“With hesitant deference, 'blood’ seems rather cryptic, Honoured Apex...”
“Oh, right. Sorry, Reff. Ha! Ha... the whole place was covered in it; it coated the walls and floor, and had even splashed on the ceiling. Stank like a Void-blasted charnel house... which I suppose it is now.”
Stepping forward, I rolled my shoulders to loosen up my tight muscles; I did not know how I had slept, but if my dreams we any indication the time spent unconscious, it had not been relaxing.
“He’s dead then?”
“Maybe. I hope so. There was enough blood for any ten people in there, and enough bits of corpses that you could probably put at least half that back together. Even with his Authority sealed away and the arrays stopping him from absorbing Experience, he was still a Pinnacle with thousands of years of practice. Nothing is certain, but even a Pinnacle might struggle against that many Foundations, and more if they had a Pinnacle with them. We’ll have to wait and see. Ha...”
That was grim news; I of course already knew that the Multiplicitous Self had either escaped or died, but of the two, died was certainly the happier of the two scenarios, if the story Walker had told us was true. I had no interest in being controlled or overwritten by some megalomaniacal asshole, and even if my Agency somehow prevented that, I did not want to be alone amidst and set against an army of billions.
“We had trouble while you were inside, Honoured Apex. Enemies – the Risen Throne – attacked us. We successfully eliminated the majority, however it seems that two of them escaped, after a brief altercation with... Hunter.”
“Hmm? Good, good. I think I need to head back, try to find the others. Let them know, since there are no leads here.”
“Uh, actually, one of the cultists had a note on him saying to send a message somewhere when we arrived. It doesn’t say where, it’s coded, but it should be nearish. How many cities or towns are near here?”
Jorl’s eyes locked onto me as I spoke, and I felt the weight of his attention as he nodded once.
“There are innumerable small settlements, but there is one large city, the home of several large sects. Ouhl, City of the Red Grasses.”
“A pretentious name.”
Darina still sounded off, but a little of her usual haughtiness had crept back into her voice; it was a pretty pretentious name. None of the other cities or towns I had visited were ‘of the thing’, and a couple had just been numbered.
“There was supposedly a big battle there, a long time ago and because of its aftermath, the grass in and around the city is bight crimson, and sharp enough to cut. There may be something to it, honestly; tempers are quick to fray there, and conflict breaks out often. It makes it hard to concentrate, sometimes. It would make a good place to hide from an Apex...”
“With tentative dissent, is it not more likely that the place the they have designated to relay messages be somewhere smaller? There is less chance somebody of an Apex’s stature would pass through a small community; they could even replace the entire population, in theory.”
“Ha! That's a good point, Riffa! But I don't think it’s the case. It would lower the chance of encountering somebody like me, but in the event that they did, discovery would be certain. Besides, I can check the settlements between here and there, at least. If there’s any of the rat-bastards hiding, the sight of my dragon form should shake loose enough feeling for me to detect. For such a short trip, I won’t need to fly so high.”
I nodded, glad that we had a goal at least. I was also grateful that it was apparently a short trip, as I was not keen on the sort of the speed that would be required for a longer one, with my newly vulnerable health.
“We need to get moving, pack up the tent and we’ll be off. Move, kids! This is serious! HA!”
Jorl’s voice cracked like the world’s largest whip and echoed back off the hills around us, making the five of us scramble to get packed up. The shout had hurt my ears, something I was more keenly aware of than I had been in the past; it was amazing, really, how much I had come to take my Lesser Regeneration for granted. Since my arrival, it had been picking me up far faster than should have been possible, a constant advantage that had kept me from death’s edge more times than I could count, if only by keeping me in fighting shape. If not for that ability, it is likely I would have died - or at least still be imprisoned - in the dungeon of the Risen Throne’s outpost. Having it suppressed so suddenly was shocking, and I hoped it would not make me hesitate at the wrong moment; all of my friends – with the notable exception of Darina – went into battle with the knowledge that they could be grievously injured, and it did not stop them. It was certainly sobering to be without that cushion for the first time.
We packed the tent away quickly, storing the various odds and ends we had used away, and though I kept finding myself surprised at my aching muscles, we were done in minutes and then quickly carried off within the body of the Crystal Drake.
*
***
*
“So, this illness... can you explain how it’s possible to me again?”
Darina looked at me with annoyance, though certainly less than when she was not feeling quite so guilty. I had told her again that it was not her fault shortly after we entered the dragon’s body, but it had not taken hold, and so I had settled on another angle of attack – I was going to annoy her into being normal. Not that I was not curious – my understanding of Experience was that once a person lost consciousness, and thus the ability to actively impart will and intent on their energies, abilities should lose cohesion, as Kestin’s dirty flames had when Darina knocked him out.
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“V must have imparted a great deal of his Veritas during your fight; it is sustaining his sickening ability within you.”
“Right, but how? Shouldn’t it have gone away when he died?”
Darina’s look transformed from vaguely forlorn irritation to one of suspicion, clearly recalling my mysterious past. I realised I still had not told her about my origins on that world. I had meant to ask Walker about it, but like so many other things, it had slipped my mind. I resolved to tell her anyway, once we were at least out of earshot of Toria; Darina was my friend, and had saved my life more than once. I owed her the truth. But in that moment, she did not know, and I could see the gears ticking behind her eyes, readying herself for a round of questions that I did not want to answer around the religious adherent. Especially as she had also begun to look at me with vague confusion; if I ever got to speak to Xiournal again – when I got to speak to her again – I would recommend imparting a basic primer on the native cultures and systems, to avoid such situations. Though... she had never actually said I could not tell people, and the other pseudo-Ascended I had met had certainly been more open about things than those on my new home... Luckily, Reff saved me from both questioning glances and my own incessant musings with an answer.
“With quick surety, Veritas is significantly denser than even Praxis, Hunter. It will stay coherent in the outside of its originator for far longer than lower orders of energy, and it is thus possible to generate lasting effects, provided there is enough of it to sustain the original intent. This capacity is what various arrays are based upon, and even alchemy, to a lesser extent. Not everyone is at the Foundation stage, and not all crafters can be, but by applying various techniques, it is possible to fake the properties of it in other mediums.”
Reff’s voice was steady, and while mostly monotone, it carried a degree of interest that I found engaging. It helped that this was information I really wanted to know though.
“It is normally considered very wasteful to create a lasting technique from pure Veritas, when a similar effect would be produced at a significantly lower cost using more technical methods, but it is not unheard of. It is... rarer still, to use it in this way – as a curse – as to do so would leave a cultivator with almost no reserves, almost certainly deciding the fight there and then. Obviously, V was an affliction specialist, and while he was unable to inflict that illness on us in previous fights, that was likely less to do with our respective strengths at the time than it was due to him wanting to toy with us. His specialization in this area likely assisted him with the application of the curse.”
Reff paused for a moment, as if searching for the rights words, but the pause did not have chance to stretch on before he continued.
“Against a cultivator of a similar level, the curse would almost certainly be fended off, meaning the person laying the curse – in this case V - would lose the fight to no benefit, but in this case, we assume that your sudden damage overwhelming his defence resulted in a wound of sufficient seriousness that he could not fight for much longer, but also left him with the bulk of his reserves. As the affliction is concentrated on your right hand, we think he slowly injected his Veritas as you attacked, taking advantage of your lack of defence in those moments to slip it in un-noticed, allowing it to intensify.”
I cursed myself inwardly; against somebody like Reff, I would have been guarding myself against the backlash of his heat, but I had no reason to believe that V’s armour was also an offensive tool. My increased channels meant my abilities were heightened, lent power beyond what was normal, but they also placed a strain on my reserves, and that meant I tended not to defend myself when it wasn’t needed, to conserve energy. It seemed like that had been a mistake; I considered that I might need to start holding back further on my abilities to leave enough of a margin to defend myself consistently.
In regards to the information about maintaining techniques, it didn’t help me now, as I did not have access to Veritas, but I knew I would one day, if I survived that long. My abilities also did not lend themselves to persisting, though having said that, I thought it might be possible use the effect to dilate time for somebody else, or to keep my lightning running amuck in another’s system... that was a long way away though. I checked my Exemplar as I pondered, and saw that it had ticked up to thirty-percent at some point; almost a third of the way to Foundation was still a vast distance away from it, however. At the rate at which I was progressing, it would take me around a year, at least, though perhaps I could speed that up with some sudden realizations about time and my ability to manipulate it. Those did seem to be pretty few and far between. Dismissing the images of accelerating my friends along with me, I turned my attention back to the conversation at hand.
“Right. So, it’s just a case of me waiting it out then. I don’t suppose a Foundation level or above could just... fish it out?”
“It doesn’t work that way; perhaps the Ever Flowing could, were she at the Foundation stage, but the Mountain’s Rage, or even the Apex of the Crystal Drake could not, as their abilities do not carry that function. Voran could infect you because it was a part of his power-set. I could - with Veritas – construct a cage or net with my abilities that would persist beyond me, but I am not able to generate water. The Walking Sand’s golems could stay animated without her, but she could not create light. We are each shaped by our original intent, and bound by it.”
That was the longest I had ever heard Toria speak for, but what she said made sense. I had already been subconsciously thinking along those lines, but I had hoped that it was possible. Generic Experience was used for other things, like firming the ground when we moved, or defending against energy attacks. But it seemed that while general energy could be used for mundane things, operating within somebody else’s body was a different matter.
“Right. What about an alchemist then? They surely don’t specialize in just one thing each? Ben Won Ro made a whole bunch of things.”
“We tried the healing items we had on hand, and combined with my healing and your regeneration we only managed to fight it back to its current position; it is possible that specialized pills or potions could assist further. Perhaps we can check, once we reach this, ‘Ouhl.’”
“Uh, Jorl, I don’t suppose Ouhl is renowned for its excellent alchemy?”
“It is not. Too difficult to focus. Many alchemists visit though, to gather the grass.”
Jorl’s voice throbbed around us, the crystal on which we sat vibrating to produce the sound we all heard. It was strange, and vaguely uncomfortable, and I once more shook my head at being inside what was effectively somebody’s body.
“... Thanks, Jorl. Cad would probably know more about the comings and goings of alchemists. Maybe we should find him, when we get back and ask him to come along, just in case?”
“No.”
I looked at Darina, who was glaring at me, though if a touch less intently than was normal.
“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun. He had some great stories.
“No.”
“We could stop at the Sha Forest outpost on the way back, it wouldn’t even be inconvenien-”
Darina punched me on the arm, interrupting me. I had seen it coming, and it had less force than I had come to expect from the diminutive apprentice, but it was better than what had been happening. It seemed like annoying her into normality was working pretty well.