The Fusionist Book 3 -- Chapter 36

Chapter 36

“And… that should do it.” Larek stepped back and saw that all of the glass lamp chimneys had all been reinstalled into their sconces. Since the daylight had done a fairly good job of lighting up the common room of the inn, the oil flames hadn’t been burning, but the sun was already shifting enough in the sky that it was starting to become darker inside the room.

“They don’t really look any different. How do they work?” Grenda asked, coming up behind him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bartholomew twitch toward him as if he wanted to protect Larek from some sort of assassination attempt by the woman, but the Innkeeper was simply curious about the new additions to her Inn.

“Like this,” the Fusionist said, tapping the glass once, and two seconds later, the entire glass chimney started to give off a subtle glow. It wasn’t as impactful as it would be if it was darker inside the room, but it was visible. He then went on to demonstrate how to change the light levels and how to turn them off, and then mentioning that they had a Strengthening Fusion on them to prevent them from being damaged. “It won’t make them impossible to break, but they won’t shatter if they accidentally hit the floor.”

“Simply amazing,” Grenda said a little breathlessly, before playing with the Illuminate Fusion for herself. She picked up how it worked quickly and was soon moving all over the room with quick feet, turning them all on to the Magnitude 2 setting. Soon enough, she was back to Larek, looking at him with a calculating look in her eyes. “How long will these last?”

He honestly didn’t know, because even his very first Fusions he’d made were still working perfectly well, with formations that appeared just as strong as they were when he created them. “At least a year, but I can’t tell you how much longer than that.” That was the truth, after all.

“A year? I thought Fusions only lasted a few months at most.”

Shuffling his feet nervously as he tried to think of an excuse, Verne came to Larek’s rescue. “It’s a new technique taught by that new Fusionist that was at Copperleaf. You’ve heard about that?”

She nodded. “Yes, I think just about everyone has heard of this Fusionist fellow, but I don’t believe any of the SIC forces here were able to acquire anything that he made. And you say you learned from him? Are there many that have learned these new ‘techniques’?”

“No, uh, not many,” Larek answered. “And although I’ve learned as much as I could, there’s just so much more that isn’t possible for me.” At least, not yet.

Again, that was the truth as he was talking about himself. Thankfully, it seemed as though that satisfied the Innkeeper, as she grinned widely, as if she had just achieved a huge victory. “To think, I’ve got the only Fusions made from someone who studied under this fabled Fusionist!  There’s no one that can match something like this!”

Larek was going to mention that he was planning on gifting some Fusions for the SIC, but he decided not to at the last moment. She could believe what she liked, he mused, even if it was only going to be true for a short time.

“If you don’t mind, I think we’d love to get some more rest before dinner later,” he said politely, wanting to get away from the overbearing smile that the woman was presenting as she lovingly rubbed one of the glass chimneys.

“Uh huh. Yes. Rest. Dinner.”

Leaving the Innkeeper to whatever fun she was having with her new Fusions, the group went back up to his and his roommates’ room, where they all lounged on the enormous beds, except for Bartholomew, who stood relaxed near the doorway after it was closed and locked.

“Should we go exploring through the town?” Verne asked after a few minutes of relaxation. Larek should’ve known the boy would be bored, despite all the action they’d seen over the last week.

“Probably not a good idea,” Nedira said, shutting down Verne and her brother’s hopes to explore. “I know it might be fun for you, but there are too many dangers out there, and until we get you changed into something less conspicuous than you student robes, it’s probably safer if we all stay here.”

Larek agreed, but he also didn’t want to have to go out into the town if he could avoid it altogether. There were just too many people and he still wasn’t the most comfortable in crowds; more than that, his ring that held the Perceptive Misdirection Fusion on it wouldn’t work if someone touched him physically, and there were too many people out there that it was inevitable that someone would run into him. It was almost a miracle that it hadn’t happened already.

“Ah, you’re no fun at all,” Verne complained. A second later, he turned to Larek. “I know!  Are there any fun Fusions you can create?”

“Fun? What do you mean by that?” Larek wouldn’t really describe his Fusions as being “fun”. Useful? Absolutely. Deadly? Some of them, sure. But fun? Not necessarily.

“You know, something that we could make into a game. Or simply something to play with that won’t tear a hole through the walls or hurt one of us.”

Looking through his list of available Fusions, he quickly dismissed every single one as being something that might be suitable as a being used in a game or to play with. The Fusions were either used to enhance a material, heal someone, protect them from being hurt, or to hurt something in return.

It wasn’t until he saw the Fusion that he had just created on the list that he remembered being curious about if he could change the color of the light that was emitted from an Illuminate Fusion. The longer he considered it, the more he thought it could be done, as it should simply be an alteration of the Effect to display a certain color.

From that simple, curious thought, Larek designed something “fun” for Verne and Norde to pass the time. At least, he hoped it would be.

Getting down on the floor and instructing the others to move the giant rug covering the hardwood, the Fusionist designed a Lesser Intermediate Fusion that he was able to use his Focused Division Skill to create at least 9 of them at the same time. In a square, grid-like 7-by-7 pattern, he arranged these new Fusions all over the floor for a total of 49 of them, each of them separated approximately a foot from each other.

New Fusion Learned!

Red and White Illuminate Wood +2

Activation Method: Reactive

Effect(s): Creates either a red or white illumination in a fixed location

Magnitude: Illumination level 2 in a 1-foot square of wood

Input: Physical pressure

Variable 1: If no pressure detected, deactivates after 2 seconds

Variable 2: Upon initial activation, emits a white illumination

Variable 3: If previous activation emitted a white illumination, it now emits red illumination

Variable 4: If previous activation emitted a red illumination, it now emits a white illumination

Mana Cost: 140

Pattern Cohesion: 15

Fusion Time: 55 minutes

Multi-effect Fusion Focus has reached Level 15!

Larek wasn’t absolutely sure if the coloring of the different illumination would actually work, but all it took was some extra focus on the Effect that he wanted. Since it was simply a slight change in the output of the Effect and nothing significantly different, he felt the changes work perfectly for his idea. He thought that once he was eventually able to create Advanced Fusions, the number of different colors in the same Fusion would increase as he would be able to focus on more at the same time, but for now all he needed was red and white.

Taking the idea of using the number of finger taps to change the brightness on the lamp chimneys and changing it slightly, he used simple physical pressure to activate these Fusions. From there, though, instead of waiting 2 seconds to register the Inputs, it would activate immediately and then deactivate once 2 seconds passed. Then, using his Variables to dictate what color the illumination would be depending on what color it was last time, it was easy enough to put it all together. All it took was a single Mana Cost that powered two different Effects (white and red illumination), a single Input, four Variables, and a Magnitude of 2 inside a 3-by-3 grid formation. It didn’t need to be too bright, but he wanted to ensure it was visible even in a brightly lit room.

Because it only required an initial Mana Cost of 140 Mana, as well as 15 Pattern Cohesion, Larek was able to get the entire grid of 50 done in a few minutes. It actually took him longer to design the grid formation than to actually create them, and when he was done, the others just looked at him in confusion.

“What did you do here, Larek? I see the Fusions, but I don’t understand what they do,” Nedira asked.

“I don’t even see that much,” Bartholomew complained.

Larek looked at his handiwork and frowned, as a flaw in his design emerged. While Mages could see the Fusions easily enough, even if they might be a little blurry because they weren’t adept at making them out, no Martials or normal people would know they were there other than perhaps by sensing their presence. It meant that the latter group of people would find it harder to play the game he designed, so he would have to figure out a way to designate where they actually were for those that couldn’t see the Fusions themselves.

Shrugging, he debated changing the Fusion to see if he could make them at least visible with some sort of indicator to everyone, but decided not to. He had created this for the boys to play with, after all, and everyone would at least see the results.

“I made a grid of Fusions that will illuminate a square of the wooden floor when you step on them, and will disappear after 2 seconds when you step off. My thought was that one of you could step through it and make whatever pattern you want, and the other would have to match it. The first steps through it will be white, while a second step will turn it red; if it doesn’t all turn red when the second person matches the pattern, then they’ve made a mistake and will lose.”

It was a simple enough game, but it allowed him to apply a lot of the things he’d learned to create something entirely new. He could also feel that the ease of customizing his Fusions was becoming easier than it used to be; whether it was just from practice or because his Skills were slowly improving when he accumulated enough Aetheric Force, he wasn’t sure.

Verne and Norde immediately scrambled down from the bed where they had been watching Larek work on the floor, and the tree-like boy tentatively stuck his foot on the Fusion closest to the edge where he was located. As soon as his foot made contact, a square of white light glowed on the wood beneath his appendage, a pure white that was a bit different than the illumination given off by his recent creations downstairs, which was an off-white that was bordering on yellow. Verne giggled as he picked his foot up, waited a pair of seconds for the glow to dissipate, and the placed it down again. This time, a vibrant red glow shone up from the wood, bathing his foot with an eerie radiance before he removed it again. Another test had it light up white again, and then Verne moved across the entire grid of Fusions, making a simple path that only took a single step out of line as he made his way across the 7-by-7 grid.

Once all the Fusions deactivated, Norde easily made his way over the same path, making the lights glow red as he accurately achieved a perfect placement of his feet as he moved across. As Larek stood up, sat on his bed, and watched the two explore the new “game” he had made, Nedira smiled at him and said, “Thanks.”

“Hmm? For what?”

She waved at the Fusions on the floor. “For that. With all that we’ve been through, I sometimes forget that my brother is only 11 years old, the same with Verne. They’ve had to endure so much more than they should by their age, and sometimes it’s good for them to just be a kid and play every once in a while.” Her smile faltered slightly as she added, “At least until we go back out there and start killing monster again.”

He nodded as he pulled her close, feeling comfortable with her pressed up against his side with his arm around her as he watched the two boys experiment with more elaborate pathing through the grid. He began to see some flaws in his design after a little bit, such as when one of them made a mistake, they would have to try and reset it by jumping from the edge and stepping on whatever had been wrong, before hopping away while avoiding touching any other Fusion, but it wasn’t really something he needed to worry about at the moment. If he ever redesigned it, he had some ideas for improvements, but for now, it was enough of a diversion that it suited their needs and it wasn’t important for it to be perfect.

As the light began to dim even further outside, Larek realized that it was getting late, and dinner would start to be served soon. Their other groupmates hadn’t returned quite yet, so they held off on heading down to eat until they arrived, but fortunately Verne and Norde hadn’t tired of their game yet; in fact, they had even designed a few other ways to utilize the lights other than his “follow the path” one he had envisioned, and it was interesting to see their creativity.

A gentle murmur was eventually heard somewhere below them, which only rose in volume as the sun continued to set, making Larek realize he was hearing dinner being served in the common room below. It was a bit surprising given the fact that every other time he’d been down there it had been essentially dead.

“The Innkeeper probably heavily discounts her normal prices for dinner to drive business,” Nedira mused after he questioned how busy it sounded. “With her normal rates, she’d never make any money if no one could afford to stay or eat here. She can be then be picky in who she allows to rent rooms.”

That sounded entirely plausible, since Vivienne had mentioned that the rate for their rooms for a single night were outrageous, but the food was spectacular enough that the Innkeeper could probably still charge higher-than-normal prices without pricing everyone out. The custom from the dinners she served was probably the majority of her business at that point, and the rooms she rented out were just a bonus, of sorts.

Just when Larek was beginning to worry about Kimble, Vivienne, and Penelope, he heard a commotion outside the door there was a knock, followed by Penelope’s voice saying, “We’re back. Open up.”

“Use the correct phrase, please,” the Martial trainee near the door called out with a smile on his face.

There was a pause, before Larek heard a petulant-sounding Penelope say, “Bartholomew is the greatest.”

The next moment, Bartholomew opened the door to smile at the three people outside, before waving them in. All three of the new arrivals were overloaded with packs stuffed with supplies, and while the two Martials appeared unaffected by the weight of the things they were carrying, Kimble looked like he was about to pass out. Larek jumped up and started to help unload everything from the Pyromancer’s arms, placing them either on the floor or his bed, while the blue-haired Martial and the Ranger were able to handle their unload, themselves.

Meanwhile, Verne and Norde had stopped their play for a moment upon their arrival, but had resumed after it was obvious they weren’t needed to help. Kimble, after recovering from his trek with packs full of heavy supplies, raised his eyebrows in surprise when he saw what the two students were doing, and he looked at Larek with a questioning gaze. The Fusionist just shrugged, not wanting to explain what he had done.

He had more important things he wanted to discover, such as if Penelope and the rest had been able to get everything they needed.

“Long story short, we got most of what we needed,” the blue-haired Martial said immediately upon unloading her burden. “I’ll explain more later, but for now, let’s get some food – I’m starving!”

While Larek wasn’t starving, he could certainly go for some more of the delicious food if it was anything like earlier. Given that they weren’t going to be visiting any other towns or cities along the way to Silverledge Academy and Fort Ironwall, he’d rather get as much of it in as possible before they were forced to eat the supplies they were going to bring with them.

“Might as well go now, then,” Larek said. “You can see my handiwork down there, too, unless you saw it when you came in?”

Penelope and the others shook their heads. “No, it was too busy and we had our hands full, as you saw. I’m eager to see them once I can actually pay attention.”

As soon as Verne and Norde finished whatever they were doing, they joined the rest of the group as they made their way back downstairs, ready to fill their bellies after all the activities of the afternoon.