The cube exploded into motion. All of its sides burst free and hovered a good meter away from the core, which glistened as if it had collected a night’s worth of dew. It rose on its own accord–a perfect centerpoint for the sides to push off of. Noem stepped back even further as the cube overtook the spine with arcs of Qi and strange sounds firing off like gunshots.
He watched in awe as the spirit who bonded the spine erupted from its confines with a terrible crack. It looked exactly like the spirits he’d seen earlier, except it stood on two legs and held its head high with pride. A stronger and more evolved version of them.
It jumped at the cube. Noem sighed and stepped into the cube’s field to grab the spirit’s thick neck. His fingers sunk into the Qi that made the thing up, and it froze instantly. It turned and split its head into a pair of ragged flaps that were supposed to be a mouth, but before it could do anything, Noem summoned his dagger and drove it deep into the murderous thing.
The green blade hissed through the spirit like it was soft butter. But more than that, like it was real. It made a noise somewhere between a gurgle and a grunt, looked down at the knife, then back up to Noem in disbelief. He shrugged and ripped the blade up through the thing’s body and shoulder in a spray of violent red Qi.
Spirits couldn’t technically die. Their bodies were formed from Qi that gained a sense of purpose, or of self, or of anything else. But the closest thing to describe what happened to the spirit was death. So Noem didn’t try to find another explanation.
With that done he bent down to pick up the cube which retraced its sides the moment the spirit died. “I didn’t need your help there, little miss meteor. I’m not so new at this that I’d forget to expel the resident of the anchor I’m collecting.”
With a flick of his wrist that was completely unnecessary, Noem sent the cube back to his inventory. It fell out of his hand and clattered uselessly to the ground. He stared blankly at it for a handful of seconds, sent his knife away, and called for it again. It disappeared and reappeared without any hitches.
Which only served to deepen his confusion.
“Oookay…” He grabbed the cube and held it in his left hand. “Guess you don’t want to go back for some reason. But you’re an inanimate object. So you shouldn’t be able to do that. Did Mona go and bond something to you while I wasn't looking?”
No response. Noem grabbed the spine and placed it in a Qi-proof bag on his waist to prevent it from bleeding any more Qi that was necessary, then took one last look at the statue. Something about it sent a shiver down his spine, but he couldn’t feel any Qi from it. It was just a pair of strange legs that stood in the middle of an unnatural clearing amidst a shifting underbrush.
There were more suspicious things about it than not. He opened his map and zoomed in on his own position marker to place an orange dot on himself. If the world was changing because of whatever that goddess was worried about, the statue could be a new addition. Or it was something he’d missed because of the constantly shifting landscape.
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Noem shook his head and pushed the statue out of his mind. He rolled his shoulder and winced as he began to walk back in the direction he came. Once he got back he needed to clean and treat his shoulder, then replace the old power anchor with the spine. Preferably in the opposite order, but some skills didn’t show their true fangs until a good long while after they’d been used.
He chuckled to himself at a few terrible memories, then held the cube out at arms length. “You won’t poison me because I did better than you on a practical exam, would you?”
Silence.
“Didn’t think so. You’re a lot calmer than she was, little miss meteor.”
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Noem resisted the urge to scratch at one of the many scabs that had formed on his shoulder. His Qi helped him regenerate, even without a bond, but it wasn’t… good at it. Patches of skin and chunks of dried blood competed for purchase, and if he left his body to do its own work, he’d end up with far worse than just a scar. But it’d be healed.
He grumbled to himself as he bent down next to the rock face that hid his hideout. A few taps of his interface brought up the controls to a fairly elaborate surveillance system and power grid, all of which converged at a single point right through the rock that he knelt before. He pressed on a flashing button labeled ‘release’ that had a countdown under it, which had accelerated by a little longer than he’d been gone, and watched as one of the stones split down the middle.
It opened to reveal what looked like a safe door but without any numbers or way to open it. Noem flexed his fingers and pushed Qi into them, then palmed the dial and aggressively turned it in completely random directions.
The door hissed open. A small trickle of Qi trailed down the stone face, and Noem reached into the vortex of Qi and electricity with Resilience protecting him. His fingers wrapped around a chunk of burnt something that had once been a wooden anchor like the Ceridaunt’s which he yanked it out with a snap of lightning. The countdown dipped into single-digits. Noem grabbed the spine from his pack and shoved it in the other anchor’s place, and as the electricity melded with the Qi it gave off, he slammed the safe door shut.
Noem slapped his hands together and nodded. “And that’s that.” He said as he checked his interface, then whistled in appreciation. “One thousand four-hundred and eighty two hours of power from the spine. Damn, that’s almost twice as much as normal. Still not worth the fight, though.”
He shrugged and smacked his fist against the door. It hissed open, and he shimmied through the small opening without hesitation. He shrugged off all of his combat gear and sent everything else to his inventory, then set the cube down on the table. It shimmied over to the exact center, then stopped and split open by a few centimeters. Just enough to reveal the cube of Qi inside of it.
“Alright, so you’re not normal in the slightest. I can deal with that.” Noem muttered to himself. He reached up to scratch his shoulder again, but forcibly restrained himself. “I’m going to take a shower, then I’m gonna see if I’ve got some first-aid stuff left. Don’t want to tap into Mona’s supply if I don’t have to.”
Noem started toward the ladder with a stiff stretch as the cube hummed along to some strange tune in the background. He had two weeks to prepare for whoever Ajiana would send after him, which was more than enough time. There was a good chance she’d send all the might she could muster, and pay them enough that they didn’t think of stealing little miss meteorite, so he doubted he’d be able to stay.
He glanced over at the open door to Mona’s room. She was his number one issue; even though someone else was in his sister’s body, there was a chance she was still his sister. Even if she’d already woken up, and wasn’t on her bed any more, and had thrown all of the equipment to the side in what looked like an act of panicked hurry.
Quiet footsteps from the loft. A woman’s voice hissed in worry as things clattered against each other. Mona was awake and well enough to walk. It should’ve been Noem’s greatest triumph.
Instead, he felt nothing but cold anger rising in his throat. Noem rushed up the ladder and snapped to glare at the woman who looked exactly like his sister, but who didn’t have the right eyes. Or the right expression.
Mona winced and tried to hide her face. One single motion that convinced Noem his sister was truly gone–but he still had a part to play. He plastered a look of utter relief on and let the tension bleed from his shoulders.
It hurt like nothing else ever had.
“Mona?”