Cycle 3077 AF
Chapter Four: Making the Connection
"By the 13 pearls of Julack that is still an odd sight." I stared at the heart floating the sky with no small amount of confusion and interest.
24 days and nights of pure learning, never repeating a lesson, writing notes, or being given tests. 576 hours of almost pure lecturing, with barely any breaks. The only exception had been these last few hours as things wound down and I had time to learn things like Anton’s version of cursing.
“I see that you learned to fly. Are you ready to go?” I paused my thoughts and turned back to Leo. We were both floating thousands of meters up in the air, although I was actually parallel to the ground, while he was perpendicular. The difference meant that I looked like I was lying on my back in mid-air while Leo was floating as if he was standing on invisible ground.
“Yeah, but where did you find that thing anyway?” I asked, pointing at the giant heart that I had tried flying to earlier. I had been stopped a few meters above where I was currently relaxing by an invisible barrier that I had been unable to get past.
Leo looked at the heart for a moment with an unreadable expression, “I will tell you on the way.” Then he turned and flew away towards the ground, leaving me to follow behind.
We flew towards the place where Anton had trained me the past few weeks, but now there was no sign of any remains of my hard work. Anton or Leo must have cleared it out earlier, I thought. Speaking of whom, Anton, was on the ground staring at something, but what it was I did not know. There was nothing to stare at as far as I could tell, but then again, I had flown into an invisible barrier in the air not too long ago, so maybe he was staring at something invisible.
It turned out I was right.
As we flew downward Leo took out a small object of some kind and something resembling a giant metal fish appeared in front of Anton. It looked completely closed off except for the small, extended drawbridge that was placed near Anton.
Leo landed before me and told Anton that we would be leaving in a minute and that he should say good-bye before rushing up the drawbridge.
As I landed I looked over at my teacher. Where I had seen a cold, distant, and bitter man before I saw a curious, knowledgeable, and respectful man now. It had taken over a week of constantly asking and answering questions before he had realized that my thirst for knowledge could not be quenched, not because of my desire for more ways to kill others, but because of my sincere desire to learn. When he realized that, Anton finally seemed to fully accept me as his student and we had spent the next two weeks without brake as he explained everything from mitochondria to which parts of the human brain controlled what.
I had even managed to teach him something when it came to the use of magic and its effects on the body. Apparently, his whole world had lived and advanced without magic, so identifying some of the effects of magic use on the human body had actually turned into brief experiments together. Unfortunately we had all too quickly hit both the time limit and the limit of what Anton was allowed to teach me, so I had spent the last few hours exchanging curses with him before I tried to fly up to the heart.
Now I looked over at him and honestly wondered what to say. I hated long goodbyes and he, I had learned, was not very sentimental himself. Anton saw my look and walked over. “I had hoped that I could at least make you take the healer’s oath before you went.” He grumbled, looking me in the eyes. “However you are too much of a fighter not to try and figure out a way out of this.” He paused, continuing to look me in the eyes for a moment before looking away, towards the drawbridge, before continuing. “Leo is a good Nalk, but never forget that he is a Nalk. You might be balanced now, before you start his ‘Game,’ but he will do his best later to ensure ‘interesting times’ for the Nalks first and only think of you afterwards, if he thinks of you at all. He created monsters DeMorte.” Looking me in the eyes again Anton stressed the words that came out of his mouth next, even as he extended his right hand. “He is an architect because he created things the even the Nalks were scared of, be careful.” Already familiar with his ‘hand-shaking’ ritual, I obliged, shaking his hand as my teacher told me one of the most terrifying things that I had ever heard. “Good luck.”
I nodded thanks and turned to walk up the drawbridge, there was nothing more to be said.
As I entered the giant metal fish the drawbridge pulled itself in and with a hiss sealed itself into the wall behind me. At which point the metal monster rumbled and I felt a strange sensation of movement that was hard to describe, it was like being squeezed and then pulled off in a direction that I could not clearly identify.
Trying to ignore it as best I could, I explored the metal halls that spread out into the innards of the odd thing. It did seem rather dull though, the metal halls all looked the same, lightbulbs being the only source of light as I wondered around. There were metal doors, however they did not have any type of handle on the outside so I could not get them open. I thought that the squares next to the doors might do something, but they did not react to my touch or magic so I left them alone. Eventually I came to an open door with what appeared to be a ‘cafeteria,’ as Anton’s book would label it.
“There you are.” Leo called from inside, near another open door that quickly closed behind him. He was carrying something rectangular in his hand that might have been a small book. Waving me over to a table he sat down and smiled, clearly vary happy about something. Anton’s words of warning came to mind as I sat down and waited for Leo to explain.
Grinning, Leo spoke quickly, “We only have a few minutes, I needed this ship to take you some place that the others will view as to troublesome to try and reach, but the trip itself is fast and easy with this ship.”
“This is a ship?” How in the Ovals was this a ship? It was made out of metal, not wood!
“A ship to travel between worlds.” Leo confirmed, however he did not let me question him further about the ship and talked on. “We will be going very close to the center of the Gwainian circle that I told you about before, a place where you spirit will reside until it totally fuses into your new body. It is not far away from where I found the heart you asked about earlier. Since I cannot watch you all the time and the place you connect your consciousness at will be where your spirit remains, so this is the solution.”
I blinked, “Wait, so are you saying that if I were to make contact with my other consciousness, from my point of view my spirit body would disappear, but it would actually be stuck where my spirit was when I made contact?” It was confusing, but I thought I understood the basics of it.
Leo nodded an affirmative. “Almost perfect. However your spirit would not be stuck, if your consciousness transferred to your new body while this ship was still traveling, you would be stuck as an immobile feature and would fly out the back of the ship as it continued on.” He then added, “That was the reason why I wanted to get you out of the pervious world quickly, time moved so much slower there I was worried that your consciousness would start to fuse before you were ready. As it is right now you will have just over twenty days to get used to your new body, however you were losing much more time there than here.”
I frowned. My math skills were never the best, however something seemed off about the twenty days, then I remembered how Leo had talked about the world being 100 times faster.
Seeming to anticipate my problem, although Anton had taught me how to guard my thoughts from mind-reading, Leo explained. “Unlike your previous world the ‘years’ on your new world are more easily defined and noticeable.” I had trouble understanding how the seven Alpha-Beta seasons were anything except clear, however I let it go as Leo kept talking. “There are 360 days in a year and a ‘Day of the Gods’ once every ten years to make up for the tenth of a day in each solar cycle. These days would be the rough equivalent of your alpha days however this new world will only have one star to orbit. Your new mind will explain it fully though so I would rather show you the mixed bag of blessings and curses that you managed to accrue so far.”
My skin seemed to crawl as I remember the fact that I would be reborn a little girl who would normally only grow up to become a healer or wife (or worse, both.) I nodded understanding and forced my internal confusion to the back of my mind. Years as I understood them were much longer than a mere 360 days, however Anton had explained how his home world had 365 day years so it was not too surprising. It did however mean that, as Leo gave me the rectangular object that he had holding since he enter the room, I realized that I would have less time than I thought before the ‘Game’ started.
Looking at the odd rectangular device I wondered who had created it. Along with the rest of the ship and even Anton’s book, from what seemed so long ago, it was another foreign device that I could not tell how it was made. If I had to describe it I would call it a magic plate or tablet with the middle of it glowing with a strange and eccentric list written in Anton’s English language.
- Distributed Changes:
1) Change in unborn gender
2) Increased fertility
- Advantage to counter Distributed Changes:
1 and 2) Tutorage under an expert.
Curse and
Blessing list:
1) Elemental Rejection – Elemental spirits and their equivalent spells dislike you because you are from a different world, all such elemental contracts and spells will be harder to perform and cost more mana.
Healer’s Talent – Your mana is naturally connective and can heal others more easily, all healing and non-malicious spells are easier to cast and cost less mana
2) Weak Constitution – Your body is weak and hard to train.
Strong Mana – Your mind and mana capacity are strong.
3) Acute Senses – Both a blessing and a curse as while you will be harder to sneak up on and faster to react, your sense of pain will be much sharper.
4) Small Build – Both a blessing and a curse because you will move faster at the cost of being injured more easily.
5) Non-Threatening to Animals – Both a blessing and a curse. Animals will find you interesting and want to investigate you. Some may befriend you while others will view you as food. If they believe that you are hiding they will investigate and may help you if you are attacked. (this does not include insects)
I looked up at Leo as I finished reading, but before I could say a word he spoke. “Put your finger on the center of the device and move it up, there is more for you to read.” As he said this there was a small ‘ding’ sound like a small bell and Leo smiled. “We have arrived, you keep reading and leave the way you came in when you are done, I will set everything up.” He stood as he talked and walked out the door I came in, calling out something about following the lights when I was done.
I shook my head and concentrated on the screen, I touched my finger gingerly to the glowing middle and slid it up. This caused the list to move down and revealed the next few numbers. I read the new numbers and repeated my actions as the list went on and on…
When I was finally done reading I found out that Leo had shut off all the lights outside the room I was in and the path to the drawbr- to the ramp that had let me enter the odd metal ship. As if chasing me out, the lights behind me went out as I moved through the ship with Leo’s list of stoning curses in my hand.
As I disembarked I looked around at my spirit’s sanctuary for the next few years. It was plain, simple, and completely insane. We were in a stone dome of absolutely awe-inspiring proportions. Concentric rings, various geometric figures, and weird fractured figures were placed all around the inside of the dome, some in haphazard fashion, others perfectly fitting shapes into shapes with connections to other, usually chaotic, symbols. All of which gave off a reddish-purple glow. Only the dead center seemed calm, with Leo standing inside a plain circle with no other marking inside it. Leo himself was alternating between examining the circle on the ground and looking up at the dark ceiling.
“I am going to ignore the fact that your people turned me into Cook’s wife for a moment and ask how this place is supposed to protect me from your people when I start massacring other players.” I growled at Leo, tossing his little magic tablet at him while I was at it.
Leo caught it without looking and pointed at the dark ceiling above him. “That is a shield to keep the madness outside this place, once I remove it no one outside this circle will be able to survive in this place long. Only a ship like the one I brought you in here with would be able to enter and only my wife and I would use material technology.”
Still angry I ended up letting my mouth run a bit more than I meant to. “Does she happen to be a flat chested, short, thin-boned, nymphomaniac of an animal magnet?” I could have gone on though, some of the other minor or random curses too, purple eyes, pointed ears, being able to move said ears, but not role my tongue. It was crazy.
Leo gave me a hard look for a moment that completely stopped me and I once again remembered Anton’s warning as I realized that I might have gone too far. Luckily it seemed that Leo had his own problems with his wife. “She is not my wife by choice.” He grumbled, before adding “Cook’s wife was a good human as far as the standards go, even if she had the oddest tastes in other humans. Given how happy the two were however I would not think that you would object too much to be like her. Especially since you have considerably more choices than she did, Cook was her unique out in a situation filled with bad choices. Did you know that for all his oddity he was not even a player?” Leo concluded his statements with a question that seemed to speak volumes for who the Nalks chose as players. Especially given that Cook had been the oddest human… humanoid… sentient… individual I had ever met.
Stepping out of the circle Leo gestured to it and told me to get comfortable. Telling myself that I had not been exaggerating my planned massacre, I walked over and settled into what I had been told in my previous life was a meditative pose.
Looking up I mentally prepared myself as best I could and called out to Leo. “Any last pieces of advice?”
Leo gave me a friendly smile, “We have a few minutes, but I would suggest that you close your eyes for when the connection happens. That and not trying to move your new body for the first few days after you make the connection”
I nodded and closed my eyes, taking the opportunity to ask a few last minute questions. “By the way, when will the ‘Game’ actually start?”
“You will have around a decade, then an even will signal the start, though I cannot tell you more than that.”
I was nodding understanding when a thought struck me. “I already assumed that it would stay with me, but is there really no way to get rid of the Guilt?”
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“If a way exists I am not aware of it, but since you are merging your spirit with another version of yourself there is a possibility that the effect of your ‘Guilt’ could be weakened.”
I sighed, it was worth the question, even if it turned out to be noting, but false hope. “Do you know how long the ‘Game’ will last?”
“No, but it will not be for more than a century after it starts.”
100 cursed years! “How am I supposed to live that long?” Even with the good habits Anton had taught me about it would be a stretch for me to live that long.
My question produced a laugh. “How many curses did you read on the list I gave you? Almost every one of them where the blessing and curse were the same added some mana to your new body as compensation. Your mana is large enough now to start slowing your aging once you reach adulthood. If you maintain your own body, as Anton should have taught you to do, than you should live for a good 180 years – give or take a decade for injuries.”
I did not speak. All the refuse I had to go through because the Nalks were poor losers was almost worth it just to live, regardless of the amount of time, with a good supply of mana. Cycling internal energies to gain strength and power was time consuming and only truly made a difference if your opponent was of equal or lesser mana than you. Or if you manage to snip his throat in the night. A shadow of the Guilt flashed through my mind, making me close my mouth with a click of my teeth.
Instinctively trying to cover the fact that I had been gaping, I quickly continued my questioning. “Are any of the locals are going to interfere like Gorith did?”
“No, everyone is afraid of something so these gods are happy to bow to threats as long as we promise something entertaining and worthwhile in exchange.” Leo’s tone was cold, calculating, and a bit proud. I took note of it for future negotiations as I tried not to grimace at his mention of entertaining the locals. I especially did not want to visualize how that would be done, or if I would be part of the entertainment, my stomach was already tugging at the thought.
I contented myself to ask a simpler question. “Even gods have something they fear?”
“Everything sentient has some version of fear, I am scared of failing to entertain my kin with my game for example.” I must have given an outward reaction to that, despite my attempts to the contrary, because Leo continued in a much lighter voice. “I am also vaguely afraid of my wife, although I would never say that to her presence and…” Leo paused dramatically, “Nalk lawyers.”
That brought a smile to my face, although the odd pulling sensation did not leave as I joked with Leo. “I suppose that a divorce would be apocalyptic for you than.”
I heard a groan from Leo as the odd sensation seemed to spread making me feel like I was going to fly off any second. Leo did not seem to notice and kept talking. “You have no idea how horrible it can be dealing with our lawyers, even with spirit speak summarizing whole arguments it can still take centuries or millennia to get a case settled. I have not played a Game as a Backer in over 12 millennia and yet I am still being called to validate Game moves I made back then. I was-”
I was pulled away at that moment, the connection having been made.
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“Wake up Bella!” A hand shook my shoulder, eliciting a groan from me.
One of the many mixed blessings/curses the Nalks gave me was that my new body was a night hunter type. “Too early.” I replied, my voice an odd, high pitched squeak.
“I am gonna put down the ramp for the dodies if you no get up!” The one talking was annoying, their voice squeaky and irritating, must be Carly.
Wait, who was that? Oh, Carly was Carly of course! Real name Carlatus, I called him Carly to annoy him, he was my younger brother and the one of the only two living relatives younger than me. He also had a bad nut allergy that I was the only one who knew about. The results of my time with Anton! Wait, when was that? I was here on the farm the last few cycles how could I…
I pulled myself back from the kid-me, her young mind, providing the answers when I asked for them, but pulling me into their current thinking habits while doing so. In response she yelped and rolled out of her hay stack bed onto the wooden floor, where I could have sworn I heard her say ‘stones’ however I was still trying to figure out what was going on.
As she mentally prepared for the day and tried to wake up I tried to create a mental image to try and help understand how kid me and adult me were separated and how we were connected. In magic of any type, mental magic especially, it was important to visualize connections and relations.
Mentally creating a separate body I imagined that there was a pair of open doorways which showed the world as my new body saw it. Doorways which I could go through, either way, at will. Once those two things were created I realized that the image was not acceptable in the long run. I would be merging with this body and if I were to guess, based on what Leo said before I left, I would have minor control of the body that would grow over the next few months and years. I had acknowledge that.
As my kid-self dealt with a small pack of four legged – overly friendly – balls of fur that seemed intent on licking every inch of her body, I changed my image.
The doorway sank and transformed into a pond. Experimenting, I reached over and dipped my hand into the water.
“Down! Down doggies! Down!” I called repeatedly. The dogs finally settled at my feet, tongues hanging out of their mouths, panting happily. I shot a glare at Carly’s back as the five year old wisely fled the barn, brat. I clapped my hands twice and gave the “Prep!” order to the dogs who promptly ran down the ramp which led up to my second floor of the barn. The stinky man, my biological father, had built the second floor and the ramp when the farm building had been constructed, but added a removable section for me after I kept running out of his stinky house to sleep in the barn.
Backing out of my kid-self’s thoughts for a moment I mentally pulled my hand back until it was almost out of the pond. I used the mental image of leaving only a fingertip in the pool that was my other self to search her memories.
I started with her family and the local area.
Her – my – mother’s name was Elizabeth and she was a good mother, although she was getting on in years. She had given birth over a dozen time based on the comments my new body had overheard over the years. Of them, only six, including myself, were still alive. Two of my older brothers, Hoplis and Xiphos, still lived, although I had never met Xiphos because he was traveling and learning magic. Hoplis was a born and bred farmer who was moving off to a corner of the family farm next year to prove that he could provide for the young lady he planed to marry. My older sister, Florence, was thirteen years old and while she was growing up into the local beauty she was of the age where she did not want to be associated with me if she could avoid it. Besides myself there was also Carly and little Carol, who was just a babe.
I ignored the father for now as the child-me seemed to have a fairly low opinion of him.
Locally, we were fairly isolated, there was a single dirt path that out to the closest town to our south, but there were two villages, one to the south-east and one to the west, which did not even have cart paths. Our land had been officially gifted to us for some ancestor’s former war service. It was only in the last thirty years however that it became much more profitable, especially with the introduction of the newest crop rotations. To the north and northeast of us was nothing but thick, dangerous, forest for quite some way. The northwest skirted the forest and eventually ran into the next kingdom, Atlratus.
Searching the memories further, I discovered that the family currently lived in Zootrofí and were the closest thing to nobility outside the town, whose name was hard for my childhood self to remember, something that started with an ‘e.’ Otherwise we were on the north-eastern continent, which received its orientation from the ‘holy unifying continent’ that was said to touch every other land and contained something called the wizard’s tower desert. However before I could look for more information my other self yelped in pain.
Pushing my mental concentration deeper I realized that the girl, that I, had gotten a splinter in my finger. That caused an internal sigh from the adult me as she sucked on her finger and tried not to cry. Without thinking I used a little mana to pull out the splinter and numb out the pain. The child-me quickly stopped crying and after examining her finger, went back to work.
I mentally shook my head. The spell I used was a combination of two of the most basic spells that were used by magicians when they had to deal with kids. Of course, like snip they had other application that I…
Wait. Had I just used mana? As a spirit I had the same amount of mana as my previous life, but now I realized that I could actually feel some of the mana my new body had. Even if I only had a access to a fraction of the total amount it was nearly half of my previous life’s!
I grinned like a madman and even felt the grin effecting my child-self. If Leo did not mean for this to happen than he was going to seriously regret his sloppiness.
* * *
Inside Leo's ship in the Nalk's old PDC (prison of dimensional confinement):
As his ship prepared to leave Leo quietly disengaged the shield protecting the room where he left the late Bandit King. Outside the ship chaotic energy came through the open stone iris that was formally covered by the shield. The energies were unpalatable to his kind and would ensure that no Nalk got within several dimensional degrees of the prison Leo had stored the Bandit King into.
Having entered the necessary information into the ship’s navigational computer Leo ignored the fact that he had just ensured the destruction of the Bandit King’s soul should he die before fusing into the new body. As interesting as humans were, Leo was still an evolved energy being and Nalk, who would give anything to ensure that his game was better than average.
Mentally organizing his to-do list Leo realized that all he had to do now was manage the rest of the plays as they were recorded, insure no one cheated, and make sure the put Anton’s soul in a good new body as per their agreement.
The thought made him smile and as his ship arrived in the unique dimension that made up Leonardo’s Game Room he thought that nothing could bring his spirits down.
As it turned out, tempting Fate, even as a Nalk, was a bad idea.
After Leo teleported out of his ship and into what he called his special Play room, although he did not make plays anymore, Leo found a nervious looking Anton, a beautiful, if aged, woman named Maria, and his wife.
She was blue skinned this time, with a voluptuous figure that suited her preference for poising as a sex goddess on so many worlds. Of course beauty changed with culture, however Anton’s discomfort from the woman’s near nakedness gave his away his opinion on the subject. His wife never wore any cloths except for the Cloak of Shadow Matter that he had gifted her.
They were the only two known Nalks who used such material objects, regardless of their forms, for the power they offered. Her Cloak and his Heart.
“Hello dear.” Leo offered. However instead of a verbal answer she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his head and kissing as deeply as their human forms would allow. The move was so surprising (especially when she wrapped a leg around his hip) that he almost did not catch the snip spell in time.
A human would not have survived, as DeMorte himself had repeatedly proven, but Nalks were different. Most gods were energy beings of one type of another, so they could not be killed by average magic.
Leo had just enough time to wonder why she used such a weak, average, spell when she broke off the kiss and used her superhuman strength to snap his neck.
As Leo’s human body died he converted himself back to energy and was about to chastise her when she tossed up a device creating some type of magnetic containment field and dissolved her own body.
Realizing what she was planning Leo groaned to himself and engulfed the anti-matter container.
As the containment field failed two energy beings became one and glowed brightly for the next few minutes, pulsing and mixing as they sent energy surges through each other. It created quite the interesting lightshow for the two nearby humans and climaxed with what seemed to them like a series of miniature explosions. In the energy cloud before the two beings slowly rematerialized.
Leo’s wife was the first to speak, although it was more a long string of contented moan than words. It informed the mortals of far more than they needed to know about what had just happened.
Leo just replied with a deadpan “Nice to see you too. Selaugh.”
Her smile was one that would have made the two humans blush and shiver, despite their own experiences with both the Nalks and the opposite sex. If they had been able to see it from their angle, that was.
Leo continued. “Is there any particular reason you almost annihilated my favorite room?” Looking around he made sure that the countless large globes that represented numerous Game worlds of the past millennia, the room had no end either as it was a pocket dimension that Leo himself had created. Back before Selaugh had tricked him with the whole ‘till the final Game do they part.’
She pouted, but Leo would have been unaffected even if she was in her energy form. Her two favorite forms were a sex goddess and the trickster goddess after all, he was at least somewhat used to her unique brand of insanity. Although she did not usually try and kill him with her hands.
Sniffing disdainfully, Selaugh covered herself up with her cloak and let her skin turn into a bright pink. “I made a promise that I decided to keep.”
Leo gave no outward reactions in his human form, but his energy could not help churning. That was a surprise for him and her surprises were dangerous.
Leo was one of the most adaptive players in Nalk history, however he was only the fourth best player. His wife on the other hand, was the preverbal queen of long-term/long-odd plays and the second best player, ever.
Looking over at the Maria Leo asked the obvious. “Does this have something to do with DeMorte’s wife?”
“Yep, I promised to reincarnate her with her husband if she managed to kill him” Selaugh laughed happily. “So I brought her to you.”
Leo saw Anton’s face stiffen and did not have to read his mind to know what the human thought. The games never ended with the Nalks.