Chapter 135

Lyra found herself near crawling through a cramped passage no more than four feet high. At first she thought she would be in and out of the slave passages, grabbing Opal and dragging her back to deal with the Lamia teenager, but then the passage had split and then split again and again and then she didn’t know where she was going or even how to get back.

How the hell was she to find Opal in any of this?! The slave corridors were more of a maze than anything, apparently every damned wall in the mansion had its own separate slave passage behind it, and she had quickly gotten very very lost.

She had seen Goblins, sort of, whenever she caught sight of their frightened eyes they had immediately scurried away into the dusty gloom, clearly terrified that a Leveler had entered their sacred space and fearing for their lives.

They didn’t even pause when she cried out for them to stop, darting into passages that when she turned into appeared empty. The Goblins clearly knew the place like the back of their hands and she simply did not.

Lyra could feel herself getting more and more irritated. Here she was stuck searching for an Opal shaped needle in a haystack all while Rain was being accosted by some, some, slut of a teenager! Being seduced by her swaying hips and- and bralessness!

It was clearly outrageous, obviously she should be the one doing the seduc- the pleasant and polite conversation.

As she caught sight of a green foot just darting out of view she came to the end of her patience. It was time to resort to desperate measures.

The problem was clear, the place was too large and too maze like, and that meant she couldn’t find anything alone, there was too much area to cover. She needed help, help from someone who could scout a very large area very quickly. She had almost brought that certain someone out earlier, but Rain had wanted to try interrogating a maid first.

Her wool washed black, the gate to fleece harbour opening.

The only problem was, how to get the snooty skeleton to come out.

She held up her black wooled arm and then hesitantly whisper hissed “Vash!”

Nothing happened.

“VASH!” she yelled at her arm, dust falling from the ceiling around her, voice filling the silent cramped space.

Nothing happened, and she suddenly felt a bit silly. Of course he couldn’t hear her, not everyone had hearing like Rain that could pierce the barrier of her wool.

There was only one thing to do, she had to go inside herself.

But what if that was a really bad idea? There was a reason she hadn’t done it yet, it just felt, well the idea of going inside herself felt really really weird, but there was also the possibility something bad might happen. A childhood spent with other noble children meant she had heard a lot of horror stories of the very rich and ignorant putting their dimensional bag inside their second dimensional bag and then their skin would turn inside out, or they would explode into lots of very small pieces ... Okay, maybe that wouldn’t happen, but she did have the sense to be wary of such a thing, logically bad things could happen when putting a dimensional space inside a second dimensional space. At the very least it could break, which was why she had never allowed their dimensional bag to be put into her wool space.

Mentally preparing she drew in breath, exhaled, drew in breath, exhaled, drew in breath, held it, and jammed her forearm up against her eyes.

The wool boiled and billowed outwards, engulfing her face. And she found herself looking into a room she had yet to see, her room, her wool space, her face poking from one wall.

Her mouth immediately dropped open as the most eye-catching thing in the room instantly drew her attention.

It was a statue of her, winking, and giving a thumbs up.

And. She. Looked. Awesome!

She boggled at the depiction of herself, like some gorgeous Goddess steeping down amongst the dirty dishevelled masses to offer divine protection. A being to be worshipped for her beauty and poise, and excellent fashion sense, a goddess that would have multiple large temples built in her name. She could feel her ego inflating in realtime looking upon the wondrous thing!

How had they not told her about this awesome statue?!

The second thing to catch her attention was slightly less poised.

A skeleton was squatting over a stone bed, a book held in his hands, looking for all the world like a person reading while on the toilet.

The skeleton had frozen as he noticed her.

“Wh- why is there no privacy for me in here?!

“What are you doing in my room?! Why are you pooping in here?! What the hell have you been doing inside of me?!”

“Poop-? I am not pooping!”

The skeleton quickly straightened and tried his best to pretend that nothing had been happening. He dropped the book over a black ruby left on the bed in a quick attempt to hide it.

“Then what was that black thing huh? Are you going to tell me that didn’t come out of your butthole? That you aren’t defecating in me?”

Vash’s flame eyes flashed bright and burned with indignation.

“It’s not- Skeletons do not have buttholes! I am merely absorbing to grow my power.”

“You are? Then why does it look like a poop that you were suspiciously squatting over?”

The skeleton turned and snatched up the black ruby. He marched over and held it up in front of her face.

“Does this look like poop to you?”

“It is small and black, maybe you just ate something wei-”

“It’s not black! it’s just a really deep shade of red that your inferior living eyeballs are unable to perceive in your limited spectrum! Not that you could appreciate its purity and nature even if you could.”

Lyra squinted at the held up ruby. It just appeared as a flat black to her, a very very deep ... red? She thought she perceived something in there, a flicker motion, a river, a river of red.

She flinched as the river of blood fully formed before her eyes for a moment before vanishing.

Vash paused.

“Ah, perhaps I misspoke, I forgot momentarily that you are part Elf. A natural sense for magic may allow for some ... deeper perception.”

“Wh-what the hell is that thing?”

“Hell, yes, an appropriate use of the word. Is it really that hard to figure out? You retrieved these rubies from a certain leveler who had a dedicated interest in the occult, in the demonic. Useful curios that I can easily make use of as an undead without risk to myself.”

“And Rain is letting you just absorb this sketchy looking stuff?”

The skeleton unhappily lifted a finger and pointed at this skull.

Now she was looking Vash’s head did appear a little different, whereas before she might have seen a centipedal leg darting at the back of an eye socket, now there were dozens, a pair of pincers could be seen behind his teeth as well. The necromancer’s skull had been turned into a full on centipede nest.

“Hmmm. Fine. But come outside, I need you.”

“Outside?” said the skeleton perking up.

“Yes, we’re in Wranvyre’s estate, you said you wanted to help didn’t you? Come come.”

Lyra pulled back from her fluff and lost view of her wool space, her view replaced with the gloomy cramped slave passages, the wool on her arms snapping back to its original trim shape.