Taking little time in snagging another light stone and cooking up a 2nd tube of light element potion, Victoria soon handed me another vial to try.
With no true concern after the first try, I downed it.
Waiting to see if anything happened, all I felt this time was an even more faint sensation of warmth on my skin.
After explaining such to them, they had me re-don the amulet. Victoria then cooked one last batch of potion, muttering something about the method of experimentation is to search for repeatable results.
Upon consumption of the potion for the 3rd time, it had the same tingling sensation from the amulet and formed a slight warming sensation that was just as strong as the first time, and stronger than the second.
“Well.” Victoria broke our ponderous silence. “I hope and believe that longer exposure to the amulet will better awaken that ability here to comparable levels that you have in your world. Maybe once that is done, we will have more luck with a successful elemental assimilation.
Looking at me with exited eyes, she continued. “If it is as I suspect, then we could potentially awaken all of your level 1 affinities!” Looking towards Gertrude, she asked. “What do you think?!”
“I think that is entirely possible, and I would be interested to see the results as they interact with your unique . . . gift.”
Pausing as if to consider, she then seemingly pulled out a half chess board sized box of about 3 inches in height out of her shell. “Would you like to know what you can gain from the other elements?”
With my upturn in feelings aided by the amulet, I was very interested in such. “I would love to learn about it!” I exclaimed.
Opening the box in front of me, she brought it to the shop counter and set it down for a better view.
Nestled inside of the box was a grid of 10 spots, each sporting a very eye-catching stone.
And so, she went on to explain each stone, giving a description of how it reinforces the body and what they can look like.
What I learned is as follows:
Earth (brown stone): Makes one more physically dense and resistant to injury. Increase to strength (not as good as metal, but far cheaper)
Water (dark blue stone): Improves the transfer of nutrients to the far reaches of his body, (heals faster) Higher levels can boost resistance to the pressures of the deep ocean.
Air (light yellow stone): Just breathing provides a greater gas exchange and stamina recovery. In addition to that, when under water, your skin is able to absorb small amounts of oxygen dispersed in the water, allowing you to stay under for longer with one breath. Also makes the bones more flexible to allow more give upon impact without breaking.
Fire (red stone): Boosts active resistance to the external elements of Cold and passive resistance to heat as well as increases strength.
Ice (white stone with blue streaks): Boosts active resistance to the external elements of Heat and passive resistance to cold as well as increases endurance.
Lightning (solid yellow stone): Increases the speed at which synapses fire and improves your reflexes and overall agility.
Nature (emerald green stone): Increases absorption and allocation of nutrients, bestows a minor resistance to toxins, venoms, poisons, etc.
Light (solid white stone with a notable white glow): Increases life expectancy and overall health (a big reason why Light stones are used as coinage in expensive transactions, since the elderly are very interested in living longer, and almost everywhere, light can be concentrated to form mana gathering arrays to create artificial light stones that are about as good as natural light stones, and sometimes better depending on the quality and purity.)
Dark/shadow (solid black stone with a weird black haze around it): Increases disease resistance, boosts light sensitivity in eyes (at higher levels, offers comparable night vision.)
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Metal (silvery or copper red stone) (depends on what mineral/metal veins it originates from for better detailed effects): Increases strength, and supports overall health. (some metal elements can prove poisonous for some or all races.)
All the while that I listened to Gertrude, another unknown conversation was happening between her and Victoria.
[. . . . I still don’t know how you can juggle conversations like that, talking to him and me.] Victoria mentally commented to Gertrude.
[Practice, practice, practice. . .] She came back with. [In any case, we still need to talk about the matter of Will stones and Travelers]
[Yes.] Victoria replied. [The thought that Travelers could be exposed to the uninitiated use of Will stones is a terrifying possibility. I would have thought that there would be measures put in place by the pantheons to prevent such a thing from occurring.]
Both paused to consider the implications of that before Gertrude spoke again. [At least That potion was lost to the wilds. We can only hope that he just had the one, and that procuring another to his satisfaction will take a while.]
Victoria nodded fervently at that, before adding. [I’m certain that as repercussion he will do his absolute best to make life miserable for my apprentice. I just don’t know in what form that may take. All I can say, is that it is fortunate that as a Traveler, he can’t permanently die.]
[Indeed.] Gertrude agreed in thought. [By the way, I’m sorry for roughhousing you earlier. It was a dire situation.]
A mental nod from Victoria answered back. [I fully understand, and I am grateful for such that you were here to intervene, . . for both occurrences.]
[*Grunt* As I said before, I understand your breaking of the first taboo, which drew the attention of the demi-god. What was it that you did in the first place?] Gertrude asked of her.
[I had the choice of either killing the mage who witnessed the affinity assessment after seeing the results, or making him sign a Black contract. I would rather not involve innocent civilians, even if they are mages, in our battles.] Victoria replied.
[That would certainly do it.] Gertrude commented. [Overriding or nullifying any prior oaths that might get in the way of adhering to your new oath. Hah! That had to have sent quite the shockwave up into the heavens, or wherever the oaths that you shattered originated from. Was he still mentally there when you were finished with him? You know that the use of the Black contract can frequently cause a backlash on the signer.]
[He appeared to be mentally sane, however, my handling of him before, may have left a deeper impression. By the way . . .] Victoria inquired. [. . . whatever did happen to the demi-god that was sent to investigate?]
A smug sensation echoed in the mental space from Gertrude. [Ahh! That god of thunder wanna-be got caught up in chasing after my Seekers stone, thinking that it was to blame and that it was a treasure of sorts. You may not know this as you don’t focus on the esoteric, but when descending from the heavens, their awareness of the geographical surroundings is heavily obscured by the magical interference from below. Your Black contract did a good job of wiping the traces of divine meddling, but it still left a lingering scent. All I had to do was wipe up the scent and send it far away before he fully descended, in order to scramble his senses. All-powerful, and yet they are so easily duped. That’s what happens when you are spoon fed your powers by the deities. I have to say though, that I’m glad that the majority of the original Pantheons have been wiped out, but some of the replacements leave much to be desired.]
Victoria was left practically open mouthed at hearing Gertrude rant about the deities and devils. It was rare that she would disclose such details of their existence, as it had a serious risk of drawing their attention. However, maybe mental communication was a loop hole that was able to be exploited.
[I appreciate your willingness to tell me in detail what happened. I will strive to be far more careful in the future.] *Sigh* [However, what am I going to do about my apprentice? Freshly accepted into my tutelage and already he is facing powers that average mortals tremble in fear at, just from the mere mention of them.]
[Also as far as wanting to take out Paladin Ekhart, his untimely demise would set off warning bells among the cult which he follows. I know that the city is reaching a tipping point with their silent invasion, however, I don’t know if it will happen tomorrow or years from now that civil war breaks out. Despite its calm surface appearance, there is deep unrest beneath. The opportunity to take out that insufferable Paladin may not be so distant amidst the chaos that will ensue.]
[Poor Andrew, what should I do?]
Mental silence ensued for a moment.
[Maybe just trust in him.] Gertrude suggested.
[You mean tell him my and our secrets?!?] Victoria yelped back.
[NO! Trust, not entrust. I would also avoid disclosing any more of your abilities beyond what he has already seen. Simply trust that he will be able to handle what comes his way with the occasional helping hand hidden in the background, just as we have been doing for the past many years for the entire northern expanse.]
[*Sigh* They still don’t understand how much of a burden has been lifted off of them, with our interventions in the battles they wage.] Victoria lamented.
[And they never shall, unless we can achieve an unfettered standing with the deities. All the known demi-gods are but knowing or ignorant slaves to the wills of their divine masters. What we are attempting in an unaided ascension, has not successfully happened for tens of thousands of years for anyone else.]
Gertrude added [Hidden in the darkness, we must remain, as the Sentinels that we are.]
[Now let us end this conversation. I grow weary conversing with both you and your young apprentice simultaneously, delightful as he is.]
Ending their communication, they returned to more fully focus on the physically present rather than the mental.
“So, Andrew, what do you think of each of these elements? Do you believe that they are worth investing in?” Gertrude prompted him following her explanation.
Listening with rapt attention to the possibilities that assimilation might offer me, I was excited at the thought. If successful, my favorites would probably be water, lightning, nature, and dark. Water simply because it felt like cold water was my element at home due to my gift. Lightning due to the promised improvement in cognitive processing. Nature and Dark because they would likely prove very useful in collecting various specimens for testing as I grew as an apothecary in training.
I told Gertrude as such.
She appeared surprised at my choices, as I’m sure others would likely choose something like earth, metal, lightning and light.
Soon though, things settled down and she returned back to her own shop to take care of potential customers. Victoria invited me back for a quick and easy lunch before she finally did a late opening of her own shop.
By this point in the day, about an hour after noon, there had been many disgruntled customers that had been regularly checking up on if she was open or not. Wisely, they had not tried to enter while the sign said closed.
I was feeling very relieved and fulfilled with the constant presence of the amulet around my neck.
I was given the responsibility of studying the next 3 herbs and plants in her apothecary book while she went about assisting the customers.
The remainder of the day went by relatively quickly despite the mass influx of clientèle. However, I was grateful for dinner and after being quizzed by Victoria, I gratefully retired to bed early to go fiddle with the amulet.
Now that I had time alone with it, I took more time to look closely at the carved symbols across its’ surface. Initially the constant clawing that I felt coming from myself to grab at something within the amulet has resolved to a kind of gentle and ethereal suction. As if it was satisfied with the slow but consistent connection it now had. I didn’t know if that was a good thing or not, but I had to believe in my ability, for it was the only thing that had not let me down at one time or another in my life.