Liquified remains from my breakfast this morning and the most recent contents of the potion churned up my esophagus and speared past my lips. I watched in agonal fascination as my projectile vomit hit the air at the edges of the magic circle and simply stopped. Concern raced through me as I feared the worst! Didn’t vomiting up the contents of my stomach mean a failed assimilation?! My concerns, however, were quickly alleviated in a most unexpected and invasive fashion I’d never thought to encounter.
Some of the runes shone within the circle with extra intensity, and what looked to be traces of the potion ejected from me, suddenly reversed and were thrust back into and down my throat. My eyes bugged as I experienced the most undesirable, and involuntary re-consumption of my stomach’s contents. Following that, I felt like a clamp had twisted down on my esophagus preventing further vomiting from occurring.
My distraught eyes turned to look at Gertrude who appeared to pointedly avoid my gaze as she focused on some distant artifact in her shop.
As my body was now forced to process the contents of my stomach, I began to feel a pang of lethargy and weakness come over me and at that moment I was pulled into the expected vision.
This vision was certainly unique as it appeared to struggle for a moment with four different views before consolidating into a singular one. Much like the experience for when I consumed the earthen stones, I felt compressed and pushed along the stone. However, this time I felt like I was slipping between the spaces within, like invisible veins that I could root myself throughout. Instead of plant roots, I was living metal, settling within the smallest of spaces available. I felt like a network of metal was sheathing my own vascular system, strengthening my bones, and cells at a deep intricate level.
When I came to, I noticed that my entire body had taken on a yellow glow, like that of Jaundice. As I watched, though, many more of the runes on the magic circle began to glow, and the yellow tone as well as the pains and constrictions throughout my body began to fade.
I felt a warm healing glow envelop me, which felt much like a relaxing soak in a rejuvenation bath. Imagine the feelings of taking a warm, soothing, and uninterrupted bath after a hard days work, but multiply the feelings of pleasure by over 100 times. With that, you’d get close to describing the utter euphoria enveloping me.
Tendrils of energy seeped into each of my stressed muscles, reenergizing them along the way even as they soothed them. Back at home on Earth, I had heard that there were nanobot baths which could create something similar to this, but I’d never had the extra money to try one out. With the prohibiting cost, it would be ridiculous to spend on such a luxury when there were far more practical things to do.
In the moment, however, I was strongly reconsidering my stance on wasted and transitory luxuries. Smiling to myself in contentment amidst the experience, I thought. ‘I could definitely get too used to this!’
Eventually, the soothing tendrils of warmth and healing ended their effects and I felt completely whole again. Opening my eyes to another potion held beneath my nose, I could now smell the acrid metal which made up its key components. With a beleaguered sigh, I took it from an expectant Gertrude and downed my next session of torment.
The resulting fallout was much like my prior session, except this time was far worse!
It started off oh so innocently with a ringing in the ears which then led to deafness. All while that was going on, my vision apparently decided to go on a trip with seeing things that weren’t there. And I wasn’t even into the vision of the trial yet!
As if expecting it, the circle preemptively twisted down on my esophagus effectively making vomiting impossible. In short, I got to re-experience the memorable epigastric pain with not even a temporary relief this time. My breath became labored as I felt like I just wasn’t getting enough oxygen to my lungs. A splitting headache with the vertigo was just the dusted fairy’s cherry on top.
Horror came over me at the next sensation I recognized from past food poisoning events. My lower intestines now were threatening. . . nope not threatening anymore. I had just soiled myself. To be honest, I hurt too much to care anymore. My heart was flopping, and I tasted blood in my mouth. It felt like it was just a matter of time before I died. . .
I heard that before Nanotechnology took over, many of the more severe treatments for those suffering from cancer often involved the use of Chemotherapy. Some of the symptoms I had heard of before sounded too similar to what I was feeling now. If such was true, I now had a terribly clear sense of empathy for those that had suffered such, just to have a chance at living a semi normal life again.
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Tears of blood dribbled down my cheeks as my body’s cells began to break down and die. With that, I was blessedly swept away into a similar vision as before. . .
.
.
.
I came to, with the same cleansing sensation as before with the healing bath. My senses had returned to processing normal, rather than agonal feedback. I noticed a distinct lack of pressure against my anus and clinging moisture. I marveled at the efficiency of it all as the magic circle must have cleaned up my diarrhea mishap. Silent gratitude filled my heart as I felt my dread leave me. I was able to fully enjoy the reenergizing treatment once again as it washed away the residual symptoms.
Once it was complete, I felt like another veined network of reinforcement had been spread throughout my body. Excitement trilled through me as I contemplated the changes wrought. However, now was not the time to truly test them out.
Gertrude, likely noticing my return to a healthy baseline, approached me with the ornate box holding the stones of Life, Death, Time, and Space.
“Which would you like to begin with?” She asked.
I honestly did not know what I wanted to start with. All I knew is that I wanted to save the Death stone for absolute last! It was likely because it reminded me too much of the shadow stones.
“Do you have any suggestions?” I asked of her. She was the wise one with likely centuries of experience on these things. I would certainly defer to her judgement.
“Not regarding all of them.” She replied. “The only advice that I may give is that it would likely be wise to only assimilate the death stone after you had taken in the life stone. The lingering energies of life may aid you somewhat in resisting the effects of death."
That made real sense as I had no desire to become a necromancer or undead myself. I know that there are many that glorify the idea of raising the dead to do your bidding. I was all for the ideal of reanimating your dead enemies in support of your good cause if they were truly evil beings in life. Additionally, if you had soldiers or followers who fervently desired to serve you in death as well as life, then I had no problem taking advantage of such. However, it just wasn’t for me.
I would rather that the line of moral goodness not be so heavily blurred. Too often in history, great atrocities were committed in the name of good intentions and great fanfare. Yet, see what happens.
Governments collapsed, people starved, rioting citizens burned and pillaged their own streets. It was so prevalent that even the mainstream media had to admit to it occurring, despite their largest donors demanding that they keep it hidden.
In the Spirit of desiring to keep me and mine safe amidst such a chaotic environment, I felt that becoming more aware of my surroundings would benefit me greatly. As such, I decided to start with the space stone.
I knew that there was no guarantee that my resulting ability would be tied to any increased sense of awareness. However, based on the perception and experience I had with my own gift in reality, I believe that it was the likely outcome.
“Gertrude.” I spoke up finally. “I would like to start with the Space stone.”
A slow nod of her head was all the reply I got.
No good luck, here’s what to expect, or anything else. ‘Maybe I wasn’t showing enough appreciation?’ I thought to myself.
Taking a moment where she had a lull in the concoction of the assimilation potion, I spoke with a sincerity I felt. “Thank you. . . I really appreciate what you are doing for me.”
*Haha!* “Oh dear boy, no need to thank me. This is all new and exciting for me as well as I’ve never been able to watch as someone assimilates any of these stones.” Casting her gaze into the distance as if in recollection she continued. “As I mentioned before, cases of affinity with these elements are highly restricted and monitored.”
With a sort of shrug, she added. “Admittedly, assimilation of the death stone may not be as restricted as it is the most common of these four, and it has many uses beyond simple raising of or speaking to the dead. Many merchants and artifact identifiers touch upon the death element as it can allow them to read a bit of the unwritten history of an artifact and catch a glimpse of its function. However, they are limited in their delving and tier if they don’t have an adequate affinity and access to a Life stone to counteract the deathly energies.”
“Wow!” That was all I could exclaim at this new insight to death energies. It certainly made me excited for the practical applications of it.
Finally, the potion was complete. Back to sitting cross legged in the midst of the magic circle, I strove to open my mind and to be flexible regarding the possibility of anything. This was done in hopes that such would aid in a successful assimilation. I knew that a closed mind was simply asking for trouble when facing the unknown. Just before downing the potion, I offered a silent plea to the heavens that it would be nothing like the metal elements.
Going down my throat, I felt a sense of pulsing yet painless expansion as it traversed down to my stomach. There, it continued to exert an unseen but certainly felt effect of pushing against my senses. It was an odd experience to say the least.
At first, a minor pressure pushed against my skin, like something from inside was gently testing my limits. Soon however, that pulsing pressure mounted in intensity as if seeking to break out and beyond the containing effects of my epidermis.
Twitching about, I didn’t know how to relieve the uncomfortably building pressure within. It wasn’t a physical pressure so much as sensory in my mind. Yet my body didn’t appear to care as I now began to thrash about in growing pain. . .
As had happened before, with the prior assimilations where my inner core energy would combine with the effects to enhance them, I now sought to break past this barrier by re-stimulating those energies to merge a second time with the spatial energies. I needed something external to stimulate it.
Focusing on my amulet, I sought to touch upon the triggering sensation to get a rise out of my energies, but it wasn’t enough. Casting my eyes about, I saw my staff leaning against a nearby counter. About to call out to Gertrude to toss it to me, I reached out my had as if to grasp it from a distance. Something reached out with me, like a muscle unseen but felt, . . . and it flew to me!?
My . . . Staff. . . Flew!
I felt my eyes widen in disbelief at this new development. And that wasn’t all! Upon impacting my hand in a firm solid grasp, I felt the electrical warming and chills form a pathway from my core to the staff, energizing the spatial energies along the way. What resulted was entirely unexpected as I felt a pulse of sensory energy ripple outward into and slightly beyond the magic circle.
I felt, more than saw the runes of the circle flicker momentarily. Gertrude shot up in shock at this development and gazed seriously at the re-stabilized circle.
I barely registered this in the periphery of my sight as I was staring in awe at something I had in my dreams done countless times. Yet each time I had sought to replicate such an ability in reality, it had always proven impossible.