Completed [Mamoru's Cave] What Sorcery Is This?! (Mamoru)

[Soshakuakamamushi]

Residential Wing, 22nd of Bell, 5th of Fall 513 A.V

It was late at night in Zinrah, she should be having her "beauty" sleep right now, but instead, she was wide awake like a nocturnal animal. In her cavern-room, Aka was in her red viper form, glistening red scales with black spots under the glowstone's light. She looked over to the cage, finding Yuki to be sleeping peacefully. Just yesterday, Aka just found out that she was not the only Viper in this nest of full of giant Constrictors. Another Viper who called himself "Jorin" was talking to her slave just outside of the tunnel's entrance. Thinking that Jorin might "steal" Yuki away from her, Aka's possessiveness kicked in and she childishly "defended" her doll.

But still, she was really happy to know that she was not a lonely Viper in this foreign land, she should be sleeping peacefully, but... she didn't and she knew exactly why. It was Mamoru, the Constrictor that "invited" her to Zinrah, saving her life from predators and Myrians and sort of capturing her in the process. Their relationship was kinda odd, were they master and slave? Comrades? Rivals? Or even... lovers? Aka didn't know for sure, not with how mysterious Mamoru was acting, not only to her, but basically to everyone.

He also got this strange powers that confused her to no end, he could seemingly conjure random events to happen just by willing it alone, she also found his voice to be irresistible, no matter how she resisted, Aka ended up following his commands in the end. Just like how we first met... our duel... our joint patrol... what did Master exactly do? Her curiosity was killing her. Aka had almost non-existent knowledge about subtle magics like Hypnotism, that was not Galbern's main expertise and she wasn't listening when he lectured her about the various known magical disciplines. Aka was all about "action" and zero "theory", this was why she struggled even to learn the basics of world magic like Glyphing.

She was also not aware of the fact that Mamoru was a child of Ionu, all she knew that Mamoru could change his body shape, well... out of the Dhanis three main forms. It was Morphing, she just knew that one could change body shape unnaturally with it, but she didn't know the details nor on how to exactly do it.

All of this combined made the Viper restless, she wielded the power of elements and - just recently - basic glyphs, but she found Mamoru's abilities to be disturbing yet... compelling at the same time. She wanted to find out more so deciding against her better judgement, Aka slithered from her bed roll and began transforming to her human form.

After thirty ticks, the short girl with waist-length black hair and scarlet eyes replaced the red Viper. Aka then took her simple black dress and red sash, directly wearing it over her bare body without any sort of underwear. It was her common getup, undergarments would just hinder her transformation process, she would rip them anyway if she switched to her dhani form. Steeling herself, Aka stepped out from her cavern-room, leaving the sleeping slave alone.

A few moments later, Mamoru's Cave

She was near now, just a few more steps and she would arrive at Master's cave. Aka gulped, for some reason she found meeting him tonight to be intimidating, she usually shot him snide remarks and acted defiant, but it was not the case that night. Maybe it was because she was the one who approached him on her own, most of her shenanigans with Mamoru so far was instigated by him. Still, she had come all this way, it would cowardly for her to turn away, she was not a coward.

"M...masster, are you there?" Gods, she stuttered, if Mamoru was in there, it would make a bad first impression. She stepped into the cave and looked around to see that if the constrictor was waiting for her or something, she expected that.

[Kalesserimamoru]

Mamoru had been inside his cave for hours alone while in deep meditation. The time was soon to arrive when he was ready to put the first steps in his plan into the works, and he needed something different. The trickster needed a new face, one that no Myrian or anyone else had seen before. A new identity to go along with the illusion of another race creeping it's way into Falyndar. He needed something fierce, something that would strike terror into the eyes of others, or at least a face they wouldn't forget.


He sat in the middle of his floor, legs crossed and arms resting on bent knees. Eyes close, the Dhani first focused his mind to see the image of what he wanted to create in his own flesh before he started. For a while he sat in silence, taking the image through his mind and exploring every detail that he could see in the design to make it more complete and real. His first steps were to create his new body, a body larger and more intimidating than his own while in human form. Concentrating his djed, Mamoru willed the essences from within him, letting it paint his flesh in tiny speckles as sweat would and soak into his muscles and bones.


The bones in his body first started to harden and grow inches thicker. His height would stay the same, the Dhani was already tall and didn't have the need to become a giant. The muscles beneath his flesh twitched and grew stronger. The meaty substance bulking and causing creases and knots to form inside his flesh. His back became a rippled maze of small mountain shapes carved into his body, and his chest squared in line with the doubling muscles that rolled up his belly. The hair on his head receded, crawling up his back and back into his scape leaving his head bald and clean. His facial features would also change, eyes were dunked into his head and widen further award, a thicker more noble shaped nose grew into his face and his jaws and lips filled out above his chin.


He was now a new man, a face not completely unlike Mamoru, but made from the trickster and sculpted into something else. Popping his knuckles, the Dhani moved no other part of himself. The pants that he wore fit tighter around his waist now, and he could feel the fabric tightening around his thighs as well. This was the beginning of something new, an alternate being who's sight was set on one thing only. He continued his work, recalling to mind a armored plated helmet that he had used before and had worked out to his advantage. A row of spiked-tipped bones slowly pierce the skin at the top of his head, and as they grew in one after the others, they created a line that extended down to the back of his neck.


The formation continued upon his brow were the spiked tipped bones evened out into a flat plate at sat upon the bridge between his forehead and nose. The facial structure continued down where it encase his nose and mouth behind a thick wall of bone with canines on each side of the box with tiny whole, that allowed him to breath easily through the mask. The filling at the jaw continued around until the bone jaws were connected with the rest of the helmet, leaving only a patch of flesh around each eye socket open. A face they would never forget, a face that brought terror. It was almost perfect, just a bit more work and..


There was a voice at the entrance, disturbing the trickster, who released his djed and allowed his natural form to resurface. Still he didn't stand, or even look back, he knew that voice easily enough, the only question was. "Iss there a reasson you are bothering me?'

[Soshakuakamamushi]

"Haaa-?!" Looking at Mamoru's terrifying morphed form, Aka gasped and put her hands to her mouth, it was obvious that her master's ability at altering his body was far higher than Jori. He looked like he was a literal killing machine, Aka closed her eyes and looked to her side, no matter what she did, she would always be intimidated by the Constrictor.

"Iss there a reasson you are bothering me?'

That question must be directed at her, who else? Aka summoned her courage and tilted her head to face him once more, opening her scarlet slitted eyes. "*Gulp*..." She made an audible gulp, this was not going good. She was at his home turf and in this particular case, she was the one approaching him. "W-well... I uuh..." Come on! Get yourself together! "..wass jussst wondering... I... I know that y-you are a mage asss well, Massster..." She made another gulp, if she was a warm-blooded person, she would be sweating by now.

"B-but uuh... our powersss are different, I can't seem to figure out yoursss, you can... conjure strange eventsss to happen. How do you do that? It couldn't be your morphing power. Also, y-your voice, there'sss something ssstrange behind it. What isss it?" Aka was rather naive to think that Mamoru would answer her right away, but there was no turning back now, she decided to plow on. "You can tell me, right? Perhapsss, you know, you can teach me about it then I can teach you about my reimancy! And oh, I also learned some Glyphing a while back." There, that should be a good enough offer.

Aka was also checking her rear just to make sure Mamoru didn't cause the entrance to his cave to disappear or something. Getting trapped here with him would not be a good experience. With Mamoru, she could expect any kind of things to happen, such as Myrians suddenly falling from the ceiling of Zinrah.

[Kalesserimamoru]

Mamoru sat completely still, his gaze cast towards the wall in front of him. He looked as he did in human form now having released his morphed form, returning him to the long hair and pale skin that he was known for. The fire spitting viper was behind him and she had to be up to something. She had to be, calling him master and talking sweetly as if to say they had that sort of relationship. A trickster she was not, and it would take a lot more to fool him, if that was her aim.


"A mage am I? Hmm..and here I thought I wass jusst a guard for the nessst."


There was a sarcastic tone to his voice, and yet he didn't laugh and barely cracked a smile. He knew there was a reason for the visit, but he didn't see it at first. And then, it was there. The reason that she had come was to learn about his abilities. But for what purpose, it was hard to tell what her mood would be from day to day, and when she would try and attack him again. Not the smartest viper in the nest, he wasn't sure if she even thought of the trouble she'd be in if she killed a guard in the nest?


"Ooooh, you mean thossse little thingsss. That wass nothing at all. A bit of persuassion here, a bit of hypnotissm there. Ssimple sstuff really. Iss there a reasson that you assked? Did you want to know?"


Finally Mamoru spun around, keeping legs crossed and knees bent the whole time. He turned to face Aka, a somewhat bored look upon his face before he finally stood up to stretch his limbs. "What isss it Aka, have you grown bored with your fire worksss?"

[Soshakuakamamushi]

"......." Naive though she was, Aka still knew Mamoru was being snide. It was clear as day to her that he was a mage. What kind of a "just guard" was able to alter their body shape like it was clay and had magical whispers capable of swaying thoughts? She wanted to shoot him back with a witty remark of her own, but she was in his turf now so she kept herself in check. Her rubbing her right arm with her left hand was a clear indicative on how nervous she was.

Hypnotism... If Aka had suspicions before, now that suspicion was completely and utterly crushed when Mamoru directly admitted that he used hypnotism. Aka felt offended, he had been playing with her emotions with his magic all along. She grumbled and looked to she side "Pleassse don't use that on me again..." She muttered under her breath, in a dilemma whether to tell Mamoru and keep it inside her.

"*Gulp*..." Another gulp as Mamoru turned himself to face her, she was destroying her own position. That face of him would forever be branded inside her mind. She looked down, breaking eye contact with him. "Y-yess... I want to know. N-no! My fire isss fine! It'sss asss powerful as ever!" She steamed, Mamoru had hit a sensitive spot. Her reimancy was one of the things she could be proud of, she definitely couldn't count on her early-middle teen human body to impress people.

Aka dared herself to approach Mamoru and sat down in front of him, her scarlet slits finally facing off with his light golden brown and black slits. The difference in height and stature was clear, Aka had to straighten her back and look up to meet his face. "Those powersss are definitely ussseful.... we can help each other, you know? You can teach me thisss Hypnotism and Morphing of yoursss... and I can teach you Reimancy. I don't know about Glyphing much sssince I jussst learned it... but I can tell you the basssicsss." She was really intrigued by hypnotism because it seemed to allow Mamoru to conjure strange events to happen around him, possibly messing with her had. Little did she knew it was because some other power.

[Kalesserimamoru]

"Didn't anyone ever tell you never to jump to conclussionsss?" His features were as stone, no emotion in his express, but a tint of malice gracing his pale golden eyes. "You think that I hypnotized you? Why? Becausse I am aware of the magic?" he scoffed and released a whispered breath of boredom. "Why would I need to use magic on you when you already belong to me?"


He moved a bit closer to her, grabbing her tiny ankle and drawing her even closer. He didn't imagine that she would try anything at this range, unless she wanted him to rip her leg off, or sling her across the cave. "You aren't here becaussse of hypnotissm, you are here becausse I saved you from the wildsss, from being Myrian lunch. For thiss act, and allowing you into the nesst...you Aka, are mine." A sickly innocent smile rose upon his lips then and he gave her ankle a light squeeze to remind her that he had hold of her.


"I don't need hypnotissm for that and bessidesss, if I did hypnotize you. I sshould think you might actually obey me...wouldn't you?" He let the question hang openly in the air, curious to see what her answer would be.


Releasing her leg, the trickster rested his hands in his lap and stared at her, moving his eyes over every inch of her tiny frame. So small, smaller than any constrictor that was for sure. But like those around him and himself, she wanted more power. "Ssoo, little Aka wants to learn Hypnotissm and Morphing, hmm? Thosse are very fine magicss indeed. But tell me, why would I teach you thisss? I know a bit of Reimancy mysself, and no my powerss aren't ass sstrong asss yourss but that iss becausse I don't prefer thiss magic...far too messsy."


A load yawn burst from the trickster and he suddenly fell backwards and laid still on the ground, while his eyes stared into the darkness above them. "What essle can you offer?"

[Soshakuakamamushi]

"Wha-? Belong to..." She gritted her teeth, Aka knew that, she knew that her life was claimed by the constrictor. She belonged to him in a way, it was logical, one saved someone's life, one had the right to declare ownership. They were both dhanis, she could understand that logic, heck, she even did the same with Yuki. Still, hearing those words from a male Dhani hurt her female pride. She was supposed to be the one owning him, not the other way around. Aka looked down to the ground, this visit might had been a bad idea after all, it was turning into a "moral" lesson.

"Masss...ter." Hissing as her ankle was grabbed by his large strong hands. His towering presence became too close for comfort. His grip was comfortable, yet held enough power to tell her he could end her right then and there should she tried anything funny, it all became the more pronounced when he tightened it. "...." She broke eye contact, unwilling to answer his declaration of ownership, mainly for the fact that he was right.

"Ssso all thisss time, you didn't... hypnotize me?" That brought a wave of frustration upon her. Was she so weak-willed that even his normal voice could sway her emotions? She sighed in depression, her body hunched down in defeat. The sliver of pride she had inside herself was snuffed out. She couldn't believe Mamoru didn't manipulate her using magic, she felt so pathetic.

His next words made her feel as if she was witnessing him ripping apart what offer she had left. He wasn't interested in her reimancy, calling it "messy". Aka so wanted to rebuke that statement. Reimancy was a wonderful magic, it could be subtle, flashy, small, large, neat, or messy depending on one's way of use. It just so happened Aka's expertise was in blowing and incinerating stuffs up, well other than the boring job of building tunnels.

"What elsse can you offer?"

What else? She had almost nothing, she wasn't about to lower herself by offering her body. Not that Mamoru would be interested anyway, any male wouldn't be, she looked like a girl who just left her pre-teens. One hundred and ten years of living... and she was still tiny and utterly lacking in endowment. Oh! There was one final thing... her agility and acrobatics, the way she could strike faster than the blink of an eye in her Dhani and snake form, the way she could traverse through obstacles with fluid movements.

"Massster, I also can teach you the way of the acrobat. You'll be untouchable! And no obstacle shall hinder your path." She exaggerated, she was not skilled enough to be untouchable. If Mamoru also refused this, she got nothing left, she would be forced to leave his cave feeling defeated and useless.

[Kalesserimamoru]

Many people knew of Mamoru, fewer claimed to understand him, and even lesser were correct. Morgana saw her younger brother as being lazy, never wanting to get directly involved and only putting in effort when he had too. She was half right, and the trickster only put forth effort with things that he really needed to, but there was a reason. Much like with their beloved Queen, she didn't get directly involved with the goings on in the nest. No, she had others to do that for her.


Mamoru saw this and he understood. It wasn't that he wanted to be wanted to be the leader of Zinarh, no that title was for someone like his sister. Mamoru only saw the truth in the method, one could accomplish more from a distance than by being on the front lines. Dhani died many times over at the hands of Myrians, it wouldn't make since for him to put his life at the front of dangerous always and without consideration. Such rash actions would lead to his death as well. When it came to Aka, and those like her, he looked to find usefulness in them, something that he could use for his own plans in exchange for whatever he had already done for them.


"Fair enough, I will teach you in exchange for your acrobaticsss."


Aka was talented for sure, that was why he wanted to keep her around. She had powers that he didn't, but he was more wanting to get her to use those for him instead of him learning them from her. The learning process would take much longer than the time it would for him to launch a plan and have her put it to use. Her proposal as it was seemed to lack a few things, but he did see another opening that could be useful.


"Sshall we sstart with hypnossisss then?"

[Soshakuakamamushi]

"Fair enough, I will teach you in exchange for your acrobaticsss."

That brought a toothy grin to the Viper, complete with her - unconsciously - scooting nearer to the Constrictor. Mamoru had accepted her proposal! She felt proud of herself, Aka didn't think about Mamoru's reputation as The Trickster, her growing excitement disallowed her to look further beyond Mamoru's interest in acrobatics. "Awesssome, Massster, hehehe~ What would you teach me firssst?" She let him took the lead, Aka was gidding in anticipation, what magic would he tutor her first? Hypnotism, Morphing, or some other hidden skill that he kept in secret?

"Sshall we sstart with hypnossisss then?"

Oh, Hypnotism it was then. Aka smirked, confident she could learn this magic in a flash. It didn't look too difficult, just talk smooth and flow djed into your words, right? It was like res, but one used it to manipulate voices instead of elements... or so she thought. Looking up to the tall Constrictor in human form, Aka brought one of her pigtails to the front in an attempt to ease her anticipation. Just thinking about the deeds she could perform, she may even drive Senka to submission just by commanding her alone.

"I'm ready! Ssshow me what I mussst do!" She confidently declared with a drop of smugness. How hard could it be?

[Kalesserimamoru]

A devious smile spread across his thin lips as the trickster sat up again and faced Aka. His eyes were still, focused and pouring into the girl without a single blink. If she wanted to learn the magic he would show her as he had said..but, there was always a price...a hidden price. Slapping his hands together, the Dhani rubbed at his pale flesh for a moment as he willed his res to form and ripple off them. His fingers moved back and forth, two in, two out, thumb up, thumb down. The res sunked into his palms and as he slapped his hands together a second time, he pulled the res into a pancaked shape that he transmuted into water.


"Eyess on mine....Aka. To usse thiss magic you have to be able to concentrate, and block out all elsse in the world around you. For...how can you expect to get into the mindss of othersss if you're own issn't clear and focused. "


Mamoru continued to work his res, the dripping water from his fingers soon began to pour, and a small puddle formed on the floor between them. The trickster's eyes never left hers as he spoke and his features remained blank. "You have to be able to look passssed thiss place, me, the water at your feet and see only your objective."


The trickster turned his palms in, tightening his fingers into fist causing another ball of res to shape itself into a watery bubble and burst right between them. Even now Mamoru's eyes didn't flinch and stayed on the viper in front of him. "Control yoursself firsst and then you can control otherss." releasing his res, the Dhani waited to see if she had anything to add, she normally did, and once her questions were answered he continue.


"Learning thiss magic takess a lot of meditation on the part of the usser. Once you are able to look passsed the walls of your flessh, you will be closser to undersstanding. Luckily for you, I have found a way to...quicken the processs. I will put you under hypnosisss and through that you can better understand..ready?"