Tanya stayed where she was, sitting just a little too straight in the tattoo chair. It was so uncomfortable but she couldn't make herself relax. The cushion still lay awkwardly on the floor between them, from where Ishita had dropped it.
She didn't know how long it had been since Ishita left. Replaying sections of the conversation between periods of nothingness felt like all she could do. It had been one of those days that was so exhausting that when the cushion on the floor or the ache in her muscles wasn't reminding her of Ishita, she didn't think much of anything at all.
One of the Polaroids had fallen off the wall, and Tanya was staring at it when the shop door clicked open.
Tanya didn't lift her head.
Footsteps, slow but firm. A familiar limp.
Then a voice: "You died."
Mrs Eceer was standing just inside, coat off, sleeves rolled. Her eye was still swollen shut, the bruising taking over that side of her face, but the blood itself was gone and she was in clean clothes.
Tanya blinked slowly, the words hitting like a slap and a hug at once. "Yeah."
Mrs Eceer walked over and sat on the edge of the couch across from her. "What happened?"
Tanya let out a long breath."I did the portal tattoo, and it worked perfectly, but was too strong."
Mrs Eceer nodded slowly. "I thought so, but wasn't certain."
"I'm guessin' me new merge gives me more control over the outcome but makes scope more important." The words came out without much thought, but Tanya stood by them.
"Like a camera," Mrs Eceer pondered, more to herself.
"Hm?" Tanya asked. She finally allowed herself to rest back into the chair fully.
Mrs Eceer waved the thought away with her hand, shaking her head. "My husband liked photography back in the day. He said the automatic settings were less likely to go wrong, but that you lost a lot of the artistry."
Tanya considered it, then nodded. "Good comparison." She was tempted to ask about this newly mentioned husband, but decided that now wasn't the time.
They paused.
Mrs Eceer's hands were crossed in her lap. "So… Ishita brought you back."
Tanya nodded. "Again." The breath felt crushed out of her lungs. "But properly this time. Actually dead."
Silence stretched between them. Tanya was too drained to worry about it being awkward or trying to fill it.
"Did you see it?" Tanya said quietly, rawness escaping from the pit of her stomach. "I only saw her after. There wasn't anything left in her eyes when I woke up. Just pain."
"I saw enough," Mrs Eceer said. "Enough to know she should be in bed."
"She left," Tanya murmured.
That got a blink. "Left?"
Tanya half shrugged. "Went upstairs to see Fahad maybe. Needed space from me." Her voice hitched. "Found out some stuff about the pact."
Mrs Eceer didn't ask. Just waited.
"She wanted me to test it," Tanya whispered. She didn't know why the words were flying out. "I asked her to do something small. She didn't want to. But she did it anyway. She said it felt like her idea." Her throat tightened. "That's what kills me. It felt like her. But it wasn't."
Mrs Eceer shifted to perch forward on her knees, elbows on them, hands laced. "She's scared she can't trust herself now."
Tanya looked down. Her eyes burned. "She said it makes helpin' me feel like the best version of herself. That it twists everything. Even forgiveness."
Mrs Eceer was quiet for a long time. "That sounds like damage neither of you meant—but both of you carry."
Tanya nodded, barely. "I know she's the one hurting," she said. "I just don't know how to be sorry in a way that doesn't make it worse."
Another long silence.
Mrs Eceer stood slowly and walked toward the kitchenette in the back corner. "Right. Sit there. You need food."
Tanya almost protested. Then didn't. She just pulled her legs onto the chair and hugged them.
A few minutes passed in quiet—pans, water, and something boiling. Spoons clinking. The normalcy of it made Tanya ache.
Mrs Eceer returned eventually, pressing a hot bowl of pasta and tinned tomato puree into her hands and lowering herself back onto the couch. Tanya hadn't realised how hungry she was until the smell hit her.
"I used some of the propane. It felt like we both needed some warm food."
They ate together without talking. Just the sounds of slurping and breathing and the occasional quiet sniff Tanya tried to mask.
After a while, Mrs Eceer leaned back with her bowl. "You know, she saved my neck out there."
Tanya blinked up.
"Those vines almost broke through the barrier behind me. I thought I was done for. Then she was just—there. Out of nowhere. Battered them away with that fence post." She paused. "And then she turned and threw up in the gutter like it cost her everything."
Tanya laughed, small and broken. "That sounds about right."
Mrs Eceer gave her a look. "That girl's trying so hard to catch up that she doesn't have enough self-preservation instinct anymore."
"I think that's the point," Tanya whispered. "She's scared she's lost it."
They sat with that for a while.
Then Tanya said, quieter: "I don't think I trust myself around her, either."
Mrs Eceer tilted her head.
"I want her here. She's my friend. Now I can't tell if that want is… feeding the pact. If I'm hurting her just by needing her."
Mrs Eceer set her bowl down on the floor with a soft thud. She leaned forward again, elbows on knees.
"You want to hear something horrible?" she asked.
Tanya gave her a shaky smile. "Always."
"It's not the first time I've seen it."
That made Tanya go still.
Mrs Eceer continued, "Not a pact like that. But the same shape. A parent with too much say. A friend who knows just what to say to keep someone small. Magic just makes it more potent. The mess underneath? That's always been human."
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Tanya felt her chest cave in a little. "So what do I do?"
"You give her space. You sort out the underlying issue. And you wait."
"That's it?"
Mrs Eceer smiled, just a little. "It's harder than it sounds."
They let the quiet stretch again. This time it felt softer.
Eventually, Mrs Eceer straightened. "Boris and Olena went home to rest. They gave both you and Ishita their best wishes and said they'll be back in the morning."
"Tomorrow we try repairs again?" Tanya asked, her voice a little steadier.
"Well," Mrs Eceer said, with something like her old sharpness, "if you think you're lifting more than a paintbrush, I'll glue you to that chair."
Tanya chuckled. "Okay. Paintbrush only."
"Good."
They stayed like that a bit longer, until Mrs Eceer excused herself to sleep.
Again, the room was silent. Tanya's fingertips traipsed over her arms from the chill and she saw the inky lines of her sleeve.
Assistant.
Tanya had missed it so much. With no spare Vitality, keeping Assistant on her skin was the right choice, but she felt a rush in her chest as she looked down at the poised hand of her friend.
Her eyes filled with tears as she felt the familiar prodding under her skin of Assistant crawling its way out. By the time it was stood atop her arm, tears were streaming down her cheeks and Assistant had no idea what to do about it.
It scurried one way, then the other, rubbing one finger against the other in thought. Then, with a pause, it patted her arm awkwardly.
Tanya hiccupped, a laugh escaping through the sobs. She sniffed and wiped her nose with her other arm. "I'm okay,"
Assistant stroked her arm again and then got its bearings, floating upwards and inspecting the room. After it was sure there was no one else down there or anything else of note, it grabbed a pen and piece of paper and landed on Tanya's lap, ready to write.
Wat hapend?
Tanya leant back on the tattoo chair once again, sniffing even more through her blocked nose now that the sobbing had lessened.
"I died," Tanya whispered. "Ishita brought me back. The pact—I just—ugh."
Tanya massaged her forehead with her thumb and fingers on each temple.
You wat?!
She tried again. "We were lookin' for planks after you dipped from meetin' Fifi—"
Assistant shivered at the name.
"Heh. Well, there was this car alarm an' a Boss came an' we couldn't take it down so I made this." Tanya pointed at the new tattoo on her thigh.
The skin around the tattoo was raw, welted, and crusted with dried blood—some of it hers, some of it not. Black, tar-like smears clung to the edges, flaked and half-wiped away in streaks from where she'd scrubbed at monster ichor with her sleeve. The portal itself was a ring of sharp, clean ink, the lines impossibly precise despite the chaos—concentric circles carved into her thigh like burned circuitry. Inside the ring, the shading darkened to a void-like centre, just like the real portal that had appeared before them outside.
She winced and staggered across the room for water, ointment, and wrap. Assistant followed.
"It was too much Vitality an' Ishita took the pain," her breath hitched. "She died multiple times to bring me back."
Assistant placed the paper and held up the pen to write, then paused and put it down again. It didn't know what to say.
Tanya sighed and doused a cloth in water, gently rubbing the murky streaks off her leg. She hissed as the water got inside the raw lines.
"I really hope this doesn't get infected," Tanya said, more to herself than Assistant.
Tanya started on the cream and saw Assistant write out of the corner of her eye. She leant over.
Iym glad yor ocay.
Maybee shee finaly got her levul up.
Assistant scratched itself nervously, like trying to work out if that was the right thing to say.
Tanya tried to wrestle her eyebrows back down. It was a sort of brutal thing to say in some ways, and a kind thing in others. Complicated.
"I, uh, don't know," Tanya said. "I'm not sure if I check or…"
Both of their attention didn't leave the words on the paper.
Assistant picked up the pen and wrote:
Yoo think shee woodnt want yoo to?
"She said she needed space," Tanya said, offhand, deep in thought. The memories of that conversation played over again. "I think…" Tanya started. The decision solidified. "I think it is best for us as a group to keep sharin'. If I asked her what she wanted, she wouldn't be certain it was real, but this is factual. Workin' together helps us."
Tanya looked at Assistant for confirmation. Assistant just shrugged, twitching two fingers like it had gotten in the habit of doing when it was unsure.
Tanya thought about it again, then nodded. "I'm doin' it."
She opened all of the Abilities and Achievements.
• • •
Information
Name: Ishita Priya Sharma
Number: 146,567,398
Class: Martyr
Level: 6
Attributes
Strength: 7
Dexterity: 6
Vitality: 27
Concentration: 5
Will: 10
• • •
Abilities
Penance Unleashed Level 1 You may draw wounds into yourself from any number of allies within range, redistributing them across your own body. Absorbed damage can also be contained, scaling with your Will. This can be unleashed later as damage through a reversal of your healing ability. The more pain you transfer, the greater the toll on yourself, but there is no other healing maximum.
Sacrificial Rebirth
Level 7
Upon death, you may choose to return to life, but at a cost. You revive with your Attributes all at full and temporary Attributes equal to your current pool of contained damage, but one Attribute of your choice is reduced and must be earned again. The toll increases with each resurrection.
Grace in Suffering Level 3 Unlocked from Achievement: A Mother's Love
You turn your own loss into strength for others. Whenever you sacrifice Vitality, you trigger Grace. This gives your loss to your allies as a buff.
Sacred Binding Level 1 You bind yourself spiritually to an ally. For as long as your Concentration allows, damage taken by your ally is shared with you. Both you and your ally receive half of the original damage's effect.
• • •
Achievements
Worthy
You were deemed worthy of The System's care. You have been given a class and access to The Interface.
A Mother's Love
You gave everything for the one you loved. You gain a 200% effectiveness in using your powers to help Number 57,987,420 (Fahad Sharma) while he is a child* under your protection.
The Burden of the Worthy
It is not always the eager hand that seizes greatness. You bore the weight of what was unlocked, and in overcoming your resistance, proved yourself anew.
Achievement Boon: 5 points split between any Attributes you choose. More choice is coming, I promise.
The Threshold Breaker Level barriers exist for a reason. You shattered them with agony and will. Three class levels gained in one act. Three echoes that still follow you.
Achievement Boon: You will gain an extra Subclass option at Level 10.
Still Here Someone who should have died lived because of you. They took another breath. You took the cost.
Achievement Boon: The cost of Sacrificial Rebirth is halved when used to save another's life.
• • •
Name: Prosthesis Wielder: Ishita Priya Sharma Type: Tool Level: 3
Attributes Efficiency: 16 Absorption: 23 Resilience: 7
Abilities
Somatic Link Prosthesis synchronises somewhat with Wielder's nervous system and mind. This allows for faint tactile sensation, some motor precision, and some prediction of outcomes of specific motor commands.
Vital Wellspring Stores 5 surplus Vitality gathered during recovery periods. Though recovery speed remains unchanged, accumulated vitality can be reinfused into Wielder's system to replenish drain within Vitality maximum.
Limbbound Surge You may channel raw vitality stored within Prosthesis to empower all motor functions to superhuman levels for as long as Vitality allows.
Boons
Bonded Ability Greater Boon – The Blink of an Eye Gain access to an Ability whilst Prosthesis is summoned.
Ability Buff Minor Boon – Mnemonic Etching Somatic Link has gained the ability for the Wielder to anticipate Prosthesis' movements.
• • •
Tanya's eyes flew down the Interface, then she went to the notifications themselves. Ishita really had gained 3 Class Levels from saving her life. The Boons had appeared from Prosthesis too, and her Ability Merge seemed to have absorbed Pain Transference with a new Ability linked to dealing damage. She wasn't sure how the damage had originated, but now it was a storing of the pain Ishita absorbed generally. None of it made up for those Attributes though. She didn't actually know how many times Ishita had died, but the remaining Attribute numbers said it all.
What else…
She wanted more Vitality storage in the tattoo rather than new Abilities for it.
She'd be better at saving people now… if she ever wanted to do that again after this. An extra Subclass option feels more useful to be honest.
Her stomach sank further and further from the realisation that Ishita had done this without her. She had no right to be annoyed or feel that it was unfair, but she couldn't hold back the envy and the feeling that she'd missed out on something huge.
Assistant pointed at Tanya's hand.
"Huh?" Tanya asked, looking down at both of them.
No moov Assistant wrote.
Tanya can now control the interface without using a finger. It was like the talk with The System, and being in that space had made the entire Interface feel completely natural.
In a single thought, Tanya popped out every option on the Interface, and they branched out over and over with thoughts and ideas that expanded as her eyes landed on them and shrank again. It was like a living web of possibilities, responding instantly to the slightest instinct in her mind.
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