Legacy of the M'Zee Chapter 6

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Not quite as many words this week as I wanted. Still going to do a Wednesday post (or Thursday, or Friday, you'll get 2 this week :-p ), but this might be the last week for a bit. I'll try to get more done next week, but my office is still a giant mess. At least the work is done, now I just got to clean it and not step in the curing concrete. 

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Lindsay met us in the lobby of the inn we’d been staying at for the last month and a half. “Master Narwan wished for you to have this, and asked that you spend some time speaking with Miss Samantha tomorrow,” she said with a smile.

“Thank you, Lindsay,” I said, taking the book with a small bow. She giggled lightly, accidentally getting her hands in the way of mine, then turned to work on something at the desk. Vaya elbowed me. “What?” I asked. Her glare made me confused.

“She was flirting with you,” she said flatly. “Do not encourage it, please.”

“Uh, huh?” I asked confusedly, then shook my head. “I apologize, I did not realize and will do my best not to reciprocate. Doesn’t she have a crush on Mentor Jameson?”

“A crush?” Jon asked, then nodded as context clues kicked in. “Yeah, she did wish to be his catch, but I do not think that would go anywhere. Now, what is in the book?”

“Uh, let’s go sit somewhere and go through it,” I said. “Aleks, you want to go get Lilianna, Milenna, and Hanna? Oh, and see if Jamila, Ming, Xiao, and Lea want to join as well, if they’re around. Right over there looks comfortable and out of the way.” I pointed to a spot where three couches circled a table.

She nodded, then jogged up the stairs nearby to their room.

I led the others to the couch that sat against the wall and sat in the middle. Vaya sat next to me, leaning into my side so she could read over my shoulder. Jon and Bridget sat in the couch to our right. I set the book down on the table and opened to the first page. “There are three types of mixed Aethers. The physical are manifestations of the physical world, with a more focused existence than pure Elemental Aether. The most common example is either Mud, a combination of Water and Earth, or Steam, Water and Fire mixed. After physical are the conceptual, most often used with Water and Ice to form Connection Aether, used to reinforce walls by Connecting the various pieces together. The opposite, Separation Aether, is usually formed with Lightning and Water, and is used to break apart structures. The third most common is the emotional Aethers. Air and Fire together make Joy, while Earth and Water make Sadness.”

“Wait, did they not already mix Water and Earth to make Mud?” Bridget asked, leaning forward.

“Yeah,” I said. “Let’s keep reading to see if they say why.” I flipped the page and continued to read. “Creating a composite Aether requires a strong will and knowledge of Aether, as you must know what you wish to create and believe that you will be able to make it. There are hundreds of composite Aethers that I have seen, and dozens I myself have created, but only by believing and forcing the Aether to behave as you wish can you actually mix them together. It is recommended for beginners in this field to focus on the physical manifestations that are closest to your primary Affinity and to only mix two Elementary Aethers together. Mud, Lava, Mist, and Steam Aethers are the easiest to create.”

“Mist?” Jon asked.

“Uh, Water and Air,” I said. “I called it Fog when I last experienced it. Same thing, I guess.”

“Maybe it depends on the proportion of Air and Water?” Milenna asked, sitting on the couch to my left. “Evenly mixed you get Fog, but more Air than Water would be Mist?”

“More Water than Air would make Bubbles!” Jon said, excited. “So many tricks.”

Bridget whacked him upside the head. “What else does it say?”

“Well, the next page is a description of Mud, including how it feels, smells, and the sound it makes when you squish it,” I said, reading. “So the more you know about your desired creation, I guess the easier it is to make it.”

“Mud would be good for creating a quagmire,” Vaya said. “I could use that to stop a charging Beast or sink an opponent and then harden it, locking them in place.”

I kept turning the pages. “Yup. After Mud is Lava, lots of description of how it smells and the feeling of the heat on your skin.” I flipped through another dozen pages where various different things were described. Steam, Heat, Cold, Crystals (which was mostly about quartz, though the author didn’t say that), Glacier (a combination of Earth and Ice), Dust, and many others. The author ended up describing things with three or more Aether combinations, before he brought up.

“Ooh, here’s something intesteresting. Water and Metal make Rust, and he argues that it is a physical manifestation, while some others, not referenced here, say it is a conceptual Aether as a type of Decay. Since Wood and Water most commonly make Rot, which has a similar argument about whether it is a physical or a conceptual Aether, he argues that many of the concepts are physical as well. It is simply our perception of the Aether that creates what it is. So if you think of Rot more as Decay, the mix of Wood and Water will make a more conceptual Aether, or you could make the physical manifestation of rotting wood instead. That’s so weird,” I said.

We spent the next hour flipping through the book and discussing the various types of Aether that it described. After quickly flipping through the book, we spend another hour discussing our Dungeon run, what we saw, and how we handled it. Jamila asked a question that made my whole team pause, “Was it not allowed to rush to one edge of the field? You know, use the edge of the arena as a wall?”

“Uh, no idea,” I said. I laughed sheepishly, “It never occurred to me to move from the original starting spot.”

“That would probably work well,” Vaya said, “though you will have less time to deal with the closest Dungeon spawns.”

“Light, why did we not think of that?” Jon asked.

“Bad assumptions,” I said. “Have you run the Dungeon yet?” I asked Jamila.

“No,” she said shyly. “We are supposed to go as a team tomorrow afternoon. The information on the first wave is very useful. Thank you.”

“You are welcome,” I said with a grin. Everyone not on our team expressed their thanks, since both groups were going to the Dungeon tomorrow. After another ten minutes of discussing theoretical behavior of the Dungeon Beasts and ways of countering them, we broke up. The other two teams wanted to keep strategizing, but Vaya and Jon wanted to go try to make a composite Aether. The rest of my team headed to the courtyard behind the inn, and I quickly gave Jamila a hug and kiss before rushing after them.

We split up, moving to different sections of the courtyard so we wouldn’t interfere with each other. I gave Bridget the book, since Vaya was sure she could make Mud Aether without it. I looked over at my girlfriend to see her sitting on the ground. She made a small amount of Water appear in front of her and mixed it into the dirt. A little bit of stirring later, and she had a full on mud pie. She caught me watching her, then winked at me. I shook my head and turned away, only to be caught by a mud splatter on the back of my head. I turned and glared at her, but she only gave me a ‘who me’ innocent look.

I just rolled my eyes at her, then turned back to the wall that Librarian Narwan had permanently enhanced when we arrived. Okay, let’s see if I can replicate that plasma beam, I thought. I moved through the motions of Wrath of the Lightning Deity, but focused on mixing Air, Fire, and Lightning Aether again. I didn’t remember exactly the proportion of each, and so I decided to just mix them equally. Stupid mid-combat epiphanies not leaving perfect memories, I grumbled when the even mix fizzled into nothing. Even with strong willpower, you still need to approximate the actual amount of each or you end up with nothing. That’s what it said in the book.

I took a deep breath. Okay, plasma is going to be an even mix of Air and Lightning, to be the substance that is ionized and the ionization itself. Hot plasma is much more common than cold plasma, so let’s add half as much Fire. Five parts, two Lightning, two Air, one Fire, and go! I moved through the motions, focusing on what the beam had looked like, the smell of ozone and burning hair that had accompanied it, and the sound of air breaking in the midst of the attack. I crushed the Aether together, forcing it to form what I wanted, and a beam of Plasma smashed into the wall. A centimeter deep depression was carved into the wall where my beam hit. Yes! I celebrated, knowing that I’d made a new capability that would help us in a fight.

I played around with the Plasma Aether a bit longer, trying to see what all I could do with it. Plasma Blasts had a limited range, but hit harder than anything else I could use. I tried to punch with Plasma, and scoured the skin off my hand. Ow, ow, Light, ow, that sucked. A lot of power though, I looked at the divot in the wall. It was almost two centimeters deep, though it filled in quickly as Librarian Narwan’s Inscription fixed the damage. Okay, I think I’ve got the hang of this.

I walked over to where Vaya was playing around with mud and asked, “How’re things going?”

“Fairly well,” she said, then threw a ball of mud into my face. “I think I am almost there.”

“I would expect nothing less,” I said, wiping my cheeks off and glaring at her. I baked a bit of the mud off my hands and then cleaned them off on my pants. Jon was working on Mist, and achieving a small amount of success as well. I borrowed the book from him, flipping through the various pages to see what I wanted to work on next. Let’s try for a challenge to finish off the night.

I focused on the emotional Aethers, and decided I needed more joy, or Joy, in my life. Creating an emotional composite is the hardest of the three, since they are even less tangible than a conceptual mix. It says here to start by thinking of the times that the emotion was prevalent in your life, and to focus on what evokes that emotion about each of the two Elemental Aethers. I held both hands out.

In my right I conjured a ball of Air Aether, and let it swirl around. A tiny bit of dirt got stuck in the wildly rotating vortex, dancing around the center. I smiled at the sight, thinking of how people described a joyful breeze and the feeling of the first warm wind of spring. Thinking of spring made him remember the spring break trip where he’d proposed to Jasmine, which segued nicely into his contemplation of fire.

They had been camping, a dozen friends from various squadrons next to the Pueblo reservoir. It wasn’t wilderness camping like several of them liked, but they spent the first two days kayaking across the reservoir and just enjoying playing board games and telling stories around the joyfully flickering fire. Those were great days, I thought, looking at my left hand where a flickering sphere of Fire Aether hovered. Fire had always made me smile, at least when confined in a campfire or fireplace. The Fire I held danced, and I played with the shape.

Finally, I thought to what joy was, the happiness I felt when Jasmine said yes in front of our closest friends, the laughter Jon caused when he dumped a bucket of water on Mr. Stanilopolis’s head, the frustrating jerk of a shopkeeper, and the quiet contentment I felt earlier, reading a book with Vaya and Jamila leaning on me. I looked over to my friends, Jon and Bridget goofing off while playing with Aether, and Vaya sitting in the mud. She caught me looking, and flashed me a brilliant smile that made my heart flutter. I cannot forget the life I led before my arrival here, but it can only inform my life here, not dictate it. I can find joy here, and have. I’m in a world with real magic, and in a position to make extreme changes that will help everyone.

I am Caleb Hill, and I am Kupiec Aiden. I cannot divorce myself from my past, even if it occasionally feels like it was just a dream. Joy, true joy, is more than happiness, more than just feelings. It is the contentment that comes from knowing that, no matter what, these people here with me and the others will be behind me one hundred percent. As I contemplated my beliefs on Joy, I put my two hands together, merging the balls of Fire and Air. Time passed, and the balls slowly collapsed inward.

I opened my eyes to see a tiny ball of pink Aether jumping back and forth between my hands. It seemed almost incapable of sitting still, and every movement evoked happiness in my mind.

“Of course,” Jon said, startling me out of my introspection. “Only you would make a second new type of Aether in a single day. What did you make this time?”

“Uh, Joy Aether,” I said, “or at least that’s what I tried to make.”

“I should hope you made what you wanted to,” Vaya said, leaning over my other shoulder to look closely at the bouncing pink ball, “considering it has been almost an hour since you started.”

“Really?” I asked, incredulous. “It didn’t feel that long.” I looked at the ball in my hands, and laughed. “Well, I figured Joy would be the easiest of the emotional composites mentioned in the book, considering the people around me right now are most of the biggest sources of joy in my life.” I leaned into Vaya’s cheek. I felt her face heat up, and just enjoyed the contentment of achieving something new and interesting, and sharing it with my friends. I talked a little about my thought process, describing what all I had done, and bounced the Joy Aether around.

“What are you going to do with it?” Bridget asked.

“Uh, no idea,” I said with a laugh. “I just wanted to see if I could do it.”

“Well, that does give us ideas on how to make emotional Aether as well,” Vaya said with a grin.

“What are your plans for the rest of the night?” Jon asked.

“Sia and I are going to gather together, and see about working on our Affinities. He’s still ahead of me in Fire and Air, and he wants to see if he can push his Wood Affinity higher with my help,” I said, then mentally called to Sia, “We’re done if you are free.”

“I will be there shortly,” Sia said back to me. “Zimnodlot, Kami, and Lampart are returning as well. We had a productive time hunting, though the Sayaad Guild were confused why we wanted to transport alone.”

“That’s great,” I said, then turned to the others, “Your Bonds are on the way as well.”

“Good, we can all use some time to gather with them,” Vaya said.

It took Sia and the rest of them a couple of minutes to arrive. While waiting, I just kind of played with the new pink ball, tossing it to Vaya and maintaining it when she threw it back to me. Just the presence of the Joy Aether made everyone a bit happier. In the midst of one toss, Sia flew into the courtyard at his full size. His wingspan reached eight meters across. I looked up in awe at him, missing my catch. I was amazed yet again that he had tied his life to mine, gambling that I would surpass what he had achieved to this point. “Are you ready to work on our Affinities some?” I asked him.

“Of course, Aiden,” he said. “Do you want to work on Fire or Air? I need to work on Wood the most.”

“Uh, Fire, I think,” I said. “With your help, it’ll tie with Lightning and that’ll definitely help with the new Aether composite I just made.” I explained about the Plasma Aether.

“That is very interesting,” he said. “I have not tried to make any composites.” He shrank down and landed on my shoulders, one claw on either side of my head.

“Nope, you are not sitting on my head to gather,” I grumbled aloud at him. “Not happening.”

“Fine,” he said to all of us, a tone of laughter embedded overtop his mental sending. He hopped off, increasing in size again, and wrapped his wings around me.

I leaned back against his feathers, and we linked our meridians together. We slowly built up the technique Librarian Narwan had taught us, focusing first on gathering to our current peak state before sharing specific Aethers back and forth. He sent his incredibly potent Fire Aether, and I responded with Wood Aether. I grabbed a hold of the Fire, cycling it through my meridians and grinding away at my Affinity.

I could tell that Sia was feeling the strain of his extremely low Affinity for Wood, and sympathized with the feeling of vines growing through his meridians. Of course, mine were currently on Fire, so I didn’t sympathize too much. I think I can use this to advance my tempering too, I thought, then diverted a tiny bit of my attention to build the third level tempering technique in my aorta, starting the process of tempering my arteries in Fire Aether. Millimeter by millimeter, the tempering climbed up, faster than when I had tempered with Lightning.

Splitting my mind like that was the limit of my capability, and the rest of the world faded away as we focused on getting the most out of our technique. I grit my teeth, concentrating through the agony of my meridians and blood vessels burning up. Why is gathering always so painful? I exclaimed.

After an hour, I had to call our session. My meridians were starting to be strained beyond what was safe. “Thanks Sia,” I said. “A couple more weeks of this and the gains will be permanent. We’ll be able to improve all of our Affinities over time. Uh, did you get a chance to speak with Librarian Narwan about the Divine Territory?”

“You are welcome,” he answered. “It is not like this does not benefit me as well. I spoke to him, Sultah Aleahil, and the other Soul gatherers. They said no one really knows what will happen, since I am the first Core-level Beast Bonded to a Condensation-level gatherer who is entering into the Divine Territory. Most of them believe that I will simply be unable to enter, blocked in the same way that everyone above Condensation is. Sultah Aleahil is convinced I will be able to join you, our Soul Bond defeating the boundary, but that I will be unable to express my full power while there. He suggested wearing a suppression collar like in the tournament to increase the odds.”

“And what does Librarian Narwan think?”

“He believes that I will be able to join, but that doing so will permanently reduce my level to be equivalent to yours.” Sia paused for a second. “In some ways, I believe that would actually increase my ability to help you grow. I cannot truly share my Aether and Affinities with you right now, as my Aether’s density and purity would reduce you to meat paste. If we were the same level, we could share much more freely, and I believe you would grow faster.”

“Really? If you were lower level I’d grow faster?”

“Look at Jon,” Sia said. “He has a significantly lower number of meridians and worse Affinities than you, yet he is keeping up admirably. Yes, you are supporting him and your other friends, but you should be outstripping them. His Bond with Zimnodlot is letting them both grow faster, and I cannot support you in quite the same way, or to the same extent. Of course, if nothing changes, you will probably reach Core well before he does, but not by anywhere near the extent it would normally be.”

“In some ways, I’m glad,” I told him. “I don’t want to outpace my friends too much. I’ve told you about my discussion with Darkness, and I truly believe I will need all the help I can get in surviving what is to come. If the trip brings you down and lets us advance quicker, we will just have to focus on making sure everyone else here can advance just as fast. I will not allow them to fall behind.”

“Good! I will assist you with that. We do not know what will happen when you try to enter the Divine Territory, though I know you all will advance while you are there. Light, knowing you, I would not be surprised if you came back at the end of Completion.” His laughing cry echoed through the air.

“Well, I’m glad you have such a high estimation of my capability,” I said dryly. I laughed. “I really am the main character, aren’t I?”

“What?”

I laughed again, self-deprecatingly this time, and explained about the isekai novels I’d read back on Earth, and how what I went through was so similar to them.

He laughed at me, not with me, then said, “Now that we are unable to gather, can you show me the Plasma Aether you mentioned before?”

“Sure,” I said. We spent the next twenty minutes working on it. I demonstrated a few times, and when he was unable to create it, I described everything I could remember about plasma from my chemistry and physics classes at USAFA, bringing a melancholy joy into my heart as I remembered my chemical kinetics classes. Finally, it was time to go to sleep, for the few hours I needed as a Condensation-level gatherer.