[Episode 125733] [Episode 125733]"Is that everything?" Yomiko Readman asked as she took a last look around the ruins of the Saillune library. They had recovered it over the years - well except for the roof and one side of the building - and she had been using it to store any and all books she came across as they explored the remains of this world. They had, technically been on a quest to find any rogue mazoku still alive, put to rest those undead that went mad from a lack of 'food', and keep whatever magic items they could out of the hands of other, less scrupulous undead.
She had, of course, gone back to collecting books immediately. That was one of the biggest advantages to her situation, as far as she was concerned; she no longer had to put off collecting books for minor things like eating or sleeping. And the vacuum ensured the books she collected never collected dust, never got water-damaged, and wouldn't burn.
The fact that she had to use paper as her skin was a completely acceptable trade in her opinion. Especially given her talent at controlling and shaping paper.
The only time those skills she learned from her mentor and lover Donny Nakajima had failed her was after those bastard mazoku had tried burying her alive among spell books. They'd noticed she could deal with pain, with fear, with just about anything they could throw at her really - until they discovered her love of books at least. They'd initially hoped to break her of that, and so planned on burying her in books until she was nearly dead.
Of course, they hadn't known of her gift then. And she hadn't seen a book in the year that had passed since they abducted her from one of her favorite bookstores. So instead of the terror they expected, all they got was her overwhelming joy. Instead of crushing her with books, they discovered the books would turn away and stack up around her - an instinctive reaction of her talent to the impending danger. That first time had been the first good night's sleep she'd gotten since her abduction.
Needless to say, the mazoku weren't pleased.
They'd wheeled out some sort of device; she had had no idea what it was at the time, though she had since learned it was some sort of portable magical nullifier. They tested it by giving her a paper cut with a torn out page of one of the spell books they hoped to bury her in.
The pain of the cut was nothing to her feeling of betrayal; betray had always struck her hard after her friend Nancy Makuhari's betrayal and now the powers she had learned from her first love - the only thing she had left from him since she had lost his glasses several months prior - had betrayed her.
That feeling of betray was exactly what the mazoku had been looking for. So they continued to tear up spell books and cut her with the pages - moving well beyond the casual paper cuts to deeper cuts that actually bleed. One - the apparent leader despite his child-like appearance - had even gotten creative and copied some of the glyphs on the pages into her skin with paper cuts.
Fortunately, the child-like mazoku had gotten bored rather quickly. So they dumped her into the pit they had tried burying her in that first time still covered head-to-toe in her own blood. They finished piling in all the remaining books they had, before leaving her beneath them, unable to move or even breathe.
She was eventually rescued some two hundred fifty years or so afterward by the vampire Seta and the lich Amelia, who had both been curious about the magical nullificiation crystal that still kept her trapped. By that point, her body had long since mummified in the dry, oxygen-deprived environment.
The first thing she did upon realizing she was awake and quite sick of seeing all the books around her was will the paper away from her. The blood soaked sheets of paper that had rested directly against her had congealed with her blood as she dried out and so tore off what had remained of her skin as they flew away from her. Hence her need to wrap herself in layers of paper.
How she came back from that whole dying part, Yomiko couldn't really explain, but part of her was glad she had. There was so much knowledge here - and every bit of it something she'd never read before. Amelia had provided her with a convenient excuse to read as much as she could find; not that the magic Amelia taught her was useless, but Yomiko had her priorities.
And now they were planning to leave. There were other undead survivors - but most had either joined the necropolis that had sprung up on one of the larger asteroids or gone completely insane with hunger they couldn't satisfy. The necropolis had little use for most of the books they'd found; when Yomiko had last been there, her friends had had to stop her from jumping into the magical bonfire the townsfolk were using to burn the books they had found.
Yomiko refused to leave a one of her books for those savages.
"Yes, I believe so," Yomiko's companion responded as she sealed up the last portable hole filled to the brim with books and tomes. Several dozen just like it that Yomiko fully intended to take with her when she left sat nearby.
Yomiko flashed the effeminate metal golem a smile. They had discovered the ancient elven golem while looking hunting down one of the insane undead; her 'tomb' had been split open by the silence. Yomiko had been the one to suggest her name - 'Dorothy'. (She had suggested both of the names the group had come up with: Dorothy and Alice. None of the others, it seemed, were good with names.)
Dorothy looked remarkably elven though she was obviously constructed of a variety of metals. Whatever purpose her creators had made her for, she'd long forgotten it. The twin rapier-like blades that she could pop out of her arms made it clear that she had some sort of military use, but just what that was, Dorothy couldn't say.
With nothing better to do Dorothy had stayed with them after they'd accidentally awoken her. She was even learning, despite the vacuum about them, to play some of the musical instruments they had found on their trips. (And, for reasons Yomiko couldn't quite figure out, insisted upon calling Seta a 'louse'.)
"Ranma has returned with his girlfriend," Seta stated as he walked through the doorway, startling Yomiko out of her thoughts. "I assume you and your apprentice are both ready to go?"
Yomiko nodded, "Yes, we've gotten all of my books. We're ready. Care to help carry them?" She picked up several of the round black clothes, folding them and placing them in paper pockets she crafted out of her 'skin'.
Amelia smiled as she saw those she considered family now gathered before her. Seta - a patriarchal vampire, lightning quick swordsman, and her best friend since her death. Yomiko - a paper mummy, young by standards of mummies, bibliophile, and surprisingly talented with magic, even if you didn't take into account her mystical command over paper or the spells she could cast directly from her flesh. Dorothy - humanoid elven golem and constant thorn in Seta's side since she'd been awakened. Hotaru - a shy and gentle necropolis with a surprising gift at necromancy. Ranma - a master martial artist and ghost who kept his deep sense of guilt hidden behind a happy-go-lucky attitude.
Without saying a word Amelia turned and began the spell that would take them to one of the other pillars. They had all said all that needed to be said on this matter centuries ago.
Amelia saw the portal open as she completed her spell, and smiled. It represented the one thing that was missing here.
Hope for the future.
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(Posted Wed, 24 Nov 2004 04:12)
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