Mark woke up all at once and violently, his heart slamming in his chest, beating out a drum of Union, drawing in resilience from the world and giving it back weakness in return. He felt Eliot and Isoko and David before his eyes registered their presence.
And then he saw they were eating soup around a table, and Mark had woken up on a bed sat to the side of the room.
No goblins.
No danger.
Just… soup.
Isoko grinned. “Soup’s hot!”
Mark groaned and then tried to breathe in sustenance and—
He started coughing as some foul everything invaded his lungs. He hacked out dark sludge and switched to breathing purity/impurity, and that worked just fine.
Mark coughed a few times as he said, “Fuck. Did I blight the land?”
“You did,” David said, and then he sipped his soup.
Isoko said, “Eliot managed to make a fishing drone so we’re having fish soup while the goblins are running everywhere out there, biting everything in a mad dash to get strong enough to overwhelm us. We’ve had to fend off a few small attacks since then, but just the roaming kind, from second generation goblins that don’t know who we are in this tower.” She handed Mark some soup with lots of flaked fish floating in an oily broth.
Mark took the bowl. It smelled good while it felt warm in his hands. “Thanks.”
“Thanks for the purification,” Isoko said. “And here I thought I was gonna need the shower Eliot made!”
“It’s a fine shower,” Eliot said, eating his soup. “It’s got jets from four angles. Great shower, even. I could sell shower enclosures and make good money.”
Isoko laughed.
David tried not to grin.
Mark was confused for a moment. “How long was I out? I see the sun is up.”
Eliot looked at the clock. “Almost 11 hours. It’s just past noon and there are 3,500 goblins out there and counting.”
… Mark loudly went, “Uhhh-huh!”
Isoko said, “We have a plan.”
Mark felt his hackles lower. He asked, “Good plan?”
“Workable,” Isoko said, waggling a hand like she was unsure. “It’s the hopping-flying-spider-fortress plan. Basically, we just go around, hopping and flying from goblin location to goblin location, and you kill things while Eliot navigates and I pilot the thing. If a wyvern comes, then we kill that thing, too, but hopefully we can duck down below the buildings fast enough that the wyverns don’t see us. Other than that! Kill everything that moves. Maybe if it’s not moving, too.”
Mark sipped his soup as he thought about that, as he opened himself astrally to the world. He couldn’t really see the threads right now, but he could half-see them. Mostly feel them, in a way that was not sight at all. What he saw, was Isoko, Eliot, and David sitting around a table. What he felt, was the presence of the three people he was focused on, and a near-absolute absence of all land outside, and everywhere within range.
There was no life out there at all.
Stuff still moved, though.
Mark looked up, with his actual eyes. Eliot’s machines burbled oils into vats, while computer screens and holo displays showed the local area, and cameras showed a whole bunch of black sludge covering most of the land out there… Oh. And a few blue goblins in the far distance. Maybe a kilometer away in most directions—
A few were only 300 meters away, though…
Hmm.
Mark extended his Union in the direction of the nearest one, to the North—
There it was.
In the north, on a tower of its own, stuck to the side and looking this way. Mark couldn’t see it at all, but he could feel it. Sense its general orientation. It was pulling in this direction, looking at this tower, trying to get to the people in this tower.
Mark killed— He stopped.
He almost killed the goblins looking at them.
Mark asked, “So I think my range has increased a lot. I hit a few goblins 300 meters out to the far north and west. Should I kill them? I think we could pretend to be weak, right? Make them come to us?”
Eliot raised an eyebrow. “I’d like to get it done today, if we can. Not sure if we can, though. Some of the goblins just took off, you know. That’s their whole thing. They go up against strong opponents and if they win then they progress, but if they fail then they scatter to the wind, running and running and biting along the way. It’s like a genetic, instinctive switch. Some of them won’t stop running and biting until they die to some monster out there.” He added, “If we move at a slow rate, based on previous kill rates, it’ll take 2 days to track them all down, based on average estimates and what long range scans picked up.”
Mark nodded. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“It’s not,” Eliot said.
David said, “We’re close to the point that this is a failed training mission and real authorities get involved.”
Isoko said, “I’d like to get up and running in a few hours, and if we can do that, then we won’t fail the mission, but you’re the only one that got any sleep. Can you do the no-sleep stuff again? Then we can all wake up?”
Mark rapidly said, “Of course! I think… I think the sludge out there is biodegradable?”
Eliot said, “Yeah it is. Makes great fertilizer after a few months out in the sun, but fungi can digest it right away.”
Mark focused on a Union of resilience/weakness, focusing on whatever plant life might be out there, along with whatever fungi might be lurking as spores in the wind, or on the—
There.
That did it.
Just by being connected to a larger system, the spores in the area began to grow like a wave of change upon the black ocean of sludge… which was more like 3 inches of black, extending out about 200 meters in every direction.
Mark glanced at the cameras in order to see what he could only feel.
Life sprouted from death in a panoply of shapes and colors, like a mat of hair stretching through the sun-baking black and then popping up with buttons and ridges and horns of mushrooms of every color, shape, and size. Some of them rapidly ate the other ones and grew taller, before bursting into spores of their own, to spread on the wind and rapidly decay the world into other sorts of nutrients.
Eliot added spore filters to the air conditioning in the tower, and Mark didn’t grow stuff inside the tower.
But outside, Mark grew mushrooms while he ate fish soup, and talked about what had happened while he was out of it. Soon, a few stray grass seeds that had been buried wherever, sprouted, and grasses colonized the mats of dead mushroom land. Dandelions sprouted and seeded the air, spreading far, and that’s when Mark started breathing in sustenance and breathing out deprivation along with Isoko, Eliot, and David.
David was fine, because he was keeping himself active and whole.
But Eliot and Isoko instantly started to look better.
Eliot sighed out, “Oh that’s the stuff.”
Isoko asked, “Spider legs up in an hour? Half an hour? How long do you need, Eliot?”
“The parts are mostly made,” Eliot said, eyes half-lidded, as he typed away at an invisible keyboard. “I need to put them together and finish out the various internal systems. Half an hour.”
Isoko walked over to a bed, saying, “I’m going to lay down for half an hour, then. Mark! You’re on watch!”
Mark said, “Absolutely. Thanks for watching out while I… er… I crashed out on a mission, didn’t I? That’s not good, actually. Sorry.”
Isoko waved an arm. “And you killed most of the problem before you crashed. It’s good.” She laid down and was out like a light within moments.
She must have been running truly hard.
Mark told Eliot, “I can watch over you for half an hour, too.”
Eliot smiled, eyes still half-lidded as he tapped away at the air. “Thank Freyala. I will take that offer, but when I’m done here… 10 minutes. Maybe 5 if I hurry… Oh gods no. I’m just gonna lay down.”
Mark chuckled. “Sleep well.”
Soon, David was the only one still awake with Mark.
Mark glanced over at Eliot and Isoko. “They ran hard, huh.”
“They did,” David said, “You all learned new tricks last night. Let’s talk about what you learned, though.”
Mark recalled a conversation he had with Lola one time, about what sorts of people in Freyala’s church got what sorts of Union Powers.
Mark said, “Life has rhythms, and Union uses them like a flow controller. The main versions of Union Freyala gives out are Breath, for almost all acolytes. Then comes Blood, for priests and most accomplished people. But last night, I think I touched upon the one that Inquisitors get. The main flow. The ability to connect to the electrical signals of the brain; a Union of Brain.” Mark asked, “Is that it? Union of Breath, Blood, and Brain?”
David smiled softly. “Lola will want to tell you a lot more about that last one because I think you have it right, but also kinda wrong. I’ve always thought of it more like the Union of Life. Life, itself, is a flow. Your method certainly concentrated on the lightning-like aspect of it, though. Do you remember much of what you actually did?”
Mark had a lot of little, unfinished thoughts about David calling what Mark had done a ‘Union of Life’. He still thought of what he had done as electrical dancing in the brain.
But anyway, Mark said, “I remember veins reaching out and stabbing through… everything. What I took from them seemed to make the attack stronger, in turn, too.”
David nodded. “You can’t really do something like that unless you focus on the brain—”
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Ah ha! The brain was correct!”
David chuckled. “Again. Lola would want to talk to you about that. But… That’s your trump card, Mark. Try not to use it too much on other people. On monsters? It’s fine, because you can’t kill yourself with it and monsters you want dead. But try not to use it on other people too much. It’s too easy to have stray thoughts enter your mind while using Union of Life, and you might accidentally kill someone. Stray thoughts are deadly.”
Mark… understood where David was coming from, but he thought David was wrong. It had not been easy to use Union of Brain. Mark said, “I’m pretty sure that it would be hard to kill an enemy with Union of Brain if the enemy wasn’t wishing so much for our own death.”
David raised an eyebrow. “… Maybe you’re right. But you blighted the land 250 meters in every direction.” He added, “My point is: there are a lot of reasons why Union of Life is only given out to the most trusted people in the clergy. It’s all about action speed.
“Union of Breath is slow, taking 5-ish seconds for one cycle. 2 seconds if you want to get fast with it.
“Union of Blood is your usual use of the Power. It’s a cycle per second. 2 cycles when you get really going, your heart beating fast.
“Union of… Brain, is incredibly fast, functioning at the speed of thought. That speed is deadly fast. I think the quikipedia articles call it a Union of Life, too, but yes. It’s fast.
“You should grow used to always having Union of Blood active with that half-healing-half-protective thing you got going on, while using Union of Brain against monsters, only. That’s how Inquisitors are trained in it. Union of Breath is something that you switch up and use as needed, all the time.” David added, “I guess what I’m saying is… When you start experimenting on your abilities, Union of Breath is what you use to test out a new way to use Union. Union of Blood is for something that you know how to use well. Only ever use Union of Brain when you know —truly know— what you’re doing.”
Oh.
That was a good way to think of it, huh?
Mark could actually start doing experiments with this stuff, too, couldn’t he?
Mark had another thought. “What if I wanted to use Union of Brain more? Make it just a third vector for casual Union work? Like the resilience/weakness thing?”
David raised an eyebrow again. “That takes incredible mental discipline, and I wouldn’t recommend it for any non-Minder people. If a Minder chooses to get Chosen, then they usually end up as an Inquisitor, or they’re not Chosen at all. Any sort of additional brain power makes Union truly strong, Mark... Or maybe you need to think about signing up for the Advanced Healing Club. Do you want to be a Grand Healer, like Badaira?”
Mark was a little surprised where that answer went. “I’m not sure about being a Grand Healer… But healing is good, yeah?”
David grinned. He nodded. “Healing is good, yes.”
“You know? I’ve wondered something about Union. It’s True Healing, isn’t it? Or is it not? De-aging healing, I mean.”
David didn’t know what to make of that question for a moment, and then he shook his head. “No. The True Healers of the world are all— Are mostly all on a list, and not many of them are actual Union users. Very few. There’s always a few new True Healers that come out of Tutorial every year and choose to stay off of the list, but then they’re always found out and abused for their Power. When that happens an Inquisitor of some variety is usually called on to rescue them, and then they get rescued and asked if they want to go on the protected list. They usually choose to get on the protected list at that point in time.”
Mark was surprised again. “I didn’t know the Inquisitors did that.”
“We do a lot of the cleanup of humanity. The dirty work, outside of city walls and sometimes inside city walls, too, when we get clearance from those cities. Usually Hearthswell Inquisitors work the healer list, though, unless the healer gets taken out into the wilds, and then a Freyalan Inquisitor usually steps in. Freyalan Inquisitors are only called on to do those rescues and whatnot in the first place if we already have contacts with those True Healers.”
Mark thought about a lot of small things.
He had always heard that his Uncle Alexandro, Dad’s brother, was a True Healer, but the last time Mark had seen the guy, Alexandro he looked, well, 45. Which was his real age.
Mark asked, “So what is Union classified as? Not True Healing?”
“Union is High Healing,” David said, “No aging or crippling side effects. A lot of different cultures use different words that end up overlapping a lot and confusing people. High Healing, Supreme Healing, Ultra Healing. Those are all the same sort of category I’ve heard of for Union. We do try to stick to using ‘True Healing’ to mean perfect, de-aging healing, though.”
“I’ll just ask— Is my Uncle Alexandro a True Healer, then? I always heard him called that but I’m wondering, now.”
“Yup. He’s on the list. He switched over to Freyalan oversight two weeks ago, actually, so that we would give him more information on what’s happening with you. You should call him again.”
Mark laughed. It was just so weird having people up in his business… He smiled. “Yeah… I should…” Mark frowned a little. “Why is he 45 then?”
And why did he live in a normal house?
Uncle Alexandro was rich, yeah, but not stupid rich, like a True Healer should be?
Actually.
Forget all of that.
Mark had more questions than answers right now, and they were in a battle zone.
“I don’t know why he’s still 45,” David said, shrugging. “Why is Holy Mother Garin 95-ish? That’s the one I don’t understand. Glorious Man has been 35 for a few years now, but he’s probably going to stay there for a hundred years or more. He’ll probably be the first human who gets a demon-touched lifetime without being demon-touched. Nova Nexus has been 36 for 40 years, and Echo has been 35 for 30-something. Maybe your Uncle likes being 45? I haven’t inquired that deeply into that matter.”
The room fell to a silence, except for all the noises of normal things.
Mark asked, “How likely are you going to need to call in the big guns for this training mission?”
David said, “I’d have given you guys a 50% chance of success in the beginning, but Eliot is really coming into his power and Isoko is proving to be an unstoppable object when she really gets going. Both broke tier 4 a few hours ago. You broke tier 5 while you were sleeping.”
Mark was surprised. He looked around, grabbed a pair of Eliot’s scanner glasses, and looked at himself. He flicked through the buttons and soon he arrived on a personal tier scanner.
Tier 3 Body, 4 Shaper, 3 Mind, 5 Natural, 3 Soul, 2 Arch.
Mostly in the middle ranges for each of those, too.
“Huh! Healthy Body got up past tier 2?” Mark asked.
David nodded. “Tri Talent expectations aren’t always in line with what actually happens, as evident by Healthy Body getting above PL25.”
“… Could I eventually get Tactile Telekinesis with it?”
“Now that would be unexpected. TT comes about from a brawny being able to expand the scope of their natural enhancement; the 2.5x strength multiplier for most normal brawnies. The higher that multiplier, the easier it is for a person to gain TT. You have no multiplier at all.”
Mark nodded as David confirmed what he already knew to be within expectations.
Mark still tried to bend a spare steel spoon sitting on the table. It bent, sure. But not easily. Mark was not that strong!
Mark moved on.
He touched a part of his Power that he hadn’t gotten to use, but at such a rapid increase to every part of his astral body, his Shaper Power had also skyrocketed under new strength, so…
Yes.
There.
Mark felt grains of adamantium in his bones. One grain was in his left shin. Two were in his spine, near the top. Four little grains were in his rib cage. A whopping… 7? 8? grains were in his pelvis.
That was a lot of adamantium, but also, not much at all. It would take a full year of growing the biometal in his bones before it reached even a fingernail’s size worth of material; maybe 15 grams of the stuff.
David added, “Tier 3-ish for most other things. Give you another half a year and you’ll fully grow into your Power, as far as Power Level goes. Or you could go lift that vial of adamantium you have in the Vault and build some stronger astral muscles that way, and a lot faster.”
Mark grinned. “Gotta get those gains!”
David smirked. “Getting to the peak of your astral body is only part of the process of growing as a monster killer, though. The main half, the larger half, is actually killing monsters, and learning how to do that better and better. Learning how to use Union is the work of a lifetime.”
Mark nodded; he understood what David was saying.
Mark wasn’t going to try and use his adamantium now; not here in the field, where Eliot was recording everything. He would have needed to explain where he had gotten the stuff, when it wasn’t normal at all for a person to grow the biometal themselves— Well. Mostly. Mithralkinetics often grew mithral themselves, but adamantiumkinetics did not naturally grow adamantium, most of the time. That ability was in the realm of monsters… And one dragon that still hadn’t chosen a name for himself.
… Mark ignored that part of his life right now, and focused on the present.
Mark continued to breathe in sustenance and breathe out deprivation, using all the life he had helped to grow out there on the black goo slick from all the dead goblins and the tree, while his heart beat with a Union of resilience and weakness. He also finished up some more fish soup. It was good to have something in his belly.
David ate another bowl himself.
Mark asked small questions while Eliot and Isoko slept, like, “How is it, moving so fast? Do your clothes burn up?”
David said, “I learned how to get real good with tactile telekinesis, real fast.”
Mark laughed.
David grinned.
- - - -
It was 2 in the afternoon by the time Eliot got his ‘citywalker’ completed.
By 2:36, he had made a version that didn’t break when it walked.
Mark regretted his suggestion to build this thing.
The whole thing rocked like a mother fucker as it moved, its 10-legs snapping into the ground, into the buildings, and especially when it ducked down low and turned on the big fans overhead, to stretch out the big parachutes. It did that right now, and Mark held on tight as fuck to his chair, his stomach dropping into his pelvis as the whole citywalker dipped down real low—
A spring clicked.
Legs, spread wide, came together under the vehicle.
Mark exclaimed, “OH FUUUUUU…” his voice trailing away, as everything suddenly weighed so much more and the citywalker leapt into the air.
The citywalker pushed itself in the air with its own fans and parachutes.
Isoko laughed maniacally as she gripped the steering wheel, her platinum feet locked into the machine and her waist strapped into a holder that kept her at the controls. “What are you scared of, Mark! We’re just traversing the city!”
Mark sat in a heavily cushioned and protected chair at the back of the control room, surrounded by plastic that hid a bunch of gears and engines and a lot of stuff that he only barely understood. Eliot sat in a chair beside Mark, fully strapped in, keeping the machine together, his eyes half-lidded. A big holo display in front of them showed off the world around them.
Mark could see through the plastic overhead, and the plastic in front of them. The city looked like a ruin, and they were so high up, and everything was so light-feeling, and he couldn’t see all the stuff behind them, and there was a lot of stuff behind them. Eliot had packed up everything that he could from the tower, except for the stone itself—
The citywalker hit the apex of its jump, a good hundred meters above the city, and it started descending. Slowly, and then way too fast.
Mark’s stomach was in his throat now.
Isoko laughed, “Prepare for landing!”
Mark held on tight as overhead giant fans billowed out the parachutes. They were not enough to paraglide at all, and Mark was pissed at that. “Isn’t there some sort of ballooning thing you can do, Eliot?!”
And then the citywalker did a controlled crash onto the ground, some of its legs snapping off inside of a building, and the others pressing down onto the street, the whole thing balancing as fast as Eliot could make it balance. Shock absorbers did their best.
Mark refused to vomit.
The only reason they weren’t all paste was because Mark was heavily working Union right now.
Eliot grinned as he fully opened his eyes, saying, “We did better that time!”
Isoko rapidly pulled down some levers and then pushed up some more, making the ‘spring gauge’ to the side rapidly rise, as she cackled, “Here we go again, boys!”
Mark looked out the side of the main viewing window.
David was out there, standing on a roof, watching them. He had refused to get into the citywalker.
Mark tried not to be jealous.
Mark reiterated, “How about a balloon, Eliot!”
“What? Like a hot air balloon? No no,” Eliot said, “Balloons are so slow!”
“Stable, though!” Mark tried, just as the spring gauge got full again. Mark steeled himself, rapidly checking the holo display and also the weft of the world. He found 36 odd goblins nearby, all of them coming their way, and 2 wyvern dogs, running away as fast as they could from the giant mechanical spider thing. They all fell, dead, and Mark refocused, saying, “We need to be less jumpEEEEEEE—”
Isoko had pressed the button, and Mark’s stomach went back into his pelvis.
Isoko laughed as she directed the fans overhead to push the parachutes toward some direction or something. Mark barely cared about directions. He was on a different mission.
Isoko announced, “Big clump up ahead! Let’s get ‘em!”
Mark refused to vomit.