Legacy of the M'Zee Chapter 11

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Another chapter in 2 mins

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

When I woke, I felt light. The pain and exhaustion was but a distant memory. I was about to sit up when I realized there was pressure on my stomach and legs. My head lifted up, and I snorted. Vaya’s head was on my stomach, using me as a pillow, while Lampart was laying across my legs like the giant cat she was. Heh, guess I’m not getting up for a bit, I laughed in my head.

“Finally awake?” Sia asked.

“Finally?”

“You have been asleep for six hours. Zimnodlot says they have set up camp and found some edible tubers and berries. Bridget is cooking dinner now. They are all getting anxious about your health.”

“Sorry for worrying them and delaying you,” I sighed. “That sucked, but it gave you a great power up as well.”

“It helped you and Vaya as well,” Sia landed next to my head. He smacked me lightly in the face with his wing, almost causing me to sneeze. “Feel your own aura. You’ve grown stronger, your aura deeper. We need to find two more of those pills for Jon and Bridget. Maybe four, so they can catch up.”

“Can only use one, but yeah. We should see about getting some extra benefits to Jon and Bridget so they can not fall behind.” I spoke one my main worries to Sia, that I would grow faster than my friends. In that case, I’d either have to leave them and journey alone to keep them safe, or they’d join me in a fight that would get them killed. “I don’t believe that what is coming can be solved alone. At the very least, having all eight of us as strong as possible is the best thing we can do.”

“So you think you will have time to grow stronger than Librarian Narwan or King Craesti? Maybe you are just supposed to be a catalyst to change that will help everyone, like your crystals or the printing press. I doubt you will have a century to grow,” Sia asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied, shaking my head. “I wonder that myself. Is this relentless rush to push myself and grow stronger the right thing to do, or should I be sitting in a lab somewhere, redesigning the technology that I can remember. How do I trust the ones in power with some of my knowledge, when they could use it to kill cities, or level continents. If I disrupt the political and social structure enough, will the defenses of the kingdom break down and let the Illyrians invade or prevent a strong enough response to a Beast Wave? Or even the Topraki, since our relationship is so complicated.”

“It is only with personal power that you can effect real change,” Sia said. “So pushing yourself will help with your other goals, regardless of the need. Samantha seems like she would know much of the same science and technology, so you should work to keep her on your side and help her create the right ones. If she joins your house, since you are a noble now, you would be in control of her inventions and could prevent the dangers that you fear.”

“But,” I paused, trying to articulate why I didn’t want that.

“You do not have to marry her to make her a part of your house, nor does that make her your property,” Sia told me, smashing my worries with a sledgehammer. “You could make her a retainer, or adopt her as a younger sibling.”

“Heh, she’d probably kill me if I tried that,” I laughed. “She confessed her love to me before the trip through the portal.”

“I heard. I was a level six Beast then. I am sure Knight Kaminski, Librarian Narwan, and half the people with you heard it.”

“Oh, great,” I banged my head against the ground, then frowned. I picked my head up again, and let it drop. It didn’t hurt, it didn’t even sting a tiny bit, like I would have expected.

Vaya sat up with a yawn and a very distracting stretch. “Good evening,” I said.

“Evening? How long were we out?” She asked, then blushed as she realized where she had been laying.

I told her what Sia said, lightly shifting my legs until Lampart stood and arched her back. Finally, I stood and shook my arms and legs out. “I’m glad I don’t feel anything from that, that, rotten fish of a pill,” I grumbled.

“That was very bad, but if it managed to make Lampart and Sia evolve, what did it do to us?” Vaya said.

“No idea,” I shrugged. “I feel lighter, like I lost a ton of weight, so I’m probably stronger than I was. Other than that, the spirit did say it would help us cultivate, which I thought was similar to gathering.”

“It seemed to be more about tempering,” Vaya said, “But different too. There was definitely something we were doing with it that was not right. I do not believe that the spirit thought we would be in danger from the pill.”

“That is correct, Lady cultivator,” the spirit spoke, somehow, in the Craesti language. “All of me apologizes for the damage and danger you were in. It should not have been dangerous, as the pill was carefully calibrated for your capability. I do not know what happened.”

I described what we did, “These methods are all we could think of when you said cultivation techniques,” I told it. “Gathering Aether into ourselves and tempering our bodies with it.”

It paused for almost a minute, the spectral shape flickering while its power was sent into processing something. Huh, it’s just like an AI or something. “I cannot give you a cultivation technique. You may be able to earn one in the Tower of Trials. You are now fully recovered. As compensation for your ordeal, you may instruct your teammates on how you absorbed and processed the pills. Do not tell them what else you found down here, as that will invalidate the test. An additional benefit will be provided if they succeed on their trial. Now, please leave, and good luck in the trials.” The spirit vanished.

“Well, I guess it’s time to head back,” I said, turning back to Vaya. She nodded, and we moved to the stairs leading to the water. Sia just flew up, and left us. Vaya and Lampart leapt into the bottom of the pond, swimming upward quickly. I just shook my head, since my Aether vision didn’t show anything really stopping the water. “This place is, I just can’t. Light. I want to know how.” I took a deep breath, then leapt into the water.

“Hurry! We are under attack,” Sia sent.

“Coming!” I sent back, pushing Aether into strengthening my limbs to swim faster than Phelps ever could. The water was fairly clear, and as I rocketed past Vaya I gestured upwards urgently. Her eyes grew wide, and she pushed her speed as fast as possible as well. Less than a minute later, I burst out of the water to see Kami tank a Lightning bolt while an icicle shot towards one of dozens of flying forms in the air.

They had a bird’s body with light blue feathers, streaked with a light pattern of brown and yellow, but their neck extended like a snake’s, with bright yellow scales. A snake’s face ended the necks, with large fangs sticking out of its lips, but a set of antlers adorned its head. Two of them circled, and another bolt of Lightning shot at Kami. This time I noticed the tube of Air that tried to blow her away.

I sent a Fire Aether Blast flying at the closest Beast, causing it to hiss in pain as its feathers on the closest wing burnt off and it spiraled towards the ground. I love not needing a weapon, but Light, they help. Especially with Core-level Inscriptions, I whined to myself, with my trisula that would have blown that thing apart. Guess I need to really train without weapons for a while sometime.

Two of the creatures turned towards me, and another bolt of Lightning slammed into my chest. It tingled slightly, my primary Affinity absorbing the vast majority of the damage from Beasts that were below my own strength. The follow up Air Blast, however, picked me up and sent me tumbling back into the water. It didn't hurt, but my mass was still only around eighty kilograms, and I hadn't braced or used a technique to stop my movement.

With a grimace, I blew two Air Aether Blasts into the water under me, lightly cutting my fingers but shooting me into the air. I landed behind Jon, who was armed with his weapons but not wearing any armor. “Where’s my weapons?” I yelled, then gestured to send a Metal Aether Slash off the end of my fingers. A diving Beast was decapitated before it could react, the majority of them only being level three.

“Leftmost tent!” Jon yelled, blocking three more bolts on his shield. “Darkness, these things are annoying.” He slashed his sword upwards, but his target dodged. He grinned and pulled the Aether backwards, a thin streamer of Air attached to the Ice, cutting through the bird thing’s wing.

I collected Metal Aether around my right hand while sprinting towards the tent. One of the Beasts dove in front of me, only to take a spike of Metal into its face. I pinned it to the ground, giving easier access to harvest it later. A bolt of Lightning slammed into my back, but only succeeded in making me step forward slightly. “Huh, that tingled,” I said, turning back to see Vaya get knocked sprawling from a bolt. “Vaya!”

I ran to her, forgetting about my trisula. On the way, I made another Metal spike but extended it over a meter long. As another Lightning bolt shot from three of the birds, I reached forward with the spike and my will, almost sucking the attack into the Metal. The Lightning was a bit stronger this time, making my hand spasm, but the Metal spike didn’t drop, held in place by my mind.

Vaya stood, a whip of Wood and Water Aether forming in her hand. She struck out, the flexible attack wrapping around one of the nimble Beasts. Dozens of thorns sprouted from the end and cut through the snake-like neck. Sia dove into another group, flames exploding from him and burning away their feathers.

I focused on sending out more Metal spikes while shielding Vaya from her weakest Affinity so she could focus on ripping more of the Beasts from the air. A few more minutes left us panting and singed, with two dozen dead lizard birds splattered around us while the remains of the flock fled. “Everyone okay?” Vaya asked, looking around.

“Yeah,” I said. Jon nodded, though he was shaking his right arm like it was numb. Vaya moved over to him, and a flare of green, brown, and blue Aether flowed into his arm.

“Thanks,” he said.

“I never thought I’d see Piasas,” Bridget said, looking at one of the corpses.

“Piasas?” I asked.

“These things. My dad told me stories about them. Hopefully we don’t run into any adults, if his stories were true,” Bridget answered.

“Adults?” Jon asked, moving over to her.

“Yeah. Dad’s stories put mature Piasas at level six, with some going all the way to eight. These were only level three,” she grimaced.

“So we just fought off a group of babies. Go us,” Jon laughed. “Either way, they were dual Affinity, so their cores should be useful. Smoke the meat too.”

We spent the next hour cleaning the clearing, defeathering and skinning the Piasas, and cutting the meat off the bones. I collected a pile of Cores, swirls of yellow and light blue showing the Lightning and Air Aether in them. Only once we were done did Jon and Vaya sit us down with questions, and dinner.

“I can’t tell you much,” I said. “We found something really interesting that you two, and your Bonds, should explore. There is a reward, but I cannot tell you how to get it, or you won’t be able to. You’ll want the Bonds there, as processing the reward was much easier when shared between them.”

“And with each other,” Vaya said, grabbing my hand. “I was having trouble, and Aiden helped me through it.”

“How?” Jon asked.

“I held her hands and pulled some of the energy through them to me, and then when I started to get overwhelmed, she did the same,” I said. “By alternating back and forth, we were able to be strong for each other, and successfully process the reward. No idea how beneficial it was, though I definitely feel stronger. It was supposed to help us gather better, so while you explore we’ll take some time to test it out.”

“Sure,” Jon said. “We will go for a swim in an hour or so. We should get mostly recovered from the Piasa battle by then.”

“At least they taste pretty good,” Bridget laughed, her hand up to keep fried fowl from spilling out of her mouth.

We joked a bit through dinner, then spent the first ten minutes or so of the hour Jon wanted talking about the fight. We had started to get into the habit of speaking one or two things that we noticed about someone else, so they could improve. “So, Vaya should probably temper with Lightning again sometime soon,” Bridget said. “I saw you go down from that strike, and I am worried we might run into more of them.”

“Yeah,” Vaya frowned. “The Lightning seemed to set my Wood Aethers on fire. I will work on shielding it better. Jon, you should work on accuracy at a distance. You were having a lot of trouble hitting the Beasts, and took more damage than you needed to because of it. Maybe form a few smaller attacks and spread them out, or set a distance to make them explode into icy shards?”

“I like explosions,” Jon laughed. “I will look into that, and practice some more. Those Piasas were fast. I will also try to extend my slowing aura upward more. I was not able to do it this time. Aiden, you should not go into battle without your weapons. Both you and Vaya should have brought them, even if nothing had happened. We are not in a safe area, even if it is supposed to be a trial.”

“Good point. I probably could have done a lot more damage to the Beasts quicker with my trisula. I will make sure to keep them with me at all times while we are here,” I patted the weapons, now adorning my belt. Vaya and I’d gotten changed after the fight, drying off and reequipping our armors. “Um, Bridget. I didn’t see much, but I did notice you getting tripped up by some of their Air Blades. As your primary Affinity, you should be able to feel and dodge them. It looked like you were too focused on attacking them, and neglected your own safety.”

“I have gotten used to relying on Jon to keep me safe when we are close,” she said frowning. “I will endeavor to dodge more attacks. His efforts to protect me made the battle take longer. Good spot, Aiden. Thanks.”

The rest of us thanked each other, then split apart to gather. “What about me?” Sia’s voice chimed in my head.

“You are too used to your old power,” I told him. “Diving into the middle of the flock was more dangerous than you think it was. You should have stayed back and just flamed them.”

“Maybe. I do need to adjust, but I think that was the right call. They were unable to channel their Lightning Bolts individually, so I split them up. The Air Blades were not enough to get through my Flame Shield,” Sia responded haughtily.

“Even so, it worried me. We will have to work hard to get stronger,” I smiled up at him.

He flew over and landed on my shoulder, “Lampart and I are going to watch, so I will not be gathering with you. We will have to make time when Jon, Bridget, Kami, and Zimnodlot get back.”

“Hey, why do you always call Zim by his full name?” I asked.

“Because he prefers it. I like Sia, instead of Siarcystcy (spelling), simpler to say, unless it is a formal occasion, but he seems to hate Zim,” Sia told me.

“Huh,” I said aloud. “I didn’t know Zimnodlot didn’t like his name being shortened. I will endeavor to use his full name.” I stopped then turned to where Zimnodlot and Jon were sitting. “I will use your full name, unless we are in a fight and I have to yell a command quickly. Is that acceptable?”

The Snowy Owl turned his head towards me, arcing it sideways a full ninety-degrees. I felt something but couldn’t make it out. “He accepts your compromise, and says thank you,” Sia told me. “I am going to see what is around us. Gather. Lampart and I will keep you safe.”

“Thanks,” I said, then dove into my center. Nothing looked different, maybe a bit shinier, which was weird as there wasn’t really any light here. With a mental shrug, I built the runes and spirals for my gathering technique, barely thinking about it after doing it so many times. The rush of Aether shattered my technique almost instantly. “Light, what in Darkness happened?” I wondered to myself.

Over and over again, the amount of Aether I pulled in broke my technique, before I stopped putting the runes up, downgrading to the Spiral Gathering Technique from the Runic Spiral Gathering Technique. The rush then was barely stable, and I felt dozens of locations where the spirals were misaligned by the tiniest fraction. “Light. That pill must have tripled, maybe quadrupled my ability to gather. Everyone needs one. After Jon and Bridget find them, we should try to find Aleks and Jamila so their teams can get some too. Have to find another two locations as well.  Two more at least, anyway.”

I gathered for a bit, spreading my senses throughout my center and my meridians. I could not tell what was different, beyond a sense of completeness. Once I was fully recovered, I spent another hour cycling my Aether, pulsing and pushing to expand my meridians by the tiniest bit. Each gain, each new expansion, each step forward, made it more likely that I would thrive in this world, and keep my loved ones safe. Hopefully without dying this time.