Chapter 6 — Like a Few Hundred Bucks

I used the time after absorbing the monster core to meditate for a few minutes, folding the new energy into my own and honing my powers and ability in order to access them more quickly and efficiently. I drew upon the energies of the solid earth, its power flowing up my feet and legs, then along my spine to my chest, where it flooded my core.

I had more affinity for fire mana than for earth, but fire was decidedly more difficult to work with and cultivate in this manner. I cycled the power up through my body and core, cleansing myself of any unabsorbed power, minuscule though it might be. I had to ensure my core took the new addition well. The Earth energies flowed through me and artificially buttressed my ‘Fortitude’ attribute the longer I cycled the energy. Had I needed to fight or cast magic, I would be at my strongest for a short time after focusing and channeling energies like this. The gathered mana would slowly fall back to my baseline level, but for a time I would be marginally stronger. By stretching and working my core this way, it would expand and grow over time even without adding cores.

I opened my eyes to see Fren staring at me, like literally staring, his face a mere inch from my own.

“Gah!” I said, jumping back. Fear shattering my control. My magic surged painfully across my mana channels and out from my core. It burned as if lemon juice ran through my veins. I grimaced for a moment before glaring at my friend who had assumed his humanoid form again some time ago while I worked. “I told you not to do that!” I released my hold on my power before my emotions of anger, annoyance, fear, and my dissatisfaction for losing control could make the power run rampant and possibly damage my core or mind further, much less my shop.

“Dealing with surprises and working on emotional regulation are aspects of your training you have neglected.”

“Well, I hate when things jump out like that. Damn tree,” I muttered as I stood up.

“You did well with the oneness,” Fren said, ignoring my complaints and insults.

The oneness is what he referred to as the meditation and building practices I’d been trained in. Wizards now called them Forging or Cultivation, but he was from a different time and that was saying something when you considered how long wizards could live.

“Thanks,” I said, slipping my shoes back on. “You’re right.” I reluctantly agreed after calming down, “I do need to practice more, but I have so many demands on my time. I have a shop to run so we both have a place to live. I need to stop some creature from killing people in the forests and it seems like barely a month goes by before others start poking around our home.” We both regarded the travelable distance within a day from my shop in any direction to be our home and terrain to keep free of enemies and predators. I would have stretched myself further, but it became harder for Fren to glean information from anything more distant. “I also need to train physically, as you well know. And yes, since I’m in town I’ll go to class today.” I sighed, “The Jeep is also overdue for an oil change. Mix into that my own cultivation and I don’t have time for anything else.”

“There needs to be time for love and stillness.”

“Don’t you go into all that again, I don’t need a Hallmark card.”

“No, you need a mate.”

I clenched my jaw.

Fren was big on propagation and me finding someone who completed me. The last thing I wanted to do was dump my crazy life on someone else. I mean, I literally spent hours of each day researching, reading, meditating, training, and talking to a tree… or well, I should have and intended to be more diligent in doing those things each day. Between that and risking my life fighting any threat, I could while trying to make ends meet. I wasn’t the best person for anyone to be in a relationship with. My last one had ended badly.

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“I’m not going to dignify that with a reply. I’m just going to go get things done.”

“Yes! You are learning. A mate would—”

“—Not today they wouldn’t,” I said, backing towards the door as Fren followed me through the basement like an unrelenting car salesman. “Now do you need anything while I’m gone?”

“More Coke.” Fren crooned, his focus successfully diverted.

I didn’t know why, but Fren, the being who hated all things unnatural, who despised the way humans treated the forest and shaped the world around them, somehow loved a good coke. And not just any Coke, no… he had to have glass bottled Mexican Coca-Cola.

“Fine. But only the usual amount,” I said, pointing a finger at him. I’d learned the hard way to specify any deal I made with Fren. “And for it, no bringing up mating or anything like that for a month. A solid, blissful, month.”

“A pact is forged,” Fren quickly agreed with a smile, “provided you fulfill your side of the bargain adequately.”

I mentally added another ‘to do’ list item to my day. Granted, getting him a flat of soda while I was in town would be more than worth it for a month of bliss.

Now that I’d pacified Fren, I mentally listed the other things I needed to do today. Looking at the shelving and packages I’d lugged down that I needed to go through. It was a few shipments of crystal that had arrived just before I left on my ‘hiking’ trip, each from the best suppliers I could source around the world. They needed to be organized, cataloged, and the most unique pieces priced and put in the shop upstairs but it being our slower season, we had plenty of stock in the store and I could put it off for another few days easily.

“I know what could help you with the store,” Fren said as his eyes trailed over everything as mine did.

“What?” I asked, genuinely curious about Fren’s idea. Despite how much I didn’t like many of his ideas, he was a font of wisdom and had a good intuition.

“Kate has grown, like a seed pressing through hard soil. It is time for her to grow more, to face the full harshness of the world.”

“What does that even mean?”

Fren smiled simply then turned and lumbered back towards his glen.

I shook my head, annoyed at his cryptic answer. If I didn’t catch on, he’d give me a few less subtle clues, and he probably saw this as some form of mental training. Fren and his plans.

Resolved, I stepped out of the room and locked the door before heading up the stairwell.

I continued to the third story of the shop which consisted of an attic type loft and my room. Dozens of plants dotted the corners, at Fren’s insistence, and his roots crept up through the internals of the very walls to connect them to his network. He’d assured me he couldn’t ‘see’ my room, but it would give him a sense of the state I was in. He’d also said I needed the fresh oxygen they would provide.

My bed sat at the far end from the stairwell, the space as large as the store below, and in some respects larger since the brick wall that cut off a dozen feet of the shop space below stopped at my floor, turning into a brickwork railing festooned with ivy and vines. If I looked down over it, I could see Fren’s garden from above, and the light from the skylights illuminated my room as much as it did the basement below. I noticed a new fiddle leaf fig tree peeked up over the wall from the basement below, its leaves as large as actual fiddles. Fren was always changing things.

The same thick wooden floorboards lay across the ground here as on the two levels below. A row of three windows lined each of the walls facing towards the front and back of the building. I had large drapes to cover them at night but generally kept them wide open during the day.

My bed was a mess. I hated making it. It was so much more comfortable jumping into the fold of pillows and blankets when they were all clumped up. One corner of the room, sectioned off with brickwork, held the bathroom and gratuitous closet space.

The building had few electronics, and the fire alarms were probably all dead, burned out by my powers. I didn’t bother checking on them anymore and Fren would make a better alarm system anyway. My room had no electronics at all. More sophisticated tech like cell phones only lasted about an hour—if that—in my presence, and only if I focused. My jeep had no radio, the register down below was an old antique affair. Part of Kate’s job was to manage anything electronic. She thought I was a crazy person worried about EMF radiation or something, but I couldn’t tell her the truth. Not after the way people had handled that secret in the past.

I made my way to the corner of the bathroom and eagerly showered with the hottest water I could tolerate. The water heater was another essential item I’d spent the time and energy to safeguard. I’d still had to have it repaired three times and replaced once over the past three years, but it was worth it. It felt amazing.

I’d felt sweaty and clammy ever since waking up from the nightmare despite my cold drive. In the hot water my shoulders relaxed, my aches from hiking left, and I felt clearer about the path before me. Stepping out I felt like a million bucks, or in my case a few hundred, but still, it felt good.

I got dressed, pulled on my favorite jeans, then remembered I’d told Fren I’d be going to my personal defense class. Grumbling, I changed into some black shorts and threw on another tee with a sweater since it was freezing outside. With a last sigh, I decided to get on with training.