The Fusionist Book 3 -- Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Darkness fell upon the group of Mage students and Martial trainees faster than Larek expected, but that was to be expected considering they were near a mountain range and traveling through a pine forest – both of which blocked the light fairly quickly once the sun fully descended behind the horizon. Located on the western side of the valley, Larek knew that they would have to eventually head to the northeast to make it to Silverledge Academy and Fort Ironwall, but for now they were simply trying to put some distance between them and Thanchet before true night fell.

The direction Penelope led them was more west than north, leading further up the ringing mountain range, but Larek assumed she had a purpose to it.  That was discovered shortly after the light was nearly completely gone from the area, meaning that they had to pick their way carefully through the darkened forest or risk another Light Orb to help illuminate their way. By unspoken agreement, they decided to forgo any source of light unless absolutely necessary, as even though it would be largely blocked by the trees covering the side of the range, anyone looking out from the walls of the city could likely spot it with ease. If the Gergasi was still looking for him, it wouldn’t take long before that information was relayed to the powerful giant.

Fortunately, just as their footing was becoming dangerous from the lack of light, Penelope stumbled upon what she had apparently been looking for.

“Vivienne,” the blue-haired Martial whispered to the Ranger, “scout it out for us, would you?”

There was an even deeper darkness in the side of a hill they approached, which Larek immediately identified as being some sort of entrance to another cave.  The leather-clad Ranger immediately slipped inside the hole in the hill, disappearing immediately from his vision, as she somehow navigated her way through the darkness inside the cave. No light shone out from inside, meaning that she didn’t have any artificial light to see by, and he was wondering how she was able to scout it out if she couldn’t see anything. It was only when she emerged less than a minute later, a pair of knives clutched easily in her hands, that he saw her eyes glowing slightly with what he could only assume was Stama. A Battle Art that allows her to see in the dark? That could definitely be handy. It was another reason for Larek to attend Fort Ironwall as the Dean wanted, because being able to see in the dark using Stama would be beneficial, if not life-saving in certain situations.

“It’s clear,” Vivienne whispered, loud enough that everyone could hear. Without another word, everyone moved toward the cave entrance, and Larek followed the others inside, only to nearly run into a wall as the passageway not only narrowed, but curved abruptly to the left. Some shuffling blindly into the complete darkness of the cave eventually led him back to the right, until the echoes around him picked up enough to tell him that he was in a much larger space.

“It’s safe,” Penelope said, and before Larek could ask who she was talking to, a Light Orbcast by Kimble suddenly appeared, blinding him for a few seconds until he was able to blink the spots away.

Looking around, he discovered that they were in a cavern at least 50 feet wide at its widest point, though it was only about 20 feet in depth. Scattered around the dirt-covered stone floor were the bones of small animals, with no trace of all the flesh and fur that had been covering them at one point being present. He could only assume that this was originally the den of some sort of predator, and while he wasn’t necessarily a Hunter or a tracker of some sort, he had the impression that it hadn’t been used in a while.

“These caves randomly cover the entire range, so I was hoping that I’d find one before it got too dark to see,” Penelope explained. Gesturing to the entrance, which was hard to see as it blended in with the wall as it switched back on itself. “We’re fortunate that the layout of the entrance is the way it is, as it will block most – if not all – of the light from escaping.  I believe we’ll be safe for the night… or as safe as we can be, considering what we just left.”

At that, everyone turned to stare at Larek. A second later, the Light Orb that Kimble had cast ran out of its duration and he had to cast it again as everything descended into darkness, and Nedira copied him a moment later, staggering her own Light Orb so that they wouldn’t be left in darkness.

“I can understand that everyone wants an explanation, but let me take care of our lighting problem first,” he said as he looked around the cave, searching for something to create a Fusion upon.  Surprisingly, there weren’t any rocks other than small pebbles to be found in the cave, so Larek reached under his robe, detached his axe from its holder around his waist, and started delicately carving off small, relatively rectangular slabs of stone from the walls. It reminded him a little of his time on top of Crystalview Academy, when he created hundreds of Healing Surge Fusions, but this time he wasn’t planning on making quite that many.

Once he had a half-dozen of these stone slabs, he sat down and placed the material in front of him, before beginning the Fusion process. Using Focused Division to create 6 identical Fusions and splitting them between the half-dozen stone pieces was easy enough, especially as he was only creating Activatable Illuminate Stone +1 Fusions, as they didn’t need to be very bright; in the confines in the dark cave, anything stronger would likely be blinding. If they needed more light, all 6 of them could be activated simultaneously.

Less than a minute after he got started, he managed to transfer the Fusions to the slabs, locking them in place by manipulating the filled formations with practiced ease. Once they were done, he looked up to see everyone staring at him once again, though for a different reason.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get over how impossibly easy you make that look,” Kimble muttered. Larek ducked his head at the words, slightly embarrassed for some reason, even as he handed the slabs out to the others. A few seconds later, all six Fusions were activated and spread around the cave, which helped to light up the cave without it being too bright, and Kimble and Nedira let their Light Orbs lapse.

“Viv, can you keep an eye and ear out for us? I want to make sure nothing sneaks up on us, and you should still be able to hear even from around the corner.” The Ranger simply nodded at Penelope’s suggestion, moving back through the entrance, though Larek had the impression she stopped where the passageway switched back instead of moving outside completely.

“Alright, Larek, spill it. What’s going on?” Penelope asked, leaning up against the same wall that he had just taken chunks off of to make the Fusions. The sound of metal coins *thunk*ing on the dirt showed that Bartholomew and Penelope had dropped the bags they had been given to take with them by Shinpai, and he suddenly realized that he was still lugging his own along as he slipped it off his back and let it fall to the floor.  Looking at the blue-haired Martial, he thought that even though they were relatively safe inside the cave, she still looked ready to act the part of the bodyguard at any moment, as if she couldn’t relax.

Larek took a deep breath before releasing it, putting his thoughts into order. A brief thought on continuing to conceal his secrets flitted through his mind before he dismissed it. With all that had happened, as well as what Shinpai hinted at, it wouldn’t take them long to work out at least some of it before long. A glance at Nedira’s pale face as she stared at him hinted that she had already likely figured out some – if not all – of it, so there was no reason to hold back now. The original reason for keeping it a secret had been to protect them from something like this, but that reason was no longer valid considering their current situation.

“First, I want to be completely clear on something before I go into this,” he began, looking around at everyone with as understanding of an expression as possible. “If any of you choose to leave and go your own way after what I’m about to tell you, I completely understand – and even encourage you to do so. You’ve already been in terrible danger because of me, and that danger is only likely to increase as time goes on. I would never think less of you for taking the safe route here and leaving, going back to your lives after graduation,” he said, pointedly looking at Kimble and Penelope, as well as speaking to the entrance where Vivienne was located, “or simply continuing your education at an Academy or Fort without being associated with me. The last thing that I want is for anyone else to die because of me, because of who I am.” At this, he looked at Nedira, pleading with her to take his words seriously. As much as he would like her to stay with him, as she’d been an absolutely awesome friend – and possibly something more, given some time – he didn’t want her to be caught in the nightmare of having a Gergasi as a father.

No one spoke or gave any indication that they were leaving, though Bartholomew shuffled in place a little nervously. Given that he was the son of some important-sounding Noble, he could only assume that the young man was thinking about his own family obligations that he might be abandoning if he continued to act as a bodyguard for Larek.

Taking another deep breath, he began to speak. “I was born far to the north…” He went on to detail where he grew up and the life he led up in the Rushwood forest as a Logger, before moving on to the events that led to his detainment and subsequent transfer to Crystalview Academy. He only left out the personally embarrassing parts of his story, glossing over the treatment he’d experienced by the common people of the Kingdom, as he really didn’t want to revisit them.

When he came to his actions during the first Scission beyond Peratin’s walls, where he described unlocking some Martial Skills for the first time, he heard the intake of breath from both Penelope and Bartholomew. “Yes, I have both Mage and Martial stats and Skills, though I’m having trouble accessing my Martial side,” he explained after he saw their reactions. “Hence, the reason the Dean wanted me to go to Fort Ironwall.”

“But how—”

He held up his hand to forestall the blue-haired trainee’s question. “I’m getting to that.”

He went on to explain the whole Healing Surge Fusion fiasco on top of the Academy’s roof, and then followed it up with the story of his angry reaction to seeing the deceased form of his Fusions Professor and subsequent unlocking of a Battle Art during the second Scission attack at Crystalview. Widened eyes greeted that revelation, but he wasn’t done yet.

Some of them knew of the events afterwards, with his journey to Copperleaf Academy to the south, but he went over everything again for them. It was the capture by Ricardo and the two Martial trainees that caught Penelope’s attention, as she was both shocked and vindicated at the same time.

“See, I told you that you needed guarding.”

Then he described, in basic detail, what he did to them after he escaped, leaving only the gory details and disposal of the bodies – as they didn’t need to know that. “I was wondering what happened to them,” Bartholomew muttered, seeming to know who the Martial trainees were, if not Ricardo.

“Ah. They were all Nobles, right?” Larek asked.

He nodded. “I didn’t know them very well, but I knew of them.”

“Anyway, that whole thing led to gaining attention from the Dean, which turned out to be a blessing and a curse at the same time,” he continued. “For the first time, Dean Lorraine – along with Shinpai – were able to tell me why I was different, which was something I’d been wondering about since my height suddenly shot up when I was younger. Of course, it was what I turned out to be that is concerning, and is currently why we’re likely being hunted even now.”

“Y-you’re a Great One!” Bartholomew suddenly blurted out, pointing at him. “That’s the only explanation I can see for how my slave bond didn’t activate back at the Fort.”

He shook his head at the frightened expressions of his companions. “Not exactly. According to the Dean, I’m a half-breed. My mother is from the Kingdom, while my father… was, most likely, that Gergasi – or ‘Great One’, as Bartholomew mentioned – back at the Academy. And the reason why that slave bond wasn’t activated back there was because of me, or at least that’s my assumption. I, too, have a form of Dominion magic, though I have no idea how it works or even how to consciously use it.”

Silence and horror met his revelation, as the implications suddenly occurred to them all. “You’ve… been using it on us?” Nedira asked, her eyes showing the hurt and betrayal he had been expecting, but hoped never to see.

“I suppose so? I have no control over it, nor can I even tell determine what it does, but it is most likely why none of you were directly affected by my father when he attempted to dominate all our minds back at the Academy.” He bowed his head. “I sincerely apologize for what I’ve done, even if I had no control over it. It is wrong for it to be used on anybody, let alone who I consider to be my friends. I told the same thing to the Dean and Shinpai, which was why I refused to teach any more people how to unlock the new Skill I discovered; it was using my Dominion magic to make the process easier, and was what also caused me to collapse after instructing the Specialization heads. I hate that I have this magic, and I am going to do whatever I can to ensure that I don’t use it again.”

His proclamation was met with suspicious stares, but that was only understandable. Larek would be rightly suspicious of anyone who proclaimed to have a magic like his, too. Nedira pulled away from him, sitting at the other end of the cave while he went on to explain what he had learned about the Gergasi, the Transition, and the potential Culmination to Penelope, Verne, and Norde – all of whom had heard bits and pieces of the information, but not the inside information that only Nobles seemed to possess.

“I have a question for you, Larek,” Bartholomew said seriously when he was finished. He had apparently heard all about the Gergasi before, given that he’d had to accept a slave bond from one of them. “What does the Dean have to do with all of this? Why was she helping you, if you are a half-breed, as you say? Didn’t she have a bond, as well?”

He nodded, answering the last question. “She did. It believe it is because of that slave bond that she was helping me.”

“Why?”

Here is where he hesitated for the first time, as he wasn’t sure if he wanted to reveal that woman’s plans for him. In the end, he mentally shrugged and decided to tell them all. “Because she thinks I may be the only one that can shut this hole in the world, which would ultimately take power away from the Gergasi as well as stop the Scissions from appearing,” he said simply. “In other words, she wants me to save the world….

“Unfortunately for her, I have absolutely no desire to actually do that.”

Book 3 Chapter 21