With a laugh, Sammy quickly transported herself to a clear field in Heaven, and couldn’t activate her [Mirroring Duplicates: Strange Phantasm 1] ability fast enough.

  The familiar form of the alabaster-pearl beauty flashed into existence, long tresses and stylish blue battle robes blowing in the wind as she looked upward at the sky. She was the very picture of sophistication, pride, and power in a deceptively delicate feminine package. Somehow, despite the rest, something was still very accessible to her. She was an erudite with eyes glowing for every curiosity before her. That could never change, from youth to her very end.

  “I don’t know this sky,” Rallindin declared. “Nor the stars beyond it.” Eyes like blue rings of crystal turned to Samantha to study her. “Nor do I know you, Successor. Through the obscured fog of time, I know I’ve advised others before you, perhaps others after. So you shall join them… as we tumble to the end of all rational continuity. Let us make what mark we can, hmm?”

  Sammy was up on the balls of her feet, her hands clasped out in front of her, grinning wide, all-in-all like a teen fangirl meeting her idol. Perhaps it was a bit odd for someone whose skin she’d stepped in (and done many things in), but that was her emotion right then. “I’m such a fan!” the fangirl squeaked before she could stop herself.

  Rallindin gazed at her a bit puzzled for a moment, but quickly flashed a brilliant smile in return. “I’m pleased that I can inspire such adoration despite my failures.”

  Sammy got a hold of herself and calmed down. She cleared her throat. “Progress is all about continual correction and improvement. Without you, we would have no chance at all, no foundation. So thank you! From the bottom of my heart. I know intimately how difficult your life was. I’m glad for all that I can draw from it.” She held her hand out. “I’m Samantha. Truly a pleasure!”

  Rallindin looked at her hand and stepped past to embrace Samantha instead. “A pleasure likewise. Doubly so for the kind words.”

  Sammy beamed as she gingerly hugged the Hard Light form. The last thing she wanted to do right then was burst the fragile construct. “Looking forward to seeing you work on your own! My own view of your life is a bit skewed by the things I altered in the simulation.”

  “I don’t know any specifics about you.” Ralli parted in the hug to cock her head in one of her typical mannerisms. “I’m around for the novelty I can provide in addition to the combat uses. To conclude my statement of intent, I will assist you in matters wherein my life may aid what synchronizes with your path. Sometimes that may coincide, sometimes not. It is for you to decide what is useful or relevant. I am dead and gone. A phantom in truth. In some respects, it might be better to regard me as a contrast to the right decisions. Keep that irony in mind.”

  Sammy winced briefly, then wore a sympathetic smile. “There’s tons of stuff I can learn from you. Make no mistake, Rally Pally! Er… sorry. That was dumb.”

  Ralli had an incredulous expression but soon burst into laughter. “You’re an interesting character. Feel free to be informal, dear Successor. It amuses me. Honest. The youthful should act it, besides. Rally Pally it is.”

  “I aim to amuse!” Sammy pursed her lips. “So, I gotta ask… what was it like for you… meeting the crazy sister? The moon queen.”

  Ralli looked away with a sour expression and took a deep breath. “Harrowing. Humbling. A bit humiliating, even. To meet her, after all of that shit, and it was only the beginning of a quest to understand the wounds I weighed myself down with. I survived but I learned nothing through the Wyld. Held on to too much pride. I sauntered to her throne, putting on airs as an equal, but she revealed she was protecting me to even be there. I called her a liar. She lifted her protection then, revealing it — her — as truth instead.”

  Ralli closed her eyes and took another breath. “I… cannot describe the terror, the incinerating pain, the unmaking I felt taking hold, before I was cast down into the pit of myself. Even that, I knew later to be a mercy, as she cast me before the judgment of an impartial realm consumed me. To rise out, to rise up, I had to put my demons finally to rest. Only then could I return in truth, on my own merit; only then did all that I had been through unveil the lessons being taught. My soul returned to connect with the humanity of my beginnings. Balance me, complete me. Ready me for the final days.”

  “Wow. But it… still wasn’t enough. To beat him, that is.”

  “No. Perhaps it would’ve been, but the animosities I left in my wake only worsened with absence, and festered in ways I could not completely cure or unravel. I am still unsure if I was betrayed from within, but the alliance was too weak, too unaligned for proper orchestration. And the Augmentation Lords struck at the opportune time in ambush, taking advantage of our worst hour to ruin us completely, killing one of us and dooming the rest. I knew all was lost. I fought on, but to little avail other than for posterity. The alliance fractured more, dwindled, and perished. As did we.”

  “Did you ever find the Hall? Do you know what it is?”

  “Vaguely. I never found the way in. It didn’t seem to want me inside, truth to tell. As far as posterity is concerned, Samantha, I only trailblazed a tender road. I touched Fate as deep into the future as I could to pass my will forward. I cannot say all that it did so far, far, far to now. Perhaps something. I knew I was missing many pieces. I knew that prediction, divination, and Fate in general were far more needed than to the degree I utilized it. We utilized it. I knew I could not handle even this alone.

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  “So, yes. My contribution is the extent of my failure, even being perhaps the most powerful combatively. Our enemy would not face me directly, not ever. He did the far smarter thing, waiting and conniving for us to kill ourselves. Waiting for us to want to die.”

  Sammy felt quite a deep, echoing pang at that. “I worry how we focus on the wrong things. Destruction. Ending. It seems to fall right into his trap.”

  “I see the truth in this. Certainly, by the end, all the destruction I myself wrought wore me down to nothing. I looked out to see his dominance and tasted true hopelessness.”

  “Sounds about right. I think we’ve been missing something for quite a while. We might have it figured out. You’re familiar with the Fortuneteller?”

  Ralli nodded. “Yes. Utilization of Cartomancy. Eternal fragments… outlines and patterns of Before. Crude reflections.”

  “The Hall is outside of reality as well. It must persist even between these Cycles.”

  “Mmn. The frame, Successor. Not the filling. All is made empty to forget, to slay memory. What is a psyche without novelty? Identity?”

  Sammy pondered that. Well, even Lovie seems affected, after all. I at least know enough not to want another ‘passing’ in this universe. Multiverse. Whatever. “In any case, we’re hopefully doing the final work this time.”

  “So it always goes. If you believe it, so be it.”

  Frowning, Sammy nonetheless nodded. “I’m looking for unobvious solutions. In the meantime, there’s ongoing war, revolution… building my own stuff up in preparation. I cannot avoid it. I have to take strength while I can, or inevitably have it taken from me forever.”

  “These would be my specialties. When you need an extra nugget here or there from an ancient fossil such as I, don’t hesitate to conjure me. Otherwise, you need not coddle me. I know what I am and comfort is irrelevant. I’m aware I usually show up first in the middle of transformative states in abilities. If there is nothing else, dismiss me and proceed, Successor.”

  Sammy held out her hand, and Ralli took it. She brought the bejeweled, manicured — They’re painted with flowers, so cute! — fingers of a true Empress to her forehead in a respectful, mild bow, eyes closed. “I’ll honor you by preserving and securing your memory forever, Predecessor. None were more glorious than you! I won’t relinquish it. Memory will not be slain again.” She opened her eyes and kissed the hand — her own mere Hard Light, yet her very heroic spirit and heart come back to her, as an idol of ancestral things.

  When she looked up, Rallindin was beaming at her, clearly touched. She adjusted the grip and brought Sammy’s hand to her lips, slowly touching them to flesh with great gravitas and solemnity. “A fitting Successor,” she declared. “A fitting evolution standing before me. I believe you. See it done, then. Complete the work. I will be ready with you, fighting to the last until it is.”

  Samantha nodded with equal solemnity. Rallindin Peregaust then imploded violently into blue smoke, collapsing into one last pinpoint of crystalline light before vanishing.

  Sighing contentedly, happy to have that preservation intact of someone so strangely dear to her, Sammy plopped down in the grass and the sunlight for her final bits of things to peruse. A… quest? She might as well mine it for any detail…

  Hmm. An outfit, I believe? Something to look forward to, I guess.

  Allspell was next, along with a new ‘enhancement’ of sorts.

  No (Acid) or (Light), but this is pretty fly.

  She briefly perused her spell list, now similar in size on the arcane side as the divine side. Much of her new spells had improved access for the clerical, too, though it was no direct translation. Sometimes, the clerical version was a higher level, as was the case with Fireball and other elemental energy spells, but she knew this benefit was available at all due to her [Pneuma] Domain. Spells without a Domain ‘excuse’ didn’t usually translate, and some spells seemed stubbornly arcane-only, like most (Acid) element spells. And Chain Lightning.

  Oh. Hey. I’ve got Chain Lightning! Woot!

  Ah, Chain Lightning... the 'no thinking/finangling involved' AoE from back in the day... not as needed for Sammy with her shapable Light AoEs. Anyway, default spell potential will never be 'do anything,' they'll continue to follow from DnD spell list inspirations. I've always looked at 3.5 edition primarily, with some considerations from 5th.

  Next Chapter...

  Getting past review/gains time in general. A visit from Constance.

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