It would be nigh unto impossible to say exactly how long Ami spent talking with the three gods. Divinity hath its perks, and among them is the ever-useful ability to compress relatively lengthy stretches of time into much shorter periods, without risking the collapse of the local time-space continuum in the process.
So it was that Logos of the Blue Mind, Farore of the Green Heart, and Curly Joe of the Crimson Hand were able to lay down an extended series of guidelines, suggestions, and out-and-out rules for what they expected of their new working relationship with the dimensionally-displaced Soldier of Mercury, all in the span of a few heartbeats. It might have taken longer if Mercury had argued the terms or insisted on a few of her own, but as she was an emotionally-repressed social outcast currently standing naked in front of three honest-to-goodness gods, she wasn't inclined to interrupt. Fortunately, the diverse personalities of Mercury's inadvertant benefactors ensured that pretty much every truly significant request she might have made had already been anticipated, and the Trinity's need for her assistance was sufficiently dire to ensure a level of generosity and fairness uncommon in dealings between mortals and gods.
Which was not to suggest that they were giving her everything she wanted on a silver platter. Oh, no.
"Sending you home is not currently within our ability," Logos stated bluntly. "Setting aside the fact that we do not know where your world is, neither of the other factions wishes you to leave this world, and we lack the power to overcome their influence." The azure archmage frowned distastefully, his gaze shifting to something beyond Mercury. "As it is, we will need to devote a rather significant portion of our collective power solely to the task of warding off their interference for the foreseeable future."
"Not that we wouldn't be doing the same if we were in their position," Farore admitted wryly. "Still, there are some rules for this sort of thing that even the Dark Gods can't or won't interfere with - mainly because they'd never get anything done, otherwise - and one of those permits each of us to grant you a boon from our respective spheres of influence, both as a sign of our favor and as a sort of down-payment on the service you'll be providing us."
"A'course, once we' done tha', th' Ligh' an' th' Dark both'll insis' tha' we follow ev'ry damn one o' them rules t' th' bloody letter, while ignorin' as much o' them as they feel they c'n ge' away wit'," Curly Joe muttered. There was a sigh like the bellows in a blacksmith's forge. "Still, s'long as we don' go givin' ye things fer free in th' future, they'll hold t' th' agreement well enough, an' not be doin' things like tellin' th' lords o' th' land or th' Keepers as never heared o' ye before where t' be diggin' t' find ye."
"And if they have heard of me?" Ami ventured timidly.
"Why, then ye best be havin' strong walls and lots'a burly lads behind 'em t' be fendin' th' bastards off, hadn't ye?" Curly Joe favored the small Senshi with a suggestive wink. He chuckled as Mercury's answering blush briefly turned her astral form a darker shade of blue, while the blurry censoring effect intensified. "Righ', then," the warrior-god declared abruptly, bringing his beefy hands together with a thunderous clap. "Wha' shall we be givin' th' lass afore we send 'er on 'er way? Ah'm tempted t' grant 'er an axe, meself, but Ah c'n see how a bloody big book o' spells migh' be more 'er style."
"True enough," Logos admitted, "but then there would doubtlessly be protests from the others about breaking the established system for Keepers, by giving her access to weapons or powers she's not yet taken the time to research and develop on her own. No, I think our purposes would best be served if we followed the pre-existing channels..."
Horny had just finished his menacing posturing when, as if in a perfectly dramatically-timed response, he heard the girl's voice. Though not terribly loud, it seemed to come from everywhere in the room at once:
"Mercury Keeper Power, Make-Up!"
A second pillar of water erupted from the Dungeon Heart. It was much smaller and less violent in nature than the first one, and did not cause the ambient temperature to change, but the sense of magic at work was just as strong, and there was a hell of a lot of gratuitous flashing, glowing, and sparkling going on. Horny's fiendishly keen eyes could discern an obviously female human silhouette behind the shifting spray of water, but it was somewhat vague, and there seemed to be a few differences between the girl who'd disintegrated in a flash of light and the one who was rematerializing in a column of water.
This wasn't unexpected. Dungeon Hearts had been known to mutate their Keepers in the past, in degrees ranging from "purely cosmetic" to "somewhat disturbing" to "sanity-rending." When the liquid curtain fell away a moment later, the Reaper got his first clear look at the changes that this new Keeper would have to live with.
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(Posted Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:11)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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