For the first time since becoming a healer, Joe woke up feeling awful. He had never been much of a drinker. He recalled that water was often suggested to ease the morning after aches. Joe slid out of bed and stumbled to the kitchen. Grabbing a mug, he activated the crystal and drank three cupfuls of tepid water. Cold would have been nice but at that moment he was not feeling choosy.
He then ran his magic over himself, trying to dispel the feeling of grunge coating his bones. [Healing Touch] and [Purge] did not have much effect but [Efferous Endurance] perked his groggy brain up. The biggest help turned out to be [Heart Fire]. The comforting aura radiating from the magic fire was far more effective than any actual healing. Joe placed one by his bedroom door and then tried out his newest spell by dropping another [Heart Fire] by the entryway to the kitchen.
Your skill [Dual Cast] has increased to rank 1.
Joe sat down at his dining table with another mug of water and a couple of yesterday's rolls. Letting the radiant wellness wash away the penalties of last night’s excess. Thinking about his new skill gain he decided to look over everything.
PLAYER PROFILE: Joseph (Joe) Morris
Race: Changeling
Level: 14
Experience: 38,277 / 41,230
SKILLS (Slots / Filled)
STRENGTH SKILLS: (5 /5)
• [Savage Claws] (U) rank 12
• [Steadfast] (C) rank 16
• [Sundering Strike] (U) rank 6
VIGOR SKILLS: (10 / 10)
• [Deaden Flesh] (U) rank 11
• [Efferous Endurance] (U) rank 43
• [Healer's Ward] (U) rank 10
• [Morphic Form] (U) rank 9
• [Stun Block] (U) rank 10
DEXTERITY SKILLS: (5 / 5)
• [Hunter’s Pursuit] (U) rank 16
• [Melee Defense] (C) rank 34
• [Stealth] (C) rank 6
• [Versatile Weapon Expertise] (C) rank 26
PERCEPTION SKILLS: (8 / 8)
• [Assess Creatures] (C) rank 33
• [Eyes of the Healer] (C) rank 31
• [Fetching Fist] (U) rank 27
• [Night Eyes] (C) rank 12
• [Spot Weakness] (U) rank 6
• [Tracker] (C) rank 13
SPIRIT SKILLS: (12 / 12)
• [Dispel Rot] (C) rank 7
• [Dual Cast] (C) rank 1
• [Grit Razor] (U) rank 13
• [Healing Touch] (C) rank 41
• [Healing Wave] (C) rank 5
• [Heart Fire] (C) rank 17
• [Pack Master] (U) rank 3
• [Purge] (U) rank 13
• [Warding Heal] (C) rank 8
RESOURCES
• Health: 725 / 725
• Stamina: 1,833 / 1,833
• Mana: 2,818 / 2,818
ATTRIBUTES
• Strength: 5 (7)
• Vigor: 10
• Dexterity: 5
• Perception: 8
• Spirit: 12
Available Attribute Points Unspent: 0
CLASSES
• Primary Class: Healer
• Secondary Class: Fell Bane Hunter
• Tertiary Class: None
TRAITS
• [Anyone] (Racial)
• [No one] (Racial)
• [Iron Mind] (Hereditary)
• [Ambidextrous] (Achievement)
• [Beastmaster] (Achievement)
• [Dancer] (Achievement)
• [Mystic] (Achievement)
• [Overachiever] (Achievement)
• [Punching-Bag] (Achievement)
• • [Glutton for Punishment] (Achievement)
• • [Death's Door] (Achievement)
• [Survivalist] (Achievement)
• [Undaunted] (Achievement)
• [The Seal of Passing] (Prophetic)
DISCIPLINES
• School of the Sparrowhawk: 2
Joe sighed at his experience. Now he saw how Earcellwen had been chasing fourteenth level for a while. He had received roughly two thousand experience points for the whole badboon quest, but that was only around a fifth of what was needed to go from fourteen to fifteenth level. On the plus side, Joe had earned six hundred exp for driving off Tarz. The old manticore was clearly a higher rarity or level or both. Because of this just beating him in the encounter earned him more than a quarter of everything he had earned for all three low-level nests and the quest rewards itself.
This explained how Joe, after only a handful of encounters, was a higher level than RC. Joe’s epic quest had not been at all level-appropriate. Early levels tended to be easy to complete, so the goblins and lions had been good matches. The beguilburr and trolls had been enough to give him two more good bumps.
Sougath, on the other hand, had shot him straight from single digits to mid-teens. Joe realized that epic enemies like that at his level were not likely to happen often. From here on out, he should expect levels to come far slower than his first rush had provided him.
Joe skimmed his traits and skills until he ended on his discipline. He had not made any progress on the School of the Sparrowhawk since his time on the ship. Though to be honest, Joe acknowledged he had not spent any time working on the forms that the discipline required. Looking around the sparsely furnished room, it dawned on him that this open space was a perfect spot to rectify that lack.
Joe headed back to the sink and scrubbed his face with a handful of water before heading to the bedroom for his dim-bag where the Sparrowhawk manual was stored. He took out the book and reviewed the first styles first forms again. There was a warming-up exercise that would eventually settle into the ‘Poised to Fly’ pose. A pose that so far had completely eluded Joe. It was not just a matter of standing a certain way. Joe was supposed to be aligning his spiritual core with some external force but all he managed so far was sore thighs and a pain shooting through his lower back.
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Joe started warming up and his hopes rose. He could feel the training he had done with Kenda paying off here. In learning [Versatile Weapon Expertise], Joe had expanded the ways he moved and reacted. He found himself flowing through the warm-up better than he ever had before. Granted having more space than the tiny cabin helped too. As Joe reached the end of the preliminary routine everything was clicking into place.
Your proficiency with the [School of the Sparrowhawk] discipline has increased to rank 2.
Joe slowed his movements and stepped into the first pose. He placed one foot in front of the other, bringing one hand down to his waist and the other to shoulder height. He leaned onto his back foot and … everything came apart. He felt the whole moment of fluid perfection unravel. Joe started to wobble and had the [Heart Fires] not been burning he knew his legs and back would already be protesting.
“Damn it!” he swore just as his front door swung open. Mahq walked in and made a beeline for the closest [Heart Fire]. There was no timidity to the boy's actions, even though he was walking into a stranger’s home uninvited.
“So these are what was glowing,” the boy stated with more inflection than Joe had yet to hear from him. “I like these. They are making Gran and Gramp feel good downstairs.”
At a loss for what to say Joe just greeted him. “G’Morning Mahq.”
“Hello Joe,” he replied, returning to his flat voice again. A second later, the young druid reanimated again as he focused on the fire. Mahq ran his hand through the flames. Typically the fire was completely illusionary but with Mahq, the flickering tendrils seemed to be affected by the boy’s movements. Instead of just passing through the fire, like waving something through a beam of light, it was more like smoke. The flames curled around the boy’s hand, sliding off the other side of his fingers.
“It’s not elemental or spirit,” the boy crooned. “It’s both. And they like each other. This is very surprising. Spirit and fire usually fight but you made them friends.”
“I’m not sure how much credit I can take for that. That is one of the first spells I learned. It’s always worked that way.”
“Nah ah. It’s your spirit in here that makes the fire help out more than it has to. It looks like the fire was just supposed to add warmth and hurt dead things but the fire likes the spirit so it makes folks feel good too. The fire and spirit aren’t just sharing the work. They are friends.”
Joe shook his still slightly blurry head trying to digest that. There were so many implications in that weird analysis. First, Mahq’s ability to sense magic was unlike anything Joe had seen so far. The boy personalized the energies. Did that mean that magic had some form of sentience or will, or did Mahq just see it that way? Secondly, Joe understood that each person would likely personalize their spells but Joe had not realized he had done so with [Heart Fire]. He wondered what other spells of his were affected by his personality.
“Well, that’s good to know. Can you see anything else?” Joe asked, scratching his head.
“Dunno. Let me look.” Mahq folded himself down on the floor lotus style and started into the flames. After a second it was pretty obvious that Joe was not even in the room for the boy anymore. Watching the crosslegged boy quickly grew boring so Joe decided to try to find his pose again. He moved through the end of the warm-up sequence again and tried to find the balance he was seeking.
And he failed again. Joe shifted and closed his eyes. He tried to clear his head and blocked out the burning building right above his butt. After a minute or two more, he clenched his jaw in frustration. He was about to swear again when a monotone voice announced.
“You are doing it wrong.”
Joe opened his eyes to see Mahq standing over the tome Count Randeau had given him. The boy very carefully turned the page backward and bent over to study the drawings.
“You should be trying to be the hawk. Not the person. Your heart spirit is too hot to start off as a gliding hawk. You should try being a striking hawk first.”
“But the book said I have to learn ‘Poised to Fly’ before I can learn ‘Hawk Strike’,” Joe replied stretching and popping the cartilage in his ankles.
“Book was not written for you. You are not this guy,” Mahq remarked, pointing at the drawing of the monk in the book. “You have more spirits than the book-man. More spirit changes the way you meet new spirits. You don’t have as many as I do but most people usually only have one. You have two. You need to let your heart spirit catch up to what your head spirit knows.”
“What? Sorry Mahq but I am not following. Can you explain that, please?”
“You have a big head spirit. That is who I am talking to. You also have another spirit too. Your heart spirit is smaller but it wants to get bigger. That spirit wants you to run and play and hunt. As long as you only listen to your head spirit and ignore your heart spirit you will never be able to do what the book wants you to.”
“Oh shit. Are you saying I’m possessed?” Visions of Sougath’s spirit filled Joe’s thoughts. He knew that something had changed after the fiend had tried to devour his soul. That ‘wildness’, as he called it, had cropped up time and again.
“No. That is not what I said,” Mahq snapped forcefully. “You have a second spirit. You do. It is not someone else’s.” The boy paused and cocked his head towards Joe, before adding. “You worry too much.”
“Maybe so but where I come from the only people who might have more than one spirit are thought to be possessed. So it was a valid concern,” Joe countered, stretching his back. “Ok. I want to get the pose right. Explain again what I am doing wrong, please.”
“No. You will not understand. As long as your two spirits are out of balance, you will never be able to reach the world spirit. You need to get your spirits to do something they both want to do. Your heart spirit wants to hit something. So let’s hit something.”
Mahq strutted up to the dining table. Taking two of the three chairs, he placed them in the middle of the room. He then went to the bin by the fireplace and took out a pair of dusty logs, which showed how often fires were lit. Standing one log on each chair, he walked back to Joe’s book. Flipping a few pages he stopped and waved for Joe to join him. The sheet showed the warrior snapping a kick into a pole. It looked easy enough. Step onto the non-kicking foot, pivot ninety degrees and snap the kicking foot out and back.
It even showed how to add a bit of a jump to it but Mahq placed his finger on the simple kick. “Try to do this. When you do, listen to your heart spirit, not your head spirit. Don’t think about it. Just do it.”
Mahq stepped away from the chair, but he did not stop at the needed distance. He backed several more steps away, before dropping into a fighting stance. In a burst of movement, Mahq dashed three quick steps forward before leaping into the air. Mid-jump Mahq changed. One second he was a boy the next he was something akin to an ostrich with a sharp axe-like beak. The scally-clawed foot smashed the log off the chair and sent it crashing into the wall, leaving a gouge in the woodwork. Before he landed, he was once again a young human.
“What the heck was that,” Joe exclaimed. “That was not what the book described!”
“My spirits are not squabbling,” the boy intoned, standing perfectly still as he looked generally in Joe’s direction. “I don’t need to do the easy one. My way was more fun.”
“But the wall …” Joe blurted pointing at the large scratch the log had left behind.
“Oh that’s easy,” the druid ran his hand over the divot and it vanished. “Stop worrying so much and kick the log.”
Joe shook his head before getting into position. He started to rethink the steps the book detailed but forced himself to clear his mind. Instead, he reached out and brushed his resources against [Hunter’s Pursuit] and [Morphic Form]. Those two and [Tracking] were where he sensed that wildness the most often. When he felt the skills perk up, he ran and kicked.
It started out sloppy but then the wild feeling took over and corrected his footing. There was not enough time to completely fix the attack. Joe just barely managed to connect and knock the log over instead of sending it flying. He didn’t care about the lame kick. In that moment he could feel himself and the wild ‘heart spirit’ as Mahq called it, cooperate. There was a second where he was the wildness and it was him.
“Holy shit,” Joe breathed. “I think I see what you mean.”
“You do?” Mahq groaned with a disbelieving voice. “That kick was terrible.”
“It showed me how to start though. This whole time I have been fighting something. Something that was not allowing me to master any of this. Now I think I see what I am doing wrong. How I have been fighting myself.”
“Ok,” Mahq stated blandly before turning towards the door. Between one moment and the next, he seemed to completely dismiss Joe from his thoughts. “I’m hungry. I’ll come back tomorrow and we can do more.” Then he just left.
“Uh. Ok.” Joe replied to the empty room. He shrugged and went to replace the logs before he stopped and reconsidered. Beating up his new walls by pelting them with kicked logs seemed like a terrible idea, especially since he did not have Mahq's ability to fix the damages. His ring might be able to but Joe decided he would go buy a training bag for his room instead. He knew he could hit the gyms at the guildhouse but he wanted to experiment with this idea of his dual spirits on his own a bit first.
Feeling excited, Joe grabbed another roll and headed to grab some clean clothes.