Chapter 8:

It took me a moment to figure out how to accept the notification, but despite any reservations I might have about Kintsujis’ motives, I knew I didn't really have a choice but to accept. As soon as I did so, the stone in my hand grew uncomfortably warm. The shimmers of almost seen colour intensified and seemed to swirl and gather within the material, while the blue flame at its centre seemed to pulse, each shudder of energy raising the level of the light within and making the whole stone warmer.

“Quickly, Child. Place the stone to your chest, above your heart.” Kintsuji urges me, placing a hand against their own chest for reference. Swallowing again, dryly, and fighting a sudden wave of anxiety sweats, I pulled the neck of my linen shirt away from my torso and reached down with my other hand to place the now burning hot Constellation stone against my pale skin.

I yelped and hissed as my skin sizzled at the touch of burning essence, before the magic buried inside the stone erupted, and poured into me.

I felt my soul - the part inside me and the part connected to Boone - erupt with blue fire. The sudden flare of heat, even coming from something as non physical and ephemeral as a soul, was so shocking that I tried to scream, but my voice - my whole body, in fact - locked up and went completely rigid. Hands and arms straight, with fingers splayed, legs so straight and stiff I thought my knees would snap at the tension, and face pointed at the distant ceiling.

My vision began to blur and I realised it was because even my eyes were locked open. The stone had sealed itself to my chest, and I could feel a burning, sucking agony coming from that area. It felt like the stone itself was burrowing into my rib-cage, and then through, approaching my heart. Muscles and bone didn't stand a chance as heat seared into me, and my silent screams echoed down the connection to Boone.

[ERROR] Soul linked status of companion Boone has deific override applied. Higher order rules of reality overwrite local restrictions. Executing Override: A Mirror And Reflection.

I could feel the little blue fox was in as much agony as me, splayed on the floor and eyes rolling as the essence from the gem filled our bodies and our souls to bursting and then kept pushing, until something deep within me began to turn.

I had heard from my parents over the years about a persons’ core and how it interacted with Essence, but I never knew how that would feel. I was as blind as a real eight year old when it came to things regarding magic and essence, but I had been told the feeling was like a ball of water or fire, or some other reference of an element, that sat below my navel and would be where the essence I gathered would be drawn to; That If I was very talented, I'd be able to feel how much was in there, and how much space I had - even how fast it filled up. I had never before heard any description of a core rotating in my body.

It was the queerest feeling as my body burned from within, feeling the new, suddenly opened place begin to spin and draw in the energy racing through me, drawing thin wisps of energy from throughout my body like molten spun sugar, twisting down and down and gathering tighter with each new rotation.

I felt my stomach muscles clench and everything in me wanted to bend double and grasp at my stomach, but whatever was holding me immobile wouldn't let me.

The speed increased and in my mind's eye I saw that space begin to glow with a pale blue radiance that was nevertheless as hot as the sun. Felt the feeling reflected through Boone and back to me and returned again in an endless mirrored loop. It seemed to stretch a moment into an agonising eternity, before the whole spinning ball pulsed and expanded. It grew within me, not on a physical scale, because whatever the Core was, I doubted it was a physical organ in my body, but somewhere on a similar place to where my soul sat I felt the Core become more than it was before.

In my vision, the world quickly turned blue, then black, then was filled with tiny lights. Stars blazed in my vision and I was drawn up, up and North, the starlight burning into my eyes with stabs of both light and revelation, as I glimpsed something from each constellation I passed, until one in particular grew brighter, and closer, before filling my entire vision.

Five stars in the Northern hemisphere far above the Divide glowed, and a shock of Knowing ripped through my mind.

With a sudden surge, the pain increased and roared through me, before going silent. The sudden stillness was unnerving, the absence of pain suddenly strange, and I waited an eternity for my heart to beat and my lungs to suck down air, before words scrawled themselves across my vision.

Constellation stone of the Vulpecula consumed. This Constellation stone will bond with your Perception attribute.

Perception attribute unlocked. Perception governs the ability to see, hear, smell, and perceive the world. As you gain levels in Perception, you will be able to sense more in your surroundings, see further and in greater detail, and feel things more clearly with each level. Additionally, unlocking the Perception Ability grants you the Targeted Ability: Identify. At its most basic level, Identity will allow you to know the name and level of Wood Rank items. The amount you can discover, and the Rank of what you can identify, will increase as you gain levels in the Perception Stat.

Vulpecula passive ability unlocked: Field of Illusions

Vulpecula Constellation stone is attempting to unlock an inborn Talent. [ERROR] Inborn Talents already unlocked. Reviewing: Divine Intervention detected, applying override. Redistributing essence to Perception abilities.

Vulpecula Constellation Stone has unlocked its 1st gate. Foxfire Imbuement has been unlocked from Perception Attribute at level Wood: 1. (1 / 4) Abilities unlocked to Perception attribute.

Field of Illusions: Wood 1 (0/3)

You may hijack the vision of a visible, non mindless opponent and apply a visual illusion over parts of their current eye-line. At its most basic level, this illusion will not stand up to detailed analysis. Higher levels in this ability can create more convincing illusions and fool higher level perception stats. You may also project simple illusions in the air, though these are very easy to see through and disbelieve at low levels.

Foxfire Imbuement: Wood 1 (0/3)

You may channel essence through this ability to coat weapons, natural weapons, or ranged ammunition with blue Foxfire. Foxfire burns hotter against illusion, force, or magical effects than it does physical targets. Additionally damage scales with levels in this ability.

I felt knowledge bloom in my mind, and as the knowledge of how to use these abilities appeared in my brain as if it had always been there, just out of reach, my muscles were released and I collapsed into a heap on the floor, gasping for breath. I soft tickling, like glass falling, came from beneath me, and I saw that several loose chunks of frosted glass had slid and fallen out of the bottom of my tunic.

As I knelt there on all fours with my head bowed and my hair obscuring my vision, I felt a presence beside me, and suddenly, there was a gentle hand rubbing between my shoulder blades, just like mum would do when Mia or I would do when we were sick.

“It's okay Flower, just breathe. Let the essence do its work. The first is always the worst.”

“What…what was that?” I croaked out, and my throat felt raw, scratchy and tortured, as though I had been drinking and smoking a full night, like in my last life.

“That was a Quickening, child. Or, at least, mostly. I'm afraid even if your brain and soul were more than ready to accept essence, your body may have still been slightly immature: And that was a lot of essence. You even unlocked your first gate on perception. Well done!”

I felt Boone press against my rigid arms, his tiny body shuddering with the aftereffects of the Constellation stone. I could feel his heart beating like a jackhammer against my wrist and knee that mine was matching it, bear for beat. Quickly, I gathered the shaking fox into my arms and lent back on my thighs. Kintsujis’ hand left my back and started stroking my hair, long slow motions that calmed me more than I thought they would. “Vulpecula, the Fox. An auspicious constellation for us - though I won't lie I had a small hand in guiding you to it: And bound to your Perception, at that. I couldn't have hoped for better - though you may not think so at first. Illusions in this trial will perhaps not be the most useful - but Foxfire? Perfect.”

“That…that hurt a lot, Arcadia. Can we not do that again?” Boone spoke up from the cradle of my arms, but even with both him and the goddess talking right into my ears, most of my attention was on the information pouring into my brain and cooking it like spaghetti.

I knew things now. I felt that unlocking these abilities had created some sort of receptacle for essence for them within the spiritual, semi biological place in which my core sat. I knew that, if left alone, when my now slowly spinning core filled, excess essence would overflow and fill these receptacles, and that was the way they charged and became ready for use. But I also felt, if I needed to, I could take energy directly from my core and fill them manually, like pouring water from a jug into a cup. But I understood if I was to do this that my core would quickly empty and if I emptied it entirely the results would be bad.

However, along with instinctive knowledge in how the core worked, like I knew instinctively how to breathe, but could also make the process manual if I needed, I also gained some small knowledge of how my abilities worked - though that felt as if it was the most rudimentary of knowledge, and trial and experimentation would help, as well as increasing the size of the abilities’ cup of essence, for lack of a better term - though as of yet, I had no idea how to do that.

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I knew how to take the essence from the receptacle for my illusion ability and pour it into the air around me, much like paint on a canvas. At its most basic, I felt I would be able to copy still images in the air, or create imaginary images if they were basic and uncomplicated. But on a slightly deeper level, I felt I could channel the essence shape more into a needle, and fire it at a living or otherwise intelligent target, and force the essence to connect to their visual cortex. If successful, and if the amount of essence was strong enough to overcome their own perception stat, I felt I would be able to change what they were seeing. I knew, effectively, how I could create or extend shadows and throw them around myself to fool someone into thinking I was a part of them, or that, for example, I could make a door or window seem closed when it was actually open, and I was not actually standing in front of it. It wasn't invisibility, more targeted fogging of what they perceived, but I thought against a living opponent, it would be a strong weapon when I trained it.

Lastly, I also felt it was something of a passive ability. Once I activated it, it would remain running as long as I fed it essence, or until its receptacle emptied, whichever came first, which was interesting. I had a feeling that as I got stronger, not only could I make an illusion more complex, but that at a certain point I would be able to effectively make them permanent, as long as my essence gathering outstripped the upkeep of the ability.

All of this was all well and good, but I also got the very strong impression that the undead I had seen in the dungeon wouldn't be affected by my illusions no matter what I tried - there was no mind to influence or alter in their empty skulls. I tried not to be disappointed that half of my apparent skill set would be completely superfluous to my survival of this challenge.

For the other ability, however, I explored the package of information that had been smoothly inserted into my brain, and got a feeling for how to use it. Feeling around, I understood how the receptacle was the same size, roughly, as that for my illusions, but rather than being made for a passive ability that would drain it slowly over time, like a tap on a barrel of water, this one felt more like an optic bottle of spirits in a bar. It seemed designed so I could take a little shot of the energy any time I activated it, but that it would be a measured, precise amount, and that amount would only get larger as the ability got stronger.

What it felt like, however, was that I could take a ‘shot’ of essence that was far more volatile and explosive than the more paint-like and neutral illusion essence, and use it to coat a weapon that I was holding, causing it to burn briefly with blue flame. The fire would not harm me or the things I was holding or wearing - such as the leather cup and elastic rubber cable of my catapult - but would discharge that energy into something that I hit. I felt that the energy at my level of strength would be good for a single attack, and that the receptacle had roughly enough for ten ‘shots’ of essence before it ran dry. Though as with the receptacle for my illusion ability, it would refill gradually as the overflow from my core would fill it up, or I could fill it manually by emptying my core and leaving that depleted. Again I got the distinct impression this would be a bad idea.

This information came to me in less than a couple of seconds, and it was almost like the knowledge had always been there, and I had just misplaced it briefly. It felt both natural, and deeply unsettling, as it also felt strangely familiar.

Not too many years ago, I had woken up in a babies’ body with the admittedly fragmented and fuzzy, memories of living another life. I had effectively been downloaded into the empty and waiting brain of Arcadia, but was an already condensed and thinking person. I had often wondered what the process of reincarnation was like for a normal soul who had been able to enter the River, and had had their identity of their previous life fully washed away.

Now, with all this new knowledge shoved directly into my head, ready and usable as if I had been training it all my life, I felt a horrible shudder creep its way up my spine. The thought gave me a momentary disconnect between my identity and my reality. Part of my mind asked if I was who I thought I had always been, while another, smaller voice, wondered if my identity was also just a skill that had been dumped in, and not a person in truth. It wasn't a good line of thought, honestly, but I had to physically shake myself out of it. It clung to my mind like a horrid spider web and I felt if I dwelled too long on the implication, I'd simply go mad.

Kintsuji continued to run her hands through my hair and scratch and stroke at my scalp, grounding me and reminding me of my physical presence while my mind adjusted to the new information. While it only perhaps took a few seconds for my brain to assimilate the new knowledge, it was also a distinctly unnatural feeling and my attention kept trying to chase the process and go in circles.

She had been playing a motherly role through my transition state, or at least something like a supportive wine aunt, as the goddess wasn't a patch on my real mother, but she seemed to grow tired of me kneeling there unresponsive quite quickly, and before I was truly ready to pay attention to the world around me, she stood, walked back to her throne, and gestured at me with an almost puppeteering motion.

I felt my body once again move against my will, and I stood, then moved further up in the air, until I was suddenly held suspended a few inches above the flagstones, and I was forced to move until I drifted before her.

“I'm sorry, child, I wish I could give you all the time you need to adjust to the quickening, but I can only spare so much time for your mortal shell to come to terms with the magic of this world. Unfortunately, this world needs all the help it can get and I am a very busy Goddess. You, on the other hand, have a mission, and a way out of here if you complete it.” She reached down and patted me on the cheek with one glowing white and gold hand. “So try not to disappoint me, yes? I'll be watching.”

I felt my feet touch down as Kintsuji leaned back, and suddenly she wasn't the goddess anymore, but had returned to being a statue. Carved from golden veined marble and looking both austere and matronly, with her vulpine chin resting on one hand and her legs crossed at the ankle. She looked like she was listening to a favoured grandchilds' story. Her other hand held a black, onyx wine glass over the arm of the throne.

I had little experience with the temples of the Pantheon here on Axis, apart from small shrines to Trickery which Mother favoured, but I thought this was…not how gods were meant to appear, and if anything it made me snort.

I didn't know what the gods were typically meant to be like - but I had a feeling Kintsuji was anything but normal. She was right though, I had already been down here for several hours, and while the goddess had reassured me that she would warn my family of where I was and what was happening, I would rather spend as little time trapped underground as I had to.

“You know, I never really met Mother before she made me and stitched me on to you - though I've felt her near us from time to time. She's honestly…a little much.” Boone wriggled in my arms until I set him down, and he shook out his fur and tail where it had been pushed to lay uncomfortably. “I am sorry for her, Arcadia.”

“There is nothing to be sorry for Boone. You are you, regardless of any attachment to her. And you have been the best friend I could have asked for this life. Kintsuji seems to care, even if just getting me out of here would have been ideal, it's not exactly in her purview.” I sighed. “Even if giving a challenge quest to an eight year old seems insane. Even the history books say they were usually attempted by people who waited and trained for years before trying to acquire Constellation stones. Just because you can accept stones from when you are ten, it's not like most people did - or even do now.”

Adventurers like my parents were the rarity, even today. People with classes made up maybe 10% of the people in the Divide, and were about a third of the demographic of people with classes and powers. The others tended to be skilled craftsmen or the rich and the elite.

The fact that Mia and I were fully expected to gain enough stones to gain classes at ten years old was only because our parents had the ability and resources to get us those stones, and pay for a priest to unlock our Soul Cards. That much at least I had gathered. It was a mark of the privileged, the truly skilled, and the lucky in this age, and adult me had accepted that fact early on, even if child me wouldn't have been expected to understand it till I was older.

In the 5th age, things had been a little different, but even then, the people who got stones at age ten were almost always the children of adventurers, champions, and chosen.

No one would have sent a ten year old - and even less an eight year old - into a temple challenge and expected them to come out the other side alive. Yet here I was.

“Okay, Boone. If we’re going to get out of here, we’ll need to work harder than we ever have. How are you feeling, Buddy?” The little fox shook himself out and stretched, and then paused, cocking his head to one side in thought.

“Stronger,” he said at last, as if doubting his own words. My eyebrows raised. There hadn't been a notification about his ability getting better, but I did recall an error message. When I felt down our connection to his part of our soul, I felt that he was correct. Much like my core had swollen with the addition of my unlocked perception attribute, his had also grown and begun to slowly spin. Yet, it felt…more whole, more solid than mine did, if smaller in respective size to his body. If anything, his core felt more contained, much like the essence receptacles I felt for my illusion and Foxfire powers felt within the ephemeral space in which they sat.

An inkling of a thought came to me, and I brought my soul card up to view in front of my vision, searching for a particular talent:

Soul companion. Level: Wood 2

* You have been graced with a spiritual adviser to your new world. Boone acts as a companion to help you train, a connection to your patron deity, and as a motivational aid in becoming the best you can be.

* Your soul companion, Boone, has unlocked a pseudo-class, the Telekineticist. Unlike a full class, this ability more closely mimics the magical abilities of Monsters, and is more limited in scope, but will act as a supporting ability user to you moving forward.

Boone had grown stronger. His level being at Wood 2 meant he was technically stronger than me now. From what I had learned as I grew, Wood 1 was the average level of strength of a human adult, and while my status showed me as having that same strength, my immature body did limit that strength quite significantly.

My father, comparatively, said his Body stat was at Wood 8, and he was considerably stronger than my Papa, who only had a Body stat of 4.

The maximum of human potential, increased through class abilities and levelling, as well as training, was Wood 20, after which a person would pass into superhuman territory, as they reached the Stone ranks. Or so Father had told me.

For Boone to have moved to Wood 2 meant he was theoretically twice as strong as he was - although I didn't know if this also meant his other stats were also higher than me now as well. He must have received a portion of the essence from the Constellation stone and it had been enough to tip him over the edge into a new level. It was amazing - and also extremely convenient. I looked back at the statue of Kintsuji and smiled, and nodded at her. “Thank you.” I muttered, and tried to put as much actual thanks in it as I could, hoping the Goddess would feel it. He was a Boon indeed, in more ways than I had ever thought. I felt there were no others like him on the entire planet, if I was honest, and even if there were other familiar skills, I doubted they were meant to reflect each other and amplify each other's abilities like it appeared Boone did.

“Stronger?” I laughed and reached down to scratch his chin. “You're stronger than me now, looking at the soul card. I should be relying on you to get us out of here.”

Boones’ ears flattened against his head and he gave me a mulish look, his lazy personality warring with his knowledge of the situation when I asked him to work, but he quickly relaxed and nodded.

“I’ll do what I can - I'd hardly last long without you to drag around after all.” He skittered past me and approached the shimmering barrier that separated this safe room from the rest of the dungeon. “Let's get on with it then. We’ve both got mothers we need to impress.”

With that and a brief snort of amusement, he passed through the barrier, with me quickly on his heels.