There’s nothing like having a gold-ranked uncommon bodyguard glaring at anyone who got too close to make you feel safe, especially one that was a good foot and a half taller than you and looked like she used car wrecks as dental floss. After the helmet came off, I realized she was surprisingly pretty, too, despite the shaved head and the scars on her head and throat, if you were into the musclebound types.

Not that I knew what I was into, I was just glad I was fed and had an ironclad contract to keep a black bag off my head.

“Right now, we have a suite. For safety, I’d rather keep the team together. There are three bedrooms, so we will have to push Renee and Lilah into the same room so you get one to yourself. I am working as a guard, and Renee will keep an eye out while I am working. Lilah is...doing Lilah stuff, whatever a mage does in their downtime, and I will ask her to teach you the basics of magic while we are training you in how to defend yourself.”

“Angelique is kind of our resident everything. She’s on the explorer path, and knows bushcraft, some repair, trapping, and can empower minor runic structures. She’s kind of why we are here, it’s going to take a huge amount of time for her to regenerate and for Renee to retrain for her missing shield hand, but she should be able to give you some training while she’s bedridden.”

“Wait, what?”

“Renee lost her hand when her shield was destroyed, and she isn’t a regenerator. Angel has minor regeneration and got her leg ripped off below the knee, but regrowing a whole limb takes her a huge amount of time. We have been looking for a potion to regrow Renee’s hand, but in a place like this… well… poisoners are a lot more popular than medicinal alchemists.”

“Even I got fucked up on the last run… I picked up a necrotic venom, and right now my heart, lungs, and kidneys are running at about seventy percent. Like Renee, I am not a regenerator, but I am very tough. On the outside, I just lost a good chunk of my arm and a bit of hip.” She patted her armor on that side. “It was a rough rift, way harder than we’d expected since it was ready to overload.”

I added that to the list of terms she’d used, I needed to have explained.

“So what is a utility trait?”

She smiled a little as we walked, her teeth flashing. Very good teeth, which wasn’t given in the new and exciting world we lived in as well as her chosen career. My teeth were just so-so, with a few missing, but I had hopes that mend might work for those.

She chuckled, “Utility traits are sort of what makes non-combat classes as valuable as combatants. When you have a combat or magic vocation, you can gain magic or combat traits that are not strictly part of your vocation advancement, either training them or using a traitstone that people gain from rifts and trials.”

“Utility traits, though, are more non-combat abilities, like diagnose, scan, loot, and, of course, a few physical enhancements that are not directly tied to combat, like improved endurance, speed and reactions, and of course, crafting enhancers like runic dictionaries and some of the vocation starting traits from basic classes.”

“The thing is, noncombat vocations have a lot more utility traits and the occasional magical or combat trait as well. It’s easy to gain the traits of several basic non-combat vocations, so becoming a jack of all trades is on the table if they train enough or can get enough traitstones. Hell, some rifts are popular and remain open just because they drop special utility or combat traits that cannot be gained any other way, like runic libraries, psychic traits, and minor regeneration.”

She continued, “We have a couple of traitstones from our delves, and one of them Lilah is likely to offer you if you have the slots, but there are some things like diagnose, enhanced endurance, running, throwing, and basic weapons that can be learned naturally since they are abilities all humans share. The traitstones are cheap enough to get since few people need them, but it’s generally better to gain them the hard way since they are easier to grow afterward. Do you know how many slots you have?”

I shook my head, “No, I sorta panicked when I found out what I could do and broke contact. I never even saw my attributes.”

She raised an eyebrow at that. “And because of Aster’s stupid rules, you can’t access it even to check your information. I am going to try and find you a portable node, which is just a totally basic enchantment product, but with the lack of enchanters I don’t know how successful I will be.”

“What’s that?”

She snorted, “Basic adventurer gear. It’s like a tiny shrine you strap on that will display your stats and current ranks, and while you can’t upgrade or gain vocations from it, or use it for contracts, you can spend your rank points using it. It can’t access rewards or the system store, but you can at least figure out what you can get when you hit a true shrine.”

I nodded, “That sounds incredible, and these are common?”

She nodded, “As common as dirt. I think enhancers, the beginning of the enchanter path, gets them as one of their starting recipes alongside their basic runic library.”

I sighed and felt like I must have grown up under a bridge, which was ironic because I had.

A nice hotel, in one of the better parts of town, was our destination. It had classical hotel architecture and had been built long before the crash since, while it seemed to have decent security, it wasn’t built as a hardened defensive strongpoint like a lot of modern buildings. Then again, the heavily armored guards unobtrusively posted implied it wouldn’t be an easy nut to crack for a monster wave.

They still had a working elevator, which was a huge plus, and while there were plenty of hanging lanterns and candles, there was still a smattering of electric lights, all of which implied a working generator, probably re-tooled for alcohol. I was supposed to be getting ready for physical fitness training, but a twelve-story stair climb would have probably wrecked me.

“Okay, important. Let me talk. As the party leader, I am technically allowed to make decisions like this, but some of them might be surprised or upset until they figure out why.”

I nodded and followed her into the room. I’d let her play it her way, but I had no intention of becoming a passive observer. If I’d had a father, I would hope he would have said, “Be peaceful, not helpless. Peaceful people are capable of great violence and choose not to, helpless people are incapable of that violence.”

Of course, with my luck, my father would turn out to be a violent thug who died right after the crash.

“No, he was the one that figured out where the temple really was. The Nazis were digging in the wrong place.” said a rather cute but slightly baby-faced redhead, who was sitting on a couch. I couldn’t help but notice she was gesticulating with an arm that didn’t have a hand, the sleeve tucked over the stump and hiding it. Fairly slender but well-built, her cerulean eyes glanced up to take in Charlie as she walked in, and she noticed me partly concealed behind the giant of a woman with narrowing eyes.

The other woman shook her head. Her long black hair flashed with the motion. She was extremely pale-skinned, almost vampirically so, and emphasized it with heavy black eye shadow and lipstick, but her face beneath the goth look was almost startlingly attractive… she would have been the prize whore of any collector’s stock. She was both slim and busty at the same time under a rich crimson cape over a long black spiderweb dress, with pixielike features beneath almost supernaturally golden eyes.

“No, the Nazis would have had the whole amulet if Indy hadn’t been there, and would have dug in the right place from the beginning. Again, he was irrelevant to the entire movie. The only thing he really accomplished was saving Marian, which was enough in my opinion, but the rest of the time he was worthless,” said, I assumed, Lilah.

“A hundred-year-old movie and you guys are still arguing about it,” grumbled Charlie as she stepped in.

Lilah shrugged, “Harrison Ford was, and still is, the second hottest man to ever live, dead or alive.”

“Who’s the first?”

“That,” stated the redhead, who I suppose was Renee, “we cannot agree on, and it changes based on our mood. So who’s the kid?”

Lilah snickered, “Oh, it’s a little boy! I am shocked, Charlie, you never brought back a man before… especially one so tiny. I always thought you were a domme. Need to put a sock on your bedroom door?”

Charlie shook her head, but I recognized the movie. I don’t know where I’d seen it before, but I had caught a few glimpses of people watching old tech entertainment, and I held up my hand as if I was holding something, stepping around from behind Charlie, and said, “I’m your goddamned partner!”

Charlie turned to glare at me, and said, “I thought I told you to keep your mouth shut.”

I shrugged as Lilah cackled. “We agreed that I was going to be a teammate. This argument is bound to happen, and while I need your protection, I am not your child and don’t wish to be seen that way. If your teammates want to yell, they can yell at me.”

“Charlie,” asked Renee dangerously, “what exactly is he talking about?”

Charlie sighed deeply, “I was guarding the new vocationers, and this one popped up as a potential problem. After a short discussion, we decided I’d be his protector and trainer while we were here.”

Renee nodded, “And?”

“And the idiot silhouette decided I need to be a full teammate before it would let us sign a contract,” I added. “Because of my traits and my… affinity.” I shook my head a little, “Surprise! It’s a boy!”

“And you accepted that?” Renee looked a little shocked.

Charlie nodded, “Yes. Silhouette informed me that if he joined our team as a full teammate, it would give us a balanced team.”

“What does that mean?” asked Lilah, eyeing me thoughtfully.

Renee was a little startled, “That means we get full team rewards for clearing a rift. Path-customized items, a team clear bonus, and a massive kill bonus if we shut down a rift. Wow. What the hell is he?”

“I,” I stated bombastically, “am a mender.”

“What’s a mander?”

“I don’t know,” I answered Renee. “What’s a mander with you?”

She looked at me in confusion, but Lilah cackled again, “I like this one! He looks like a starveling but he’s got spirit.”

I sighed, “A mender. I trait a gift called mend,” I said, realizing as the words came out that they might have been a bit jumbled. I was trying not to show how nervous I felt, but crap.

Renee finally looked like she got it, and nodded, “What does it mend?”

Charlie sighed, “Apparently anything. It’s not rank-locked, just information-locked. It says that it can mend any object.”

Renee nodded, “That could be handy, but why does that make us a balanced team.”

Apparently, Lilah was a little quicker on the uptake. “Holy shit.”

Charlie nodded, “That’s what I said.”

“Does that include what I think it does?”

At my nod, Lilah started looking spooked, “Oh boy. Oh boy. Uhh… does anyone know?”

I shook my head, “No, we never used the word, and spoke in whispers.”

Charlie shrugged, “We were inside the shrine, but Roger was nearby.”

Lilah raised her eyebrow, “Shit! That means everyone knows. No no no. I would love to have him, but I am not going to die. Our vacation is done. We have got to run before the forces of darkness gather their strength. I am sorry, Renee, but we are going to have to get out of here before we are healed, or we are all dead!”

Renee looked confused, “What?”

Lilah shook her head, “Roger is a bloodhound. He smells and hears EVERYTHING, and he’s in the Seventh Street Cartel’s pocket. He’s also not an idiot, and if you used any word to make him suspicious, well, he’s a trafficker.”

“How do you know this?” Charlie asked, “he seemed cool to me.”

Lilah sighed. “I kept my ear to the ground while you were working. If something useful comes out of the shrine while Roger is working, it disappears and usually doesn’t show up again until Aster or the Cartels have made it their personal property. Angel confirmed it with her contacts, we checked after you got the job.”

“What?” Renee asked.

Lilah looked at Renee, “The H word.”

“The H word?”

Charlie glanced at Renee’s missing hand and then back at her meaningfully, and Renee’s eyes opened wide, “Wait, you mean a true healer? Holy shit!”

Lilah snerked again and glanced at Charlie. “Angel warded the suite. We should be private, not that it matters now that Roger knows. We need to leave, like now.” she looked at me, “Can you regenerate?”

I groaned. “I don’t know.”

“Huh?”

I sighed, “I haven’t even tried to use the trait yet, I haven’t had a chance, but I am limited by my knowledge and probably whatever sort of power it uses.”

Charlie nodded slowly, “Silhouette insisted that he was a true healer, which implies strongly that the answer is yes. I wanted to spend our downtime getting him trained, but if Lilah insists we need to run, I won’t argue.”

Renee sighed, “Angel still can’t walk. She needs at least three weeks before she will be regenerated enough to move normally, and I am still down a wing. If he needs to test his trait, I volunteer.”

“I have a traitstone he could use!” Lilah offered.

Charlie shook her head, “Not yet. He’s got ribs sticking out of his ribs, and was smart enough to insist on a no breeding demand clause.”

“Huh?”

Lilah chuckled, “You know Lilah’s traitstone is a lot more useful than it sounds.”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Charlie nodded, “I know it is, but he’s never even used his trait. We don’t have any spare nodestones or bracers, and he got pulled out of Aster’s shrine before he could even check his vocation build. If his vocation is magic-based, he might not have enough utility slots to be able to afford it.”

I sighed, “I am right here.”

Charlie shrugged, “Lilah wants to give you sexual empathy. It gives you a good idea of how your… partner is feeling, what makes them feel good, what makes them feel bad, it’s like a sort of empathy based on chemistry and shared physical responses instead of psychic.”

At my blush, Lilah smiled slightly, “It sounds bad, but it’s technically a valuable communication tool, and if you are a healer, it could be used to transmit the sensations that your patients are feeling to you, even if they can’t speak. Some people consider it manipulative, but it’s no more manipulative than learning how to speak to people and read their body language, it’s just a little more direct. The shitty name is Silhouette’s fault.”

Lilah shrugged at Charlie, “If he has the slots, I suggest you let him use it… it would be incredibly useful for a healer, especially if he can affect animals, and should speed up getting something like diagnose or analyze.”

Charlie shrugged, “We don’t know.”

Lilah smiled and tugged something off of her wrist. “Here. Use this.”

Charlie glared, “That’s your node bracelet. You need that to even use your rotes.”

She nodded, “I do, but he can borrow it until we get him one. I am perfectly capable of measuring my mana by feel, and my best spell is still bolt, which barely takes a second to cast, rote or no rote. I am a good four ranks from gold circle. Here,” she stated, offering me the bracelet.

It was very feminine, a complicated gold filigree of leaves and flowers with a dark gray stone in the center, but right now my wrists were thin enough that it fit anyway. Kind of shameful that I could share clothes with a lovely woman, but I was a little shocked when she started digging through her pack, finding more for me to wear. “Charlie, get him in the bath, I’ll find him something to wear, probably my emergency armor. His hips are a little narrow, but right now it should fit, and if people are looking for four girls and a boy, five girls might throw them off.”

After a few minutes, I was installed in a bathtub in the suite’s bathing room, my clothes whisked away and probably destroyed, and the only thing remaining was my boots. Charlie was talking to me again through the door. “Lilah’s idea is good, but are you going to be okay with looking like a girl?”

I shook my head, scrubbing at dirty patches, and then answered aloud, “As long as it’s not permanent, I’m fine, I’ve used worse dodges to survive. Please don’t mistake me for someone who has any pride, I lost that before I turned fifteen. So how do I use this thing?” I looked at the bracelet around my now-wet wrist.

“Just put the palm of your hand on the screen, just like at the shrine. It has limited commands and no information function, but if you have a point it should let you assign it, list your options, and tell you what your existing essence and mana stores are.”

“What are those?” I asked, scrubbing under my pits. I hadn’t been clean in a long time, and I started draining the now-gray water and refilling it from the water tap. Charlie could easily hear me over the splashing water with the door open, even hidden.

“Mana is magical energy. A lot of people have none, but if you have it, it probably fuels your trait. Just be careful to never run it down to zero if it’s higher than zero because doing that can cripple your magic for a long time. Essence is more complicated since it’s like life energy or chi. Everyone has it, and a lot of non-magical traits use it to fuel their abilities. If you run it to zero you could possibly die, so never do that. It can also be affected by certain attacks or spells, so it’s almost like your hit points for a combat class.”

I put my hand on the ornately-surrounded stone.

***

Thaniel Kushman Grimm

Vocation: Rank 1 Mender(basic) (0%)

Path: Troubleshooter

Health: poor

Durability: poor

Reflex: good

Speed: mediocre

Will: good

Acuity: great

____________________

Combat Trait slots: 2

Utility trait slots: 4

Mend

Magical Trait slots: 5

Free points available: 1

____________________

Affinity: Life

Mana: ∞ (Life affinity override)

Essence: ∞ (Life affinity override)

____________________

Current conditions:

extreme malnutrition

stunted growth

anemia (malnutrition)

Tuberculosis (permanent latent)

Tailored Y-gene decimation retrovirus (permanent remission)

“Charlie?”

“Yes?”

“What is an affinity override?”

I heard silence for a few minutes, and then her voice said, “That means that as long as you are using your trait with your affinity, it doesn’t use any mana. Lilah has fire affinity, and her fire spells don’t use any mana at all, but they use normal mana for her non-fire magics.”

“And what does a symbol that looks like a sideways eight mean?”

“Shit, it means infinity. That’s good, I think. That means that due to your affinity, the entire cost of using your trait will be handled by that affinity. Mend is very limited, but no matter what you do, it shouldn’t cost any mana. That is VERY good. Of course, the silhouette is responsive, so if you get more traits that use mana and are not tied to your life affinity, that value might change into a number with an infinity value beside it to denote normal and life-attuned spell costs.”

I nodded, thinking about that. She assumed I was talking about mana, but the essence one bothered me more, and I doubted she had any information about it. Best not to bug her with it.

First things first.

Tuberculosis was bad. Permanent latent was… weird, I’d never heard of that before, but if I had it, I could transfer it. If I were in a team, I’d best try to use mend on it lest I pass it on if it ever goes active. It was a bacterial infection, and I was very familiar with it since it was one of the diseases that plagued the East End and the poor, and curative potions were impossible for people to get, especially for those crippled by the disease.

Mend

Okay, that was weird. I was able to seemingly peer into my own skin, and when I thought of tuberculosis, I was able to track down each of the traces of the bacterium. With a mental touch, I killed them, like murder death kill… so much for life affinity, it felt more like an extremely useful death affinity, but maybe death was just a part of life?

I didn’t think whatever I was sensing would work on someone else. It felt like my own awareness of my body was unique to myself, but if I had to fix something else, like a belt, I could probably use my own eyes and sense of touch to guide the repairs… it was very intense, but after about fifteen minutes, it felt like I had eliminated the bacteria. The water was looking disgusting again, especially since I think my body was flushing the dead bacteria out through my pores. I quickly emptied the tub, stood up, and showered off.

But I understood how mend worked! More than that, I understood it intimately, as if it was something I had done a thousand, or a million times before. Mend was extremely limited… not in its utility, it had incredible utility, but rather in the speed that it could work. I suspected that as I gained ranks, I would be offered better, faster, or more encompassing versions of it, but repairing an injury or gear would take a lot of time… the kind of time that no one would have in a fight.

If an orc stabbed one of its tusks through someone’s belly, I could probably stabilize them quickly, but to actually heal the damage would take minutes or possibly hours if the damage to organs was extensive enough, so my team’s dreams of having a combat healer had to be put on hold since it required too much time and physical touch, as well as some way of seeing the damage. Out of combat? It was a possibility as long as I could actually see the damage.

The malnutrition would take time and food to fix, and the stunted growth… well… after the malnutrition was take care of, I could work on fixing it. It would take a lot of bone repair, and muscular repair, and even my brain had been affected by it to some extent.

The anemia was a non-issue. The life essence flowing through my body had been keeping my cells at least somewhat healthy and oxygenated, and my body had made energy cuts wherever it could to keep me alive, mainly in my body’s ability to produce blood cells. Once the malnutrition is dealt with, the anemia should eventually correct itself.

The retrovirus? Well, I didn’t know what that was exactly, but I knew damned well what a retrovirus was. I strongly suspected that was what killed ninety percent of males in the womb, but virii were much smaller and pervasive than the tuberculosis bacteria, and would probably take a lot longer and much more effort… technically it was in remission, which would have to be good enough for right now.

“Your clothes are right inside the door. It’s Lilah’s backup leathers, and we padded the extra umm… bulges so you would look like a girl. Please hurry, we are packing up to leave the city right now.”

“Where are we going?” I asked, stepping out of the tub drying off, and starting to fit the leather clothing on. The lack of underclothes to protect me from the boiled leather was bothersome, but I’d dealt with far worse, and at least the inside was lined with padded cloth.

“Green Bay, to the north. It’s a much more… civilized city, but we got a horse for Angel, and while that will slow us down, so will you, without enhanced speed or endurance. We are going to have to rely on being unremarkable.”

I finally stepped out of the bathroom, fully dressed in armor, and Lilah, who was engaged in stuffing my backpack, looked at me and slowly whistled.

“Huh?”

“Damn, boy, you make a hell of a girl. If I went that way, I’d be trying to hit that. Your face is very pretty, and when you fill out you will probably be a heartbreaker for both girls and boys. Not very masculine, but… you might get hit on. Are you gay?”

I shook my head, “No, I am asexual.”

“Seriously?” Lilah asked.

I shook my head and smiled a little, “No, but going crazy over women is a good way to get enslaved or murdered where I come from. I’ve seen it happen too many times. I am a conscientious objector for the time being.”

She nodded, “Well, you will pass for a girl, a newly minted combatant. Stay close to Charlie, she has a powerful aura that can protect you from all but the strongest scans, and keep your mouth shut.”

I sighed, “Let me guess, you think I will talk and get myself killed?”

She shook her head, “No, your teeth break the illusion. It’s like staring at the inside of a half-burnt barn. I meant to quite literally keep your mouth closed. No laughing or major talking until we get out of the city because your teeth are sort of horrifying. Can you fix them?”

I felt my teeth and started to peek through mend. “Yes, but it will take a while. Enamel will be a bitch to fabricate. Probably several hours.”

She nodded and went into another room, returning in a few minutes holding up a tiny little Asian woman, one who was even shorter than me. She looked like a gorgeous porcelain doll and stared at me suspiciously, and while she was dressed in similar armor to mine, it was beaten and torn to hell and had a nasty gap where her left foot used to be. She must be the mysterious Angelique.

Charlie said, “We filled her in on your situation. So what do you think?”

“About what?” I asked.

“Can you fix her?”

I looked at her foot. “It should be possible, but it will take a very long time, maybe days, just like Renee’s hand. It will also probably hurt like hell, especially if I can restore her nervous system. Do you have any painkillers?”

Charlie nodded, “We have… options.”

I nodded, “Then the answer is yes, but a leg is a big deal, and as you said, her regeneration has already started, that might complicate things.”

“Can you tell us how it works?”

I nodded slowly, “I experimented while I was bathing. It draws from my energy to replace missing bits, my mana for items, and my essence for living tissue. It is strictly limited physically, though, and while I could probably fix a torn strap easily enough, drawing and using mana to materialize some part like a missing buckle could take a very long time.”

I sighed at the girls, “If you still had the hand or the leg, and if it was fresh enough of a wound that the tissue hadn’t died, I could probably reattach them in minutes… but it's not a combat heal, or even close to it, and I might need special traits to do it well.”

Angel glanced at Charlie, “He seems to know what he’s talking about, especially for someone who was protected status only a few hours ago.” she said in a high-pitched, slightly lilting, but soothingly breathy voice. I bet she’d sound great speaking Japanese.

Where the hell had that come from? I have never heard Japanese spoken before. Weird. Maybe it was another half-heard movie.

Charlie nodded, and Lilah said, “Old soul.”

“Huh?” asked Renee.

Lilah smiled slightly, “Old stories of reincarnation. Some children are born with old souls. They seem to be more mature and have more knowledge than someone their age should have. I mean, look at him, he’s probably been starving for years, and that sort of thing should have caused enough brain deterioration that he’s little better than an idiot, but he isn’t. He has a sense of humor, knows what he’s talking about, and is willingly ignoring any shame to make the smart choice of disguising his exit. Old soul.”

“If I believed in reincarnation, which I am on the fence about, it would explain a lot, but I’m not religious. Any sort of faith in a divine and benevolent being dies pretty quickly in the spaghetti bowl. The only thing you can trust is self-interest, and even that gets thrown away pretty quickly by tweakers, egos, and gangsters. In the end, there’s only evil or stupid, and even those are not exactly mutually exclusive,” I said, a little bitterly.

***

“Where is he, Roger?” the voice said sweetly on the other end of the phone.

“Aster?” Roger asked. “Umm… sorry boss, where’s who?”

“The healer boy, Roger. The one who you sold to the cartel. I was more than willing to go through channels to get him, and I have overlooked your games with the cartel, but your tips drew a joker. The cartel is not even close to crazy enough to piss me off personally by taking him, so they sent the information to me as… a gift.”

“The Red Phoenix is gone, their hotel room cleaned out, and there’s no sign of Charlie’s team or the boy. I had my guards keeping an eye open for a group of rifters and a boy, and they said no one like that has left… so where are they? Who else did you sell the information to, Roger? No one else has come forward, which means I have to eliminate a few crews that have been getting above themselves, so how about you help me by telling me which one?”

Roger was sweating in his armor. He was a common guardsman five, which meant a highly competent combat vocation, but Aster could stomp him in a heartbeat, and would probably enjoy it. She liked to break her toys.

“I swear to god, Aster, I only told Patty from the Seventh Street firm. No one else, and no one overheard me. If they are gone, I promise I had nothing to do with it… Ask Patty.”

The smooth voice giggled a little, “Oh, I have, repeatedly. As a result, I am sending a strike team north just in case they get past the guard. I believe you, but I have to send an inquisitor to make sure. Don’t bother trying to contact Patty, she can’t use a phone anymore, and Candace has replaced her for incompetence.”

Roger gulped, “Yes ma’am,” he said, slipping out of the shrine and heading towards where his go-bag was stashed. If he put on enough speed and used the secret routes, he might be outside of the city in an hour… if there was one thing a bloodhound knew, it was how to put on speed.

“Roger?” he heard Aster ask.

“Yes, boss?”

“When you run, I suggest not heading North. That will make the game too short to be any fun.”