the clown nose aside, he began to wipe away the make-up. Magic made the process swift. “So, you knew, huh?”

“Found it by accident,” Rave revealed.

John carefully interjected in the conversation, “Ehm, might I ask what this is about?” Illuminare sounded Latin and was probably the root word for illumination. It obviously had something to do with her light powers. Beyond that, he was lost.

“You have an earth elemental, right, John?” Regan asked. They hadn’t kept it a secret from him, so it was more of a rhetorical question. “Then you should be aware of the basics of elemental contracting?”

“The very basics,” John responded and searched his mind for anything that mapped onto this situation. “Sorry, but the book only outlined how to contract an earth elemental for people that have a weak Innate Ability or who develop a strong enough affinity to the element over their life.”

“Let’s go from there then: how do you think people with a strong Innate Ability handle contracting?” Regan asked.

“I’d assume it’s just easier?” John asked.

“Nah, people with strong Innate Abilities have elementals come to them. Illuminare is the product of a ritual that extracts some of the magical essence from a young person so they don’t attract elementals all the time.”

“If that’s not done,” Regan picked up from his daughter. “A young person might be harassed into making a contract wherever elementals can slip through the veil. This is doubly annoying because there are advantages to never making a contract at all. To keep one’s strength in one person or to divide it in two halves, greater than the sum but weaker individually.”

“What happens if that substance is lost?” John asked.

“Just need rigorous training to restore it. In the end, it fills a vacuum in the energy of the person that can be filled by hard work as well.” Regan turned back to his daughter. “Are you certain you want this? Your mother…” he stopped himself and shook his head, “…if I tell you what your mother would want, you’ll just do the opposite, won’t you?”

“Whaaaat, nooooo,” Rave sarcastically drawled.

Regan sighed, “Truth be told, I’d prefer if we waited at least another year, but with how things are going recently, you probably should have access to all you’re capable of…” Gesturing for them to follow them, Regan walked down the stairs.

“Another question: why are we doing this… now?” he asked, not sure if he should mention Rave’s brawl with Moira in front of her father.

“’Cause I thought I’d be fine without it and I was wrong… and maybe because I knew you were right… about Moira at least,” Rave let out a long sigh. “There was never a chance she’d try to cave my head in.”

“The Order messed with you?” Regan asked in a dark tone. “Do I need to remind them of their dependencies?”

“Daaaaad, I don’t wanna have your name hang over my head like some kind of protective charm.”

“That protective charm is not my name, it is the reach of the Abyss Auction.”

“Whatevs, nothing happened. If anything, I messed with her.”

They arrived in the part of the basement that was dedicated to Regan’s workshop. They would have been painting figurines today, if it hadn’t been for recent happenings. The glass case that held Regan’s numerous armies was also their target.

“Surprised you found this,” he admitted, as he took out a particularly large figure. Turning it around, he unscrewed part of the base and revealed a hidden compartment. In it was a vial, filled to the brim with golden, luminescent fluid. “I hid it here because I reckoned you would never check on it.”

Rave delayed her answer until she received the vial. “I did yoga down here one day and I accidentally toppled over the shelf and a bunch of your figurines broke and I just glued them with hot glue, okay bye,” she rattled off and darted towards the stairs.

“WHAT!?” Regan immediately turned and went on an inspection. “MY CHAPLAIN… JANE! JANE THIS WILL HAVE CONSEQUENCES!” John decided to follow his girlfriend while Regan was still busy checking all of the figurines he evidently never got to use in battles – which appeared to be most of them. “NOT MY BAAAANEBLAAAAAAAAAAADE!”

John almost toppled over laughing when he heard that particular outcry. ‘I have stage 3 meme damage,’ he thought. Rave held the door to her room open for him and closed it once he was inside. He fell onto the regular beanbag, as if he had just returned from some kind of heist. “What now?” he asked.

“Now I drink this stuff and hopefully something good happens,” Rave answered. She reached up and erected an Illusion Barrier. “Ouch… yeah, that’s the price of stupidity right there.” Putting soft pressure on her ribs, she jumped.

“You sure that’ll heal overnight? Should you maybe order a health potion or something?”

“I know you’re on fantasy game brain, but health potions are barely a thing,” Rave said. “Alchemy sucks in the Abyss. Most people just get stuff enchanted. It’s cheaper, more reliable, and permanent. Should really be fine if I just stay out of Illusion Barriers overnight. Gaia ain’t a charity, but she ain’t cruel either. Plus, I’m a sturdy gal. Now,” with a plop, she removed the plastic seal on the vial. “Here goes nothing.”

The liquid poured into her mouth quicker than gravity suggested. Then it seeped into her very being. It truly did look like a part of her essence was doing its best to return to her. Then, from one moment to the next, the room was filled with blinding light and hundreds of voices.

 “PICK ME PICK ME!” They said. ‘They’ being little hyperactive elementals, the size and form of lightbulbs, jumping around the room. “YEAH PICK ME!” One of them said in its squeaky little voice and jumped on Rave’s shoulder. “I AM-“

“ENOUGH!” That was a considerably deeper, male voice. The little elementals ceased their movements.

John’s eyes slowly got used to the light and now he was able to make out more and more of the elementals. They came in all shapes and sizes, the little lightbulb ones, walking candlefires, human and inhuman body shapes. John could have sworn he saw Lyra the Sunshard in there, as a religious Miracle Rogue Player that card made him envious of priests.

The elemental that had spoken stepped forth. He was absolutely not what John expected when he thought of a light elemental. The fantasy invoked was radiant and beautiful like the sun on a mid-spring noon. What he saw was surely radiant. Radiant, bulging muscles on a two-metre-tall bald dude made entirely out of golden light that glowed softly as he flexed his impressive biceps. “MHM! Let’s not make this beautiful flower…MHM!” He flexed again, this time with both arms, “Waste her time. Every elemental that thinks it can…MHM!” He turned and flexed his back muscles, “take ME on can stay, the rest scram…MHM! MHM! MHM!” He continued his flexing as one Elemental after the other left.

Lyra the Sunshard was not amongst the three that stayed. One was the bald man elemental, next one was a woman of cool beauty, pale as the moon. She wore a thin, dark blue dress that barely veiled her subtle curves. Last was what John could only describe as a cat made from sunlight, of golden fur with ever shifting copper stripes.

“I said only elementals of my strength or higher should stay, cat!” The bald one said. The cat didn’t answer, instead licking its left paw. “I said…!”

“You are out!” Rave said and pointed at the bald elemental.

“What…? But dearest Lightbearer, I am of great use in combat, I can protect you and aid you in your battles with my muscles of PURE LIGHT!” Puffing his chest out, he let the light of his pectorals shine everywhere.

“I don’t care, you’re rude to cats!” Rave decided and repeated, “You are out!”

 “But…”

“OUT!” The muscly elemental let its giant shoulders hang and dematerialized with a sad sigh.

That left the moonlight woman and the cat. John knew exactly what he would choose. The moonlight woman may not have the most impressive figure but there was grace in the slenderness. Plus, she smiled in a way that made his skin prickle whenever she looked at him. This wasn’t his decision though.

“So, what would you do?” Rave asked the moonlight woman.

“I would aid you from a distance, blind your enemies and protect you with shields of the moon’s light,” she answered and bowed. “It would be an honour to help you, Lightbearer.”

Rave looked at the cat last. “And you?”

The cat scratched itself behind its ear and yawned silently before answering. “I will give you the power to fend for yourself,” The cat spoke like it had already won the contest in a voice that was at the same time charismatic and slightly annoying. Its silver eyes blinked slowly, “You look capable so I will just give you a boost while I run around the world.”

That actually sounded a lot like what he expected of a cat. “Okay, you win.” Rave said to the cat. It looked very unimpressed.

“Just like that?” John asked, baffled, “Aren’t you going to min-max the gains and see what you need or how exactly he is going to ‘give you power’?”

“Nope.” Rave kneeled down and hushed away the moonlight woman who vanished with a scorned expression. 

“Indeed, a wise choice, my name is Copernicus and… IN THE NAME OF THE CELESTIAL DEVOURER WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

Rave picked the sun cat up and rubbed the sunny fur against her face. “Man, you’re soft. This is great.”

“You are right, wow, it is like I am touching a mixture of a heated cushion and….I don’t know something REALLY soft,” John marvelled.

“Unhand me at once, Lightbearer!” The cat continued its struggle, “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all….”

 “Well, you’re in it now, I already got your name. I am Jane Hollmey by the way so this contract is sealed.”

There was something in the air that shifted after she spoke those words. He couldn’t describe it but something about the world as a whole and Rave as a person felt slightly different than before. There was also a visible change in Copernicus. His cat form suddenly vaporized and became a streak of light that wrapped itself around Rave’s wrist as a copper accessory that depicted the solar system.

“Hey, change back…. What do ya mean you don’t feel like cuddles right now?! As your owner, I demand that…. Summoner, owner, potato, potato, now get out here so I can cuddle you!” Rave argued with her new wristband. Copernicus likely answered through their mental connection.

‘Huh, Gnome doesn’t change into an item,’ he thought. A look into his menu revealed Copernicus’ name underneath Rave’s in the same way Aclysia’s was under his. Well, if the group menu had changed, what about Rave’s Stats?

“Bullshit.” He said.

“What?” asked Rave.