Chapter Fifty Seven
Joe woke with a start, fear coruscating through him as he breathed deeply, struggling to remember what had woken him. Something important! Something… I can’t… The memory flickered and disappeared, leaving only the fear. His heart pumped rapidly and his thoughts skittered through a nightmare of flickering shadows and half remembered imagery, his head aching with each deep thudding heartbeat. Instead of shying away from the hammering fear, he quickly controlled his breathing and sat himself cross legged as his masters before had always taught him, breath coming in deep, yet slow and measured. When his body was calmed, he turned to his mind, diving into the memory of the fear, seeking it out in the desire to confront it. But despite his pursuit, he found nothing but a deep infertile fear that seemed to shudder through him.
Unable to find what it was that was driving his fear, he instead pursued into the only other thing he could think of that was driving his fear lately, and once again confronted the memory of the bandits. He quickly went through each individual and what had happened, playing it over and allowing the memory of it to wash through him. Accepting what had happened, accepting his own weakness in the situation, and accepting that he’d done well, despite the calamitous outcome for the attackers. He did not justify his actions based on having found out later they were criminals, but forced himself to remember how he’d seen them. Their slow creeping movement forward. Their silent approach. Their distant yet visible greed and lust filled faces. All this he’d taken in a moment, but in his memory, he could remind himself of the choices he’d made and the reason behind it. It wasn’t a justification, but an acceptance of a flawed person making the best choice available in that moment.
It did not absolve him or soothe his guilt completely, but it did calm his heart, bringing about peace. Even as he did so, he felt his heart calm and his mind quickly and efficiently reach his center. His breath slowed once more to resting even as his heart joined and he quickly slipped his thoughts into a peaceful memory to bring clarity back to himself. He almost chose his normal memory in moments such as these but then quickly shied away as the memory was one of family and family was not a comforting thought for now. Instead, he turned to one of his earliest and happiest memories in pursuit of the martial arts under one of his first masters, and still his favorite.
His memory played out as a small smile formed on his lips. His headache lasted quite a bit longer, as did a subtle body ache in the background, although the body ache was almost a welcome companion, reminding him of home and the days he would wake up after a heavy workout. It was comforting, for a time.
* * *
Several Hours Earlier…
Hoular of the Mind settled himself, his legs folded behind him as he sat on his knees, bowing before Gunlan Galgandar, 2nd son of the Matriarch of the Galgandar clan of Coushar as he was expected, although still unpleasant. Hoular of the Mind was not of Coushar and had never been to the city, having been called to this backwater by another small minded idiot playing games he had no understanding of. Hoular only accepted the call as he’d never heard of clan McConnell nor this Joe, so had no fear of riling a sleeping dragon and the pay was enough to give him some small moments of peace before he would need to seek another employ. And if things went well with this, he would likely be able to milk the fool for even more. Small time clans had small enemies of little import and would be nothing to his skills.
Taking in the ambience of the mana, Hoular slowly gathered the will of the world and sought out the presence of Joe McConnell. The clan brat had provided him with a map and the name of the inn the target was staying at. Rather than rejecting the useless information, he accepted it gratefully despite the fact that the material world had almost no relation to the spiritual world. It never hurt to suck up to the wealthy.
After finally taking in the ambience and learning the mana of the area, he was able to begin the process of seeking through the minds of those in the area. As always, the overwhelming amount of sapients was always difficult to deal with when first immersing in the spiritual but he was able to quickly filter all others out except for base humans, as he’d been told who this Joe was. There were still so many, and the search would be difficult, even tedious, but he had all night as it was the easiest time to seek, each mind at rest and not rapidly changing. Given the description of this man’s skill and wealth, Hoular expected the man to be one of the stronger beings in the area, so sought out the brightest souls. Before he was even able to begin, however, the boss interrupted in anger.
“Have you found anything yet?” asked Gunlan Galgandar, second son of the Galgandar clan.
Hoular sighed, bringing himself from his meditation as quickly as he could without damaging himself. After almost twenty breaths, he finally was able to bring himself aware and he opened up his eyes, looking to Gunlan with a polite smile hiding mockery, “Great master, I had only just sought the spiritual world. It will take some time for me to search for this Joe McConnell. I am more than willing to report to you in the morning as it will be some time, possibly even the whole night.”
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Gunlan Galgandar, “I do not take excuses lightly.”
Hoular’s eyes turned cold, “If you do not wish to accept my help, I am more than willing to remove myself from your service and you may seek others.”
Gunlan grimaced, disdain dripping from his face before he sighed dramatically and waved him on, “Proceed.”
Hoular offered a gracious bow of his head, hiding his own disdain, unwilling to reveal it given the clans connections and power.
“Thank you for your patience and willingness to understand this simple one’s efforts, small and slow though they may be.”
Gunlan nodded once again and Hoular turned and closed his eyes to once again embrace the mana ambience and gather the will of the world before sinking deeply into the spiritual world. He’s going to interrupt one more time. Seems like the type! Despite the stray thought, Hoular was able to dismiss the stray thought and maintain his meditation, soon once again in the midst of the minds surrounding him in the spiritual. He quickly began to sort through the strongest minds once again and had a good portion that he believed would likely be who he was looking for.
Of course, none would be nearly as bright as his, and given the strength this man seemed to be displaying, he sought the largest mind when he felt and saw a mind that was exceedingly strange. He almost stretched his thoughts to it but then brought himself back to his task, relegating it to the side before searching through the base human minds of great strength. He found nothing even remotely close, however, to what he would consider strong or what he would consider capable of matching the strength necessary to display the wealth his employer claimed Joe had.
He was a bit confused but went through the listed anyway but did not find this Joe McConnell in any of the minds he’d assumed might be him. This will be a long night! Even as the thought passed, he took a moment to consider if Joe might have some form of protection or stealth against mind magic, a chill settling through him if that were true before he quickly dismissed it. Someone like that would not be in such a small and worthless town. There were no dungeons of meaning here, nor a source of wealth at all.
Groaning, Hoular shifted to going through the minds one by one, starting from the strongest until the weakest. He’d been going through the minds as quickly as he could, soon coming upon exhaustion. Finally, he decided to call it a night and carefully separated the minds he’d explored that night, making sure to keep aware of who he’d checked and who still needed to be tested. While he would never be able to memorize all the minds he’d explored that night, he would still be able to at least focus on the single mind that he was currently on and compare the minds weaker than that. To be certain, he choose a mind a bit stronger than what he’d made in case anyone grew stronger in the day and then prepared to separate himself from the spiritual.
As he settled to release back to the physical world, he remembered the strange mind he’d seen before and decided to at least enjoy a bit of personal exploration. He pulled himself to the mind, or it to himself; things were a bit fuzzy in the spiritual realm. He was cautious not to interact with the mind in any way, but simply staring at it for a few moments in caution. It was a strange mind; one of the strangest he’d ever seen. It was not strong; maybe only a triple digit, possible a quadruple digit on some of its lesser and mental strengths. The mental strengths gave him pause, as interacting with a high mental strength as a mind mage was always a much greater danger. Simultaneously, even his weak but admittedly impressive triple digit strength gave an impression of power, or ability, significantly beyond what should be average even for a quadruple digit in the more obvious physical strengths. What are his secrets!? How has he done this!?
Hoular wavered for a moment before deciding to at least say hello. He wouldn’t actually reveal himself, but he would greet in the traditional manner of those who were mental mages. A greeting in such a fashion would disarm the other and not draw their ire to him. He took the moment to consider a possible reason for his interruption and decided to go on a minor variation of the truth. If he was asked, he would have a perfect reason to be there. Just a mental mage paid by the local clan to do some searching.
He approached cautiously and brushed against the mind softly, a polite query with a hint of dominance. The greeting of a superior to an inferior as expected of this minds inferior position in power to him. The brush, however, seemed to go unnoticed with no response, as Hoular expected. Mind mages were not rare, but to find one in the backwaters was almost quite unlikely.
The spirit of the individual fluctuated once again, shifting from weakness to strength seeming to approach even his own, and Hoular found himself shivering slightly; confusion mixing with a bit of tense fear.
The strength was strange in a way he couldn’t understand. It seemed to be two… no, something like three… kinds of strength. It was the strangest thing he’d ever seen. His mental strength was incredible but as he was not a mental mage, it didn’t truly matter. This strength was well known to him. It was a strength that was known to all on this cradle as it was the strength given to those who pursued strength, but it was ghost like, almost as if it was there but not… it was not … something.
While this ghost like effect was disturbing and unusual to him, the ghost like strength was not something concerning him as that strength was still mostly inferior to his… except that insane mental strength… and there were many techniques to hide one’s strength and this might be nothing more than such a skill. It wouldn’t be surprising if he was some kind of visiting clanner from some place on some kind of hidden mission or quest, maybe even a youngster out to ‘get experience’ as some of the more powerful clans were known to do with their youngsters.