secret identity | Glowfic Constellation

whole_new_can

Not the typical use of combat powers, so sue him.

Swap with a different anonymous space, try again with five more pomegranate seeds, juice them first, same orders.

The juice works. "The sorcerers are in the conservatory or the treetops or in the rafters of the veranda or flying around invisible probably, the master's in her basement probably," the fairy whimpers.

whole_new_can

"Thank you." Invisibility, of course. He casts around for a power that would let him detect invisible people, and gets a density manipulation ability that highlights where an object is more or less dense than its surroundings. He doesn't need the teleportation; this telekinesis can do double duty now that it's at full power. He blasts out from underground, setting the fairy down beside the hole. He starts attacking invisible fliers first.

He can blast them more or less thoroughly out of the sky. Sorcery is not a good match for this. They stay invisible, but there are holes in wings that his density power can detect, stains of blood in various interesting colors that become quite visible where the fairies fall.

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This is much less of a competition than he was anticipating. The danger helps, it's rare that there's a real risk of long-term loss against anything short of an Endbringer, but the opponents aren't really worthy ones. His powers are charging more quickly and hitting harder than they do in anything routine, that much is true. But he can feel it didn't do anything permanent.

At least sorcerers' magic isn't going to be definitely useless later. His second objective can still be a success. He switches to trying to force-feed them crushed fruit seeds.

The fairies he didn't juice go back to trying to feed him.

An invisible sorcerer who wasn't flying heals the others, one by one. They resume trying to toast/crush/freeze Eidolon.

whole_new_can

Preventing them is trickier now that he has to actually move. He dodges those he can, and increases his and his costume's mass to make himself more resistant to temperature changes and crushing and various et ceteras. Whenever he gets a sorcerer identified and incapacitated, he crushes a seed against their teeth and pushes the liquid back.

The sorcerers he juices stop attacking him. They can, unless otherwise ordered, still heal each other. And go deaf.

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He doesn't notice at first. Eidolon still has some hope this might work, so he doesn't want them fighting on his side. The deafness doesn't occur to him right away, but when it does subsequent ones get told not to go deaf and not to flee.

In cases where he has time, Eidolon also tells his vassals to heal those who are already deaf and not interfere with him capturing the rest.

Meanwhile, the master of the court has started flying away - invisibly - with a subset of the court, a dozen strong.

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That looks important.

Telekinesis lashes at the escaping subset, pulling them downward. The extremely non-invisible green figure flies toward them and tries to capture the dozen-odd escapees.

Apparently some enterprising sort has sealed all their mouths shut. It looks uncomfortable.

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Ripping through it sounds inhumane. Eidolon lands and tries for a matter creation power without a Manton limit, giving up his telekinesis. The new power starts out weak, but it doesn't need to be very strong to put a trickle of fruit juice in each fairy's throat.

"Don't go deaf, stop fleeing."

How very disobedient of them to continue to fly away as fast as their wings can carry them. Maybe they're deaf already.

whole_new_can

In retrospect that does make sense. They quickly find themselves heavy enough that their wings can't carry them. Rather than try to heal them himself, he calls to some new vassals, "If you can heal invisible deaf people, come here now! Cure these ones!"

Some fairies fly over and heal the invisible deaf people. It does not appear to have applied to their mouths.

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"No deafness, no fleeing." To the others, "fix their mouths."

"Who are you, why were you the only ones running? Answer honestly."

The sorcerer vassals cut open the places where mouths belong - one has claws, another has a knife, the others do their best to helpfully get in the way since Eidolon wasn't selective about who this order applied to and didn't restrict it to those who could usefully comply - and heal the wounds. There are a couple of fairies they can't touch, though, apparently.

The fairies with blood on their lips recite their nicknames (Plural, Mirage, Applause, Imagine, Yaw, Syrup, Luck, Trance, and Guess). And then, more or less on top of each other, reply variants on "Master told me to", "Peak told me to", "Favorite told me to", and "we weren't running, we were flying".

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"Who is master of the most vassals here?" There's probably a single figure at the top, but it's not inconceivable that there are more.

The fairies don't answer him. They look disgusted to have been captured by such an amateur.

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"Answer all my questions honestly. Who is the leader?"

It's probably one of the ones whose mouth nobody could repair, since apparently the harm is a necessary component. The flaps of skin that aren't supposed to be there become lighter until they essentially evaporate, as painlessly as Eidolon thinks he can manage. "Heal them," he tells one of the sorcerers who successfully healed the last set.

"Peak," and "Master," come the replies from the entire contingent of vassaled fairies. The sorcerers (all of them) approach to heal the two holdouts. The two holdouts' mouths promptly re-seal.

whole_new_can

Well, he never told the others not to heal. Odd, though, that they're suddenly helpful.

"Stop doing the mouth thing. It won't help anything." To the sorcerers, "heal them whenever they're injured." He unseals the holdouts' mouths.

"Which of you is Peak?"

The holdouts' teeth fuse together.

The shiny one with the purple hair raises her hand, the one that isn't clutching tight to the other's hand.

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