The Smile

(Mallory)

How odd was it that coming to a sight where not one, but two World Announcements were made was a fairly regular occurrence for Mallory? Not for the past month, but suddenly today there were four new announcements, all costing the guild millions of gold coins in ad revenue. Which now that they were their own government, this itemized tax deduction did not matter as much, and was more of waste of paper, but still apparently part of the process as Mallory had already signed away the funds for the first two World Announcements earlier.

Still, the pixie was back for almost a full day, and here she was back to full force. But this time there was something different, at least that is what Mallory hoped, which was why she used her Guild related Teleporting to see what she hoped was there, a sight that she had slight warning of, but dared to hope she was correct. Upon exiting she was glad she listened to her gut, as she came to see ground zero, where she saw a smiling pixie. Not a smirking, not a pixie who was hiding her emotions behind a thinly crafted mask of fear. Rather, this was the smile of a pixie who not only changed the world, but was finally happy with the changes she made. Judging by the World Announcements, Mallory could guess why there was such excitement for this, rather than everything else she had done, but she wanted the pixie to explain it to her.

Sadly, it was only now seeing that expression that was normally plastered to her lips that Mallory realized how sad this sight was. Not that a smiling pixie was a sad sight, though normally it meant a lot of questions had to be asked in quick succession to avoid fallout and backlash, but in this case, there was also almost a broken sadness to the expression. One that almost hinted at the fact that Cass had been hiding behind a protective barrier, and only now started to show her true self again.

It didn't hurt that her smile was magical, literally it felt like rainbows and unicorns could come from that smile. Then again these were the effects of her auras coming back to life. As Cass had multiple Life Replenishing, Blight Obliterating, and Energy Generating auras that made the world seem warm and cozy. Also, it was clear that when she was happy, that is truly happy and not just faking it, the warmth from her auras felt a bit more relaxing. That is how the world felt now, like the first day of spring, after a particularly long summer.

Cass's change and actual smile was what caused her to pause and all but halt her movements. There had been signs that things were off with the pixie. While she normally didn't mind going around fixing guild issues, there were quite a few that came up with her seemingly self-assigned Daily Quest. A Quest that required her to do seven self-assigned tasks.

For a moment Mallory had thought the quest was completed and was about to wonder why the pixie had not turned in this quest, but then she read the fine print of subsection 'C' and had to pull a few favors to correct this before she tried and failed her turn in.

Hidden Daily Quest Accepted: Dr. Spiritlight's First Day Back, Super Duper Easy, Personal Checklist of Items To Complete Today (Timed): Dr. Spiritlight has taken seven primary and two sub-tasks needing to be completed, as part of her first full day back. Her goal is to complete seven primary tasks and two sub-tasks before midnight tonight. Current status: Personal Tasks Completed (7 / 7). Rewards: Experience, Further SVC Accreditation, Bloodline Awakening Perk, Personal Satisfaction of a job well done.

Time Remaining: 02 Hours: 13 Minutes: 42, 41, 40… seconds

Tasks still left to complete:

Inspect new hopeful students wishing to join SVC Minimum accepted (27 / 20), future reserved seats (5) Minimum Deolarian (12 / 10), Maximum students accepted (Less than 40), Teach morning Qi Classes (1 / 1), Teach your Magic Classes (2 / 2), Make amends with your Apprentice. Quality time spent (4:17 / 4:00) Visit the Supply Depot During standard operating hours, retrieve earned items. (Completed) Establish Raygunnr as the Teleiotís ambassador to the Midnight Hunters. (Ambassador 1 / 1) Have Raygunnr added as an inclusion teacher for Mana Language to beginners. (Mana Language Instructor (1 / 1) Fix three problems related to the war with the Legrand Empire (3 /3).

Failure Condition: Failure to complete all seven tasks in the allotted timeframe will result in the inability to provide Dr. Spiritlight with future daily motivations in the form of daily quests ever again.

Looking at the quest, Mallory realized that there was almost an issue where Cass had been a heavy tipper by accepting 31 Guild Members and 12 Deolarian without realizing that the third sub task was to make sure there were less than 40 new students. Meaning, it was either get rid of three and two from each group or pull a few favors with five guild members to avoid problems. The workaround was that all five reserve class members could still attend classes, but they would not count towards the active roster, at least not for the quest.

When it was pointed out that the graduation standards were the standards and based on learning unique and deeply intricate skills that so far only the Pixie had managed to learn and then teach others was required, then people were more appreciative of the stance. This meant they could effectively redshirt for an academic year, before they actually joined as true Freshman. When it was explained that way, the five reservists were more than happy with the accommodations provided.

The fact that Mallory had spent time trying to fix quests for her guild members was not an issue. What was an issue was the fact that Cass of all people seemed to be missing key details like that. Minor things, which wouldn't seem like much from anyone else, but from her they did seem to add up. There were also reports of her seeming to be off, not just from little Cassidy, the Spiritlight family caretaker. But from others who had external resources as well.

Most glaring was the fact that not even the other pixies, that is, Cass's clones smiled. It was slightly unnerving, here they were on what should be a normally happy and festive day, only to go around with upbeat, but not quite normally exuberant expressions on their faces. Then moments ago, that is before the not one, but two World Announcements went off, the pixy started to smile.

Mallory herself only caught the slight curving of lips for a moment, but it had caused her to be curious. Then seeing the back-to-back World Announcements forced her to use her daily Guild Teleportation.

World Announcements: Healing For All: Every sentient species of life now can learn self Healing spells and Classes. Warning: This might make certain encounters with Demonic and Corrupted beings far tougher in the future.

While Mallory couldn't directly say that Cass had been involved in that World Announcement, especially as it seemed to all but claim that the act happened organically, Mallory felt that Cass had to have been directly involved in that World Announcement. This feeling was only confirmed a moment later when she read the next and apparently linked World Announcement.

World Announcement: Rise of the Robealist: Rejoice Raygunnr of the Midnight Hunter's Guild has become the first true healer of the Teleiotís.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Again, Cass and the system seemed to be out of sync for her name wasn't on that announcement, not that it was needed, especially with how terrible of a name that was. Almost as usual, with how bad some of these names were, Mallory was almost going to harp on her terrible naming conventions. At least that was what she was going to mock at first, especially since she was so talented with everything magical that only the creation of names for what she created was her apparent hubris.

Then she arrived and saw Cass smiling, and suddenly her heart skipped a beat as it was the most beautiful sight she had seen in over a month. Her friend, the person that resembled how she imagined how her own daughter would have been here and was smiling.

"You're smiling?" Mallory blurted out.

Seeing her smile, the reason why she was smiling was clear, in her own way, she had used her abilities to once again make the world a better place. One where every form of sentient species could learn to heal themselves, even demons and sentient blighted monsters apparently, if that warning meant anything. Yet, that was okay, her friend was back, and most importantly she seemed bright and exuberant.

"I can," Cass began to defend her terrible naming conventions, but suddenly cut herself short as she realized it wasn't the name that Mallory harped on at first, but rather the fact that she was smiling, a warm sincere smile.

"Yeah, I do that sometimes," she replied sarcastically and like that Mallory felt herself lunging forward to hug her friend who was finally back.

"Please keep doing it," Mallory replied trying and failing to find the words as to why she was so happy that her friend was finally giving off her normally warm and eviting energy flows, showing that she is both alive and here.

"Yeah, okay…" was all Cass could reply as she gently patted Mallory on her back. With that one gentle touch, a wave of ephemeral energy and pixie dust coated her, letting her realize that she was back. Not fully, not her normally dust cloud of ephemeral energy being released with each touch or hug, but she was back, slowly but surely, she was back.

***

(Charlaine)

Meanwhile, Charlaine found her own return to be far different than the type of return Cass had been experiencing.

Slash, swipe, kill.

Experience Gained:

Well, her apparent ability of not being synchronized with the server was in full effect, meaning that no matter who or how much she killed, her level and expected power never went up.

Sizzle, burst, pop, bake, die, regenerate.

PAIN!

Also, it was clear that her Immortality was still in effect, meaning that even if she wanted to, she could not. Her body would just take longer and longer periods of time to reform itself, based on the sustained damage she received.

Still, this was not all bad, as Charlaine found herself growing in quite a long list of pain resistance skills.

New Skill Gained: Poisonous Air Resistance has reached level . Poisonous Air Resistance is a Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance based skill. New Skill Gained: Poisonous Mana Saturated Land has reached level . Poisonous Mana Saturated Land is a Dexterity and Endurance based skill. …

On and on the list went, the system was synchronized enough with her to let her realize that while she couldn't get an accurate depiction of where her stats were, or what her current levels were, she knew that she still felt the same level of power that she had earlier.

With all of her classes and hidden sub-classes added up she was well over level 200. Not that such levels meant anything when compared to someone who apparently managed to unlock the Royal Bloodline from near creation, as Dr. Spiritlight had. Nor was she blessed to have been adopted into the Spiritlight lineage, or any other powerful lineage for that matter.

No, all she had were the base Attribute increase that she gained from her classes leveling up, and whatever form of density she had gained while away with the supreme one. Now, regardless of however much she killed, acted, or completed; she could not feel the connection to the world. The increases that she expected to feel were gone.

Instead, all she felt was a long-lost link of longing connecting her to a distant planet far away.

Worse, the world didn't even give her an option. Well it did, but the option was terrible.

Hidden Quest Found: Renounce the False Queen: You have been bound by a deity not of this world. Renounce all connections with that false deity and allow yourself to be accepted back into the world. Rewards: Experience, Bloodline Perk(s), variable.

There it was, a message from the system, one that all but declared that the terrible state Charlaine was currently feeling and experiencing could be averted if she but renounced the one being who actually made the pain go away. That or her pain was minor in comparison to what it was now.

No, she couldn't go back to the way it was, not unless she was able to go fully back in time and erase everything.

That was why she fought on. Vaguely she realized she was in her home country, back in Timult, but it had changed. Like her, it was broken and destroyed. War had finally gripped its lands, something that she had feared for so long. Yet, now that it happened, Charlaine found that she didn't care.

The damage that occurred in Timult was not as bad as the damage that she had seen elsewhere conducted by the Legrand empire. Also, compared to what they were doing. Compared to the veritable oasis of life that the great one had started on the other planet, life here was amazing. Here the atmosphere didn't have a chance of going haywire every few minutes. Here, there were seasons. Here there was hope.

That was why she couldn't give up on the great one. She couldn't give up like everyone else had, like the pixie had. For there she was doing something that mattered, and she would do anything to make it so her new mother, the one who cared for and nurtured her could live in peace. In a world that wouldn't slowly rot away from the core again.

Slink, slice, splash.

Right now, there was just one thing guiding Charlaine, a beacon of hope. A distant destination that glowed to her senses letting her know exactly where the pixie was.

Slop, splash.

With each step forward, her body produced liquids that either oozed puss or bled. Her life here was misery, but that only fueled her forward. Occasionally monsters would find her and try to strike her down, which would only last for a moment until her unnatural regenerative abilities kicked in, forcing her back to life and to consciousness.

With each step, she remembered how much she hated the pixie, and how good it was to see her suffer each day. A fate, she would gladly subject her to once more, once they were both reunited.

Floop, fwip, fwoop.

A metallic arm sliced through her body, causing her head to be ripped apart from her spine. It was painful, but nothing too major for what she would have to endure if she let herself stay here.

"Death would have been a mercy," Charlaine said to herself, as she felt her body once again reform itself only to let her get up and begin walking forward again. By now she was tired. Tired of fighting, tired of pain, and there was only one way to end her now constant torment.

"I'll get you, Cassiopia Spiritlight, and you made it so it would never be the last thing I did," Charlaine hissed out as her feet began to sizzle and bake on the loose fitted Blighted sands. The moment her feet finally felt the all familiar loose sands suck in and devour her feet up to the ankles, she felt a momentary reprieve hit her, as she felt like she was back home again.

Somehow, someway, the cursed sands that made up the Blighted lands felt like home. There was likely something to this, something deeper, but right now all Charlaine could do was continue to walk slowly, putting one foot forward in front of the next. All in an attempt to get to her one true quest location.

As she trudged forward, a smile crested Charlaine's lips as she realized that soon this nightmare would be over.

***

(Cass)

Sudden Chills

You ever have one of those thoughts that creep you out. You know one of those moments where you are thinking about things that probably shouldn't be thought about, then you cause a shiver to run down your own spine? I think I just had one.

"You okay?" Penelope asked, concern evident in her voice.

Of course, she would ask, she is by far the most observant. I almost want to deny, not that I wasn't discomforted by my own thoughts, I was, but the fact was that my own thoughts caused me to momentarily shudder.

"I'm fine," I answer honestly, though I still twitch as I was for a moment concerned about the thought.

"You can tell me, you know?" She asks, and that's when I feel really bad, because I see that she does care and that she knows I momentarily spooked my own self.

"It's kind of stupid," I admit.

"No, nothing is stupid, so long as it is actually bothering you, you can tell me."

Like that, I feel guilted into answering, regardless of how stupid my fear was.

"It's stupid," I protest.

"I promise I won't think it's stupid," Penelope replies.

Big sigh. I try to reign in exactly how my mind got here and honestly, I'm a bit confused myself. See it all started with me having a sudden fear of what could be worse than a giant intradimensional rift monster coming to attack and terrorize the planet. Then I imagined such a vastly large cosmic horror would likely come with a bevy of different and exotic creatures just feasting off of it, which is how I answered honestly.

"Okay, if you really want to know, I was concerned about cosmic void fleas," I responded.

"Cosmic void fleas?" Penelope asks a bit incredulously. I nodded, in agreement, not wanting to have to say that again, but she did push me. She pauses for a moment, then she continues, "okay, can I ask how you got there?"

"Well…"

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