When the Devil Broke the Universe

Life in Tel Mithryn was… different, to say the least—even besides just the "living in mushrooms" part. There weren't any stairs beyond the walkways outside, though thankfully Neloth had seen fit to install levitation enchantments so that one could go from floor to floor within the various buildings of the village. Everything was strange; strange animals, strange building materials, strange people.

There were two items on Neloth's agenda for them. The first was education; he wasn't going to have anyone on his staff that didn't know their way around basic magic or the world around them. Solstheim was a dangerous place and those working for him were expected to be able to take care of themselves.

Nagisa had been excited about that, but when she asked him what he was going to teach them first, in true Neloth fashion he had replied, "I don't 'teach'. That's what the help is for" before immediately delegating tasks to a number of his servants.

And so the girls soon found themselves back in school, despite Kyoko's protests. Every day a number of subjects each with different tutors would roll by one after the other—language, geography, history, and then basic spellcraft and self-defense. In self defense Kyoko was a prodigy, and Neloth soon realized neither she nor Nagisa were going to need much help there. They might not have had access to their powers but enough experience had, especially in Kyoko's case, built up quite a lot of muscle memory, nevermind the levels of strength and hardiness both had demonstrated.

Spellcraft on the other hand, well…

A jolt of electricity sent Kyoko flying into a wall.

"… Ow," she muttered, her body spasming against her will as she lay in a heap on the floor.

"You were supposed to put up a ward," her teacher, a middle-aged female dark elf with the personality of a brick, said, "Are you intentionally ignoring your lesson?"

Kyoko pulled herself to her feet in a fit of agitation, despite her muscles protesting deeply, still shrugging off the after-effects of being struck by lightning, "I'm trying. It's not my fault your spells aren't working!"

"The spell works, you're just not getting it," the woman grunted with irritation. Then she turned to a small chest she'd brought with her, "Fine. We'll put on training wheels first." She opened the chest and pulled out a roll of paper, "This is a scroll for lesser ward, a basic spell," she tossed it to her, and Kyoko caught it in her hands, "We can use scrolls as substitutes for innate magical knowledge by encoding the spell on them and then releasing them when the time is right. It allows laypeople to perform magic without any experience. Now," the teacher got back into position, "Get your ward up."

Another bolt of lightning came flying at Kyoko, who opened her scroll and faced it at the oncoming attack—even as she flinched, preparing for another painful lesson. To her surprise however, the spell activated, and the scroll evaporated as a magical barrier threw itself around her. The lightning attack bounced off harmlessly, and soon after the barrier faded away.

Kyoko glanced at her hands as the glow faded away, "… So why can't I cast?"

"Because you're going about it the wrong way," Neloth said, stepping into the room, "You're still trying to draw power from your soul gem, which as we've well documented at this point isn't working. So it's no surprise that nothing's happening. Besides," he stroked his beard, "Soul magic is dangerous even ignoring your particular brand, and I don't think you have any… what was it, wraith cubes?"

"Grief cubes," Nagisa corrected him, watching the whole thing as she waited her turn on a stack of boxes in the corner.

Neloth waved her off, "Whatever, you don't have anything that will replenish your soul magic anyway. It's a losing proposition, and I will NOT have you turn into some gruesome eldritch horror on my property."

"Then what am I supposed to do?!" Kyoko asked, exasperated, "I've been getting thrown into walls for the past three days!"

Neloth grunted with annoyance at such basic questions, "Because you're not paying attention to the lessons, child. Magic is in everything. It's the light that comes down from Magnus, the sun. It exists all around us. You need to learn to cast from the innate reserves your body has, not your soul".

Kyoko looked back down at her hands, annoyed and angry at herself for not getting something this seemingly simple. How was she supposed to "cast from her body"? How was that supposed to feel different? As a magical girl she just… did things, like moving an arm or a leg, it just happened naturally.

Neloth sighed, "But enough for today," he nodded at the teacher, who nodded back and motioned for Nagisa to take Kyoko's place. Neloth turned back to the redhead, "It's time."

Grumbling, Kyoko followed the old wizard out of the ring as the teacher began to knock Nagisa around—she wasn't much getting the hang of this new version of magic either. This was the second item on Neloth's agenda, and the reason he was allowing them to stay here at all—experimentation. She was his guinea pig—it had to be her too; she'd steadfastly refused to let Neloth experiment on Nagisa. He'd been quite irritated about that; being able to directly study an aspect of a fallen god would do WONDERS for his research, but he supposed he would settle for working on Kyoko instead while interrogating Nagisa as much as possible.

Kyoko wondered why she was putting up with this assault on her dignity at all, but the answer for her was always the same: the alternative was her and Nagisa being thrown to the literal wolves out in the wilds. She needed shelter, food, protection. So she put up with it—with any luck the lessons would eventually pay off and then she'd rob Neloth out of house and home and high-tail it to the nearest town.

Maybe set fire to a few things while the old man was asleep too. Now that sounded like a plan!

A short walk took them outside, then up into Neloth's personal tower and workspace within the central mushroom via a levitation enchantment. The interior was exactly how you'd imagine an eccentric wizard living within a giant mushroom would live, with magical contraptions littered all over the place. In one corner sat a pair of cages, one of which had what Kyoko could only describe as a living tree person… except it wasn't living anymore, its bark skin beginning to peel off as it lay motionless on the ground.

"… So why isn't my soul gem working?" Kyoko asked him as they levitated up to the wizard's workspace.

Neloth didn't miss a beat, "How should I know?" he asked crankily, "I'm not your goddess."

"All this time poking at my gem and you don't have a clue?"

He gave her an incredulous glare as he rounded his work table, "It's been three days, and you won't let me study your companion," he sighed and stroked his beard, "If I had to make a wild guess, however? The entities that govern Tamriel have had long-documented defenses against outside incursion. It's why Daedric Lords can't manifest their full powers here, or invade with armies. Your friend is an aspect of a goddess foreign to this world, yet you somehow punched through the walls of reality and arrived here. It's only natural to assume there would be consequences of some sort."

Huh. The local gods were somehow banning her magical girl powers? Except, there was still one snag in that theory.

"… But I was never taken by the Law of Cycles." Kyoko reminded him, folding her arms in frustration.

"Perhaps not from your point of view, but your companion did say that your Law of Cycles was an entity that transcended time and was the guardian of all… what was that insipid term? 'Magical Girls'? You may have never reached the endpoint of your life, but I would imagine she certainly did, at least in one version of events. Hence, you are still linked to her, and have been ever since you made that contract."

Kyoko blinked, the wheels in her head spinning in overdrive as she felt a headache coming on. "Wait… are…" she wasn't sure how to process this, "… Are you trying to tell me that it all happened anyway, somehow? Like, retroactively?"

"I think you'll find that time is a fluid thing, rather than an absolute like the unwashed masses like to pretend," Neloth said, clearly bored, then extended his hand expectantly, "Now then. Your soul gem please."

Putting aside that particular mindscrew for now (she wasn't sure how she felt about that), Kyoko summoned her gem and reluctantly turned it over to the old man, before standing over where he pointed.

"Today I want to try something a little different," Neloth said. Kyoko inwardly sighed in relief; yesterday had been mostly about Neloth poking her gem and seeing how much pain he could put her in, "You said the maximum distance you can put between your body and your soul is about a hundred meters, correct?"

Well, so much for an easy day. Kyoko swallowed, suddenly very uncertain about her life choices, "… Yeah?"

Neloth continued with a nod, "What I want to know is, are there other restrictions? For instance, what if I place a silence spell over your soul gem? Will that cut the connection, or do you have a deeper link to your body?"

"… 'Silence'?" Kyoko asked, suddenly afraid.

"Ah, it's a simple spell," Neloth said, uncaring to her worries, "It temporarily disables magical use of any object or person of my choosing. If applied properly, it can be used as an area-of-effect spell as well." he put the red soul gem down on a table and immediately his hands went to work.

… Wait, he was doing it right NOW? She was still standing up! "Wait!" she called to him, "Let me—"

Kyoko's husk fell to the floor in an awkward pile.

"… Huh, interesting," Neloth said nonchalantly, jotting down some notes.