Chapter 21: Fight or Die

Time to change things up. Running around and hoping the thorns would solve all of her problems wouldn’t work. That was just scratching and annoying Christena.

Changing her strategy was easier said than done, though. It’s not like Addie could summon giant fireballs and fling them around like Christena could.

Instead, Addie grabbed a stick on the ground. Then, she continued running. Addie easily dodged through the forest and the bramble patch until she reached a somewhat open clearing.

As soon as she reached the clearing, Addie stopped and turned around. She brandished the stick in front of her.

“What are you going to do with that stick, Addie? Hit me with it?”

“Yeah,” Addie responded with all the earnestness of a child. Then, she entered Realmspace.

Before Christena had time to react, Addie was already behind Christena, swinging the branch right for her abdomen. It connected with Christena’s side before she even noticed Addie was behind her, making a loud crack. Christena let out an ‘oomph’.

Addie got ready to swing again and hit downward toward Christena’s head, but by then, Christena had already turned around completely. She didn’t use magic to block the branch, instead, Christena simply dodged to the left. Addie still managed to clip a bit of her arm, but it didn’t look like it did much.

To avoid any retaliation, Addie jumped back into Realmspace, this time aiming to appear by Christena’s side.

Why isn’t she using any more of her magic?

As soon as Addie reappeared, it seemed Christena was a bit more ready this time, as she jumped back immediately before Addie even had a chance to swing the branch at her.

Addie got ready to make another jump into Realmspace, but as she activated her magic, she felt a brick wall, just like the one from the basement, keeping her from pushing her magic outside of her soul. Addie bit her lip in frustration, Christena shouldn’t be able to do that!

It was fine, she already knew what to do to counter that. Addie pushed the building magic in her soul outward, targeting Christena. The former maid poofed out of existence, and Addie stood ready by the spot where she’d disappeared.

When Christena came back to reality, Addie was ready for it and swung the branch with all of her might. A few things happened at once: The stick hit Christena on the shoulder so hard that the stick broke in two. Addie noticed another white star floating near Christena, and it shot out toward Addie the moment Christena came back to reality. Christena shouted out in pain with a flinch from Addie’s strike, and the white star flew out and hit Addie on the forehead, knocking her to the ground. Strangely, it didn’t burn at all, it felt more like a light shove unbalancing Addie and forcing her to fall down.

Even if it was just a shove, Addie still hit the ground harder than she would have liked, and she gasped as the wind was knocked out of her, landing on her back. Checking with her spatial sense, Christena was also still at least recovering from the pain in her shoulder.

With urgency, Addie took in a big gulp of air, forcing it back into her lungs. She sprang to her feet with a powerful jump while she still had the chance. Luckily, she had finally led Christena to exactly the spot she wanted.

With a big jump, Addie reached out to the nearest branch of the gigantic silver tree, even though she had no hope of actually making the distance. So what? She didn’t need to make the distance in this plane. She could climb even higher with magic, just like Squishy did last time.

Addie passed into Realmspace and nudged the alternate dimension in just the right way, focusing her magic in the same way she’d watched Squishy do. Realmspace wanted Addie out, and with a clever application of will, she convinced Realmspace’s membrane to eject her out with an upward force. With the push of Realmspace helping her, when she appeared back in reality she launched herself high up into the air.

From Christena’s perspective, Addie would have simply ceased to exist, then reappeared three meters higher, easily making the distance to the lowest hanging branch on the tree.

Tree branches poked out at Addie when she came back to reality, scratching her torso as pine-like needles tickled her nose. She reached out quickly and held on to the first thick branch her hands found. She tumbled for a bit as gravity tried to drop her, and she almost panicked when her first handful of tree only gave her sappy hands and spare pine-y needles. Luckily, it only took another moment to get a stronger grip on the branch. Successfully way high up in the tree, she took a moment to look below.

She quickly spotted Christena, who had recovered from the Addie’s magic, now using her hand to block out the morning Binary light as she stared directly up at Addie. In response, Addie stuck her tongue out at the former maid.

“Bleh!” Addie shouted down.

Before Christena could so much as scold her rude behavior, Addie reached into her pocket and grabbed one of the tiny pebbles. She swung her arm as fast as she could before letting the tiny stone go.

For a moment, Christena stared at Addie, baffled, at Addie plan. Addie’s aim hadn’t been that great, and the rock missed Christena by quite a margin. Either way, her proof of concept was sound, and Addie smirked.

A huge smile adorned Addie’s face as she grabbed two big handfuls of pebbles out of her pockets and then threw them. Christena was met with a dangerous shower of rocks.

Christena quickly raised her arms up to shield her face in anticipation of the coming rocks. Seeing that Christena didn’t use any magic to shield herself filled Addie with hope. Besides, she was safe up here way up in the tree!

“You’re all out of magic, aren’t you!” Addie shouted from up in her tree triumphantly. “Dad’s gonna find us, and then he’s going to beat you!”

Christena frowned, “I might be out of magic, but you’re also out of rocks!” Then she tilted her head and put a finger on her chin, looking up with a sly smile twinkling in her eyes. “And besides, I don’t need any magic now.”

Addie scrunched up her face. Sure, she didn’t have any more rocks to throw, but that didn’t matter if Christena couldn’t get up here. Addie had the advantage, she just had to wait. But, Christena didn’t seem to think this was over so easily.

Christena reached into her maid’s blouse, digging around in her pocket. Then, with a flourish, she showed off a blood red, polished stone figurine in her hand. “Recognize this, Addie?” Christena asked.

Her heart began to race a bit, nervousness creeping into her as she stared at the bauble, the same one that looked just like Fluffy. But, it was just some rock, barely a paperweight, right? Or at least, Addie tried to convince herself of that.

“Here, catch!” Christena shouted, rolling up her arm for a throw.

The polished bauble launched through the air, reflecting the binary light with a bright shine for a single moment.

If this was Christena’s plan, it wouldn’t work! Addie relied on her spatial sense, focusing on the bauble’s exact location. Except, it didn’t fly through the air in a straight line like she expected. Her spatial sense seemed to track it through the air in slow motion, watching as it curved to the right, trying to hit Addie. Just before it touched her, Addie leaned far out of the way— but it didn’t help. The bauble also curved, just as much as it needed to, before smacking right into Addie’s forehead with a thunk.

At the moment it hit her, the bauble sucked out all of the rest of Addie’s magic, making her feel faint as she wobbled on the branch. She didn’t even have time to be afraid, the next thing she knew, she was falling out of the branch, her body drained of energy and her soul drained of magic.

When she landed, she had expected to hit the ground hard, perhaps even breaking a few bones or at least having the wind knocked out of her. Instead, Christena had run forward to softly catch Addie in her arms.

Instead of saying anything, or gloating like Addie had expected, Christena just let out a breath of exhaustion, as if she was glad to finally be done with all of this.

Terror threatened to well up from Addie’s chest, but her soul wasn’t hurt yet, she could still push out something! She got ready to pull on the last vestiges within herself—

Christena flicked Addie’s forehead, making her lose all of her concentration. For a moment, Addie lay there, dazed, her magic knocked out of her. The forest seemed to spin around her, the trees blurring into streaks of green and brown. She tried to push herself up out of Christena’s grasp, but a nauseating wave of pain washed over her, so intense that her vision whited out for a second.

For some reason, Christena was making a face that Addie knew well. That was the sympathetic expression Christena always used whenever Addie hurt herself on accident. Except, this time it was Christena who had drained Addie like this.

“Squishy, I need you” Addie sent out across the bond connecting the two of them.

Addie could faintly feel his presence, but he seemed distracted or maybe preoccupied. Whatever was happening back in the basement, he couldn’t make it to Addie in time. Regardless, Addie thought she heard a whisper from him, an apology.

Why won’t he come? I thought we were going to do this together! I have to do something.-- But I have no magic left.—Maybe he’s still fighting Fluffy. I don’t want to lose. But I don’t know what to do. She thought and argued within her mind, debating against her own overwhelmingly negative thoughts and sense of loss. She tried anything to think positively, but it was hard with Christena firmly holding Addie in her grasp.

Totally exhausted magically, Addie felt desperation leak in as she realized there was absolutely no possibility of defending herself. She closed her eyes tight as tears began to leak out from them. She thought she could win too. The moment of her victory seemed so achievable, but in the end, she failed. She idly wondered if her dad would be ok, or if Squishy even won his battle against Fluffy. She thought about what the consequences of this loss would mean for her, and how Christena would take advantage of her; she thought about what it would mean to be a sacrifice in Christena’s ritual.

Addie looked up at Christena in shivering fright, but for some reason, her face still looked empathetic and familiar. She reached one hand to rest on Addie’s forehead, to where she could still feel the bump on her head from where the bauble hit her. She caressed it gently, almost, motherly. It felt... familiar. It reminded Addie of the Christena that took care of her, that played games with her.

In response, Addie opened her eyes again just as Christena began to speak, “You passed, Addie.” Then, she pulled Addie tighter to her chest, hugging her even as she carried her at the same time. “You’ve worked really hard and learned a lot about your new powers. You’ve grown so strong.”

Christena continued after a few seconds, “It’s ok. I know this was hard on you, but everyone’s safe, even your dad, the villagers, and everyone else.” Christena’s face cracked, “I’m sorry we did it this way, I know it was hard, but believe me when I say this was the only way to unlock your magic.”

“What?” At that moment, some of Addie’s horror was pushed away by Christena’s seemingly kind words, and replaced with a bit of hope. It didn’t stop the tears, though. Addie rested in her arms, allowing herself to be limply hugged by Christena. 

They stayed like that for a while, Addie in shock, comforted by her waking nightmare as the last week’s events replayed in her mind. It was... discordant. Horrible and amazing at the same time— like she’d gotten her favorite maid back, like she’d fallen into a deadly trap.Some of Addie’s horror began to be replaced by memory. 

She remembered as a young child Christena’s comforting embrace after she got hurt playing. Christena had always been around, often around much more than her constantly busy mother; Christena played with Addie and taught her morning lessons. She was seemingly always there to hold her or wipe away her tears. These kinds of moments, being comforted by her were... familiar. 

After a few moments, as the hug continued and nothing horrible happened, Addie tentatively reached her right arm out and began to embrace Christena back, curling her head into her chest. Finally, Addie began to cry anew, sobbing loudly into the surrounding forest.