Chapter 35 The Price of Power.

What’s the price of power?

Your very soul and everything you have!

If you aren’t willing to gamble everything,

you won’t stand a chance at reaching the very top.

And even if you gambled everything,

you merely joined the competition.

Rakisha, Mother of all Demons.

The flow of time fades into meditation. The door opens multiple times, but I don’t care. My eyes are closed, and I am absorbed in my meditation. I will become stronger, I will become a bird that eats spiders! I will survive!

A powerful mana pulse is generated within me. I’ve never felt anything like that when I meditated before. Then again, I’ve never meditated for more than eight hours straight before, now I am way past that. Is this mana? Is it power?

The pulse becomes stronger until it becomes unbearable. I hear myself whimper in pain, but I keep on circulating my mana. If this is power, then it may save me months of meditation. And if it’s simply the human meat leaving my bloodstream, it’s good for me too. I should be thankful for this stroke of luck regardless of how painful it is.

But as a being of flesh, I have limits. I can’t maintain focus anymore and shriek in pain. My back drops onto the straw as I gasp for air. The pair of blazing golden eyes above me tells me this wasn’t power, it’s only my wishful thinking. This is the hag’s spell, meant to wake me up from my meditation.

“It’s time young woman…” the cage’s bars open without a noise.

“Has it been three days already?” I’ve barely noticed the time. It feels like twelve hours, tops.

She bursts into a cackle and shows me five fingers. “Five!”

“I’ve been sitting here for five days?!”

{27} Kilako (October) the 5th

She helps me stand up, her strong fingers wrap around my arm. “Yes. You have surprised me. I did not know you were capable of middle meditation.”

“Middle meditation?” I ask as I let her lead me outside, and flinch when my eyes meet the blinding light in the staircase.

“You don’t know the term? Kikiki… low meditation is what you usually do. Sit and meditate for a couple of hours. Middle meditation is a deeper form of meditation, one that slows the time for your body, and lets you get stronger faster. You must be hungry, yes?” She leads me out of the horrible place and up the stairs. Only when I’m through the door do I notice that I’m still naked.

She lets go of my arm and lets me stand on my own. “Would you like food first? Or a bath?” A piece of meat floats above her left palm, and a ball of water above her right.

“Toilet first and a bath…” my legs are spattered with dried urine, and I don’t even want to think about what my feet are covered with. I am not hungry, considering what that meat must be, I’d prefer not to eat here at all. I’ll go out and buy a meal at the Kondra snake inn after the bath. If I’m allowed that is…

When I get out of the toilet, the hag takes me to her friendlier cellar, the one with the cauldron. She splashes my legs with lukewarm water magic before I can protest, then points at her gigantic cauldron. “Get inside my cauldron young woman.” Wait is it a test? Is she going to kill me because I wouldn’t eat humans? Stop this! Just stop with this stupid paranoia! She wouldn’t have healed my hand if she is going to kill me. It’s something else…

Clenching my teeth, I use the wooden stairs to climb into her cauldron. Sliding inside the huge metallic pot is a bit weird. I’ve never seen this cauldron so clean before. “Did you clean it with magic? If you can clean this thing with magic what do you need me for?” The realization I’ve been working for nothing this whole time infuriates me.

She does not answer my question. Instead, three brass bottles fall into the pot, one of them slamming into my head. “Drink these potions.”

I stifle my painful cries and rub the little bump on my head. What is she planning? Am I an experiment now? “What are these potions for?” I ask in a fragile voice.

“Your reward, yes? Drink!”

If she wanted to kill me she could do so easily. What if I am some sort of an experiment? She does have human slaves for that… it shouldn’t be anything bad…

I open the metallic bottles, and empty the content into my throat. They're all in different shades of awfully bitter, leaving a bad taste in my mouth, but I force it down nonetheless.

“Young woman, sit and meditate.” The hag orders from above. “If you manage to reach middle meditation again, it’s your blessing, yes?”

Meditate?! For how long?! I’ve just passed five days without food or water in inhuman conditions, I only want a quick bath and run to the inn so I can eat… Not that I’m hungry…

The hag doesn’t leave any room for an argument, so I obey. I notice that my light mana pool has already formed, I can feel it burning in my chest. I assume the pose for the earth mana-pool, and adjust my breathing.

Water pours into the cauldron. The water climbs and climbs, reaching my neck, then my chin. The water covers my nose and head. I stand up in alarm, is she trying to drown me?! “Kikikikikiki, sit down young woman. Don’t be afraid, sit, sit. One of the potions you drank is a ‘Fish Lungs’ potion, you’ll be able to live underwater for a day. Better use it, yes?”

Trying to wrap my head around the idea, I put my mouth in the water and attempt to inhale, but I can’t breathe it. I panic and stand up again, coughing and spitting water. The water still climbs, covering my head even as I stand. I flutter in the water violently, I don’t know how to swim. “I can’t breathe in it!”

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“You don’t breathe water, chicky. You drink it. Drink it to your heart’s content.” The hag waves her hand, and my head is forced into the water. Trying to inhale again causes me to cough inside the water, large bubbles escape my throat, precious air lost on a struggle. It’s simply impossible.

Water comes into my mouth and fills me up, or not. I can feel the water flowing out from my ribs. Touching my sides, I realize that I have rows of ten thin lines on each of my sides, just like a fish…

Breathing water is indeed impossible as that hag said, it feels more as if I am constantly drinking it. Except, it never fills me up, it flows outside. My lungs are alright, no water gets into them, or at least it doesn’t feel like it.

I calm down and assume my meditation pose again, partially floating underwater. I wonder what the other two potions are for. Now, instead of tuning my breathing, I have to regulate my drinking. I adjust accordingly, my lips part rapidly like a fish. I block the water flow, and drink, block and drink, over and over at the same pace as meditation breathing. I meditate, focusing on my mana. My legs hit the bottom of the pot, and I sit down comfortably.

Fire lights up below me, and the water boils, yet I don’t feel any heat. This solves the second part of the riddle. The second potion probably has to do with heat resistance. The temperature of the boiling water is impossible for a human being and even fish to survive in. Yet, it feels like I am taking a warm and relaxing bath.

The water also has a very pleasant taste, it’s more like a warm mushroom soup than water. As I open my eyes I discover that the water changed color too. Instead of clear water, it’s boiling green. This mushroom soup water is thick, warm, nourishing, and tasty. It sends a pleasant relaxing feeling throughout my body and helps me focus on the mana flow.

Speaking of mana flow, this is no longer a flow. It’s more like a violent river. I’ve never handled so much mana in my entire life. Now, this is power!

Now I begin to enjoy myself. The feeling of moving so much mana at once is intoxicating as if pure electricity, alcohol, and adrenaline pours into my veins, but it’s all under my control. I simply can’t stop. I push myself, draining more and more, I stream it toward the earth pool in my left thigh. I have the time of my life. My fatigue disappears under this pure energy, replaced by a sense of purpose. By my lust for power. By my need not to rely on anyone for my safety.

Then the mushroom soup drops down, leaving me in an empty cauldron, wishing for more, hoping for more. I almost fully formed my earth mana pool, I have to do more! Only a little more and it’d be fully formed! Only a little more!

The hag’s head peaks at me from above, I get up angrily. “You said I had a day! Why did you lower it after an hour?!” I demand to know.

“Because you’d drown young woman. You’ve been sitting there for twenty-four hours. Come, get out of there, you must be hungry for solid food yes?” She activates the mechanism, and with the spinning cogs, the cauldron turn on its side.

{27} Kilako (October) the 6th

I slowly walk out. I don’t feel weak, nor do I feel hungry. Considering I hadn’t eaten anything for six days, it’s astonishing I feel so alive. “I don’t feel hungry.”

The hag throws a pink towel at me, the soft color feels out of place in this gloomy witch’s cellar. “Kikikikikiki… don’t worry chicky, I won’t feed you mortals’ meat, only animal meat. That’s ok, yes? There are these mortals who won’t eat animals, only plants they eat, ha! Like plants don’t hold life in them, like plants don't feel pain. What do they call these mortals? Vuugans? Yeeesss… Vuugans! Do you want me to cook you a Vuugan meal?” The golden gleaming eyes hold a hidden threat in them.

I don’t care if it’s a test, I can’t consume human meat! Not if I can help it! I won’t go that low! I already have…

Not by choice! And she won’t kill me, I’ve already established that… so I don’t have to worry. She wouldn’t put me in this bath to get me stronger if she was going to kill me…

“Yes, I don’t think I can eat meat right now.” Vugans… what a weird way to call Vegans, is that a pronunciation mistake? Or on purpose? Who cares? As long as it’s only made out of plants, I know I am not eating a human being…

The hag rubs her hands together. “Good… Good… it’s important to establish a healthy diet, yes?"

You should talk about healthy diets, you monstrous bitch!

"Your clothes are over there." She points at a set of my clean clothes draped over one of her devices. "Come to the kitchen when you’ve dressed up, you won’t be disappointed with my cooking!” And with that, she leaves the cellar.

Left alone in the magical basement, wrapped in a towel, and watching the flickering blue flames on the walls - I feel helpless.

On one hand. I want the power this woman can offer me, and this recent ‘bath’ just proved she can offer me a lot of that.

On the other hand. I don’t want to become like her, I don’t want to treat humans as ‘mortals’. I don’t want to treat intelligent beings like cattle, meant for milking and eating. It’s wrong! I can never do that, and I can never accept this hag for doing it. Yet, I want the power she wields.

If both master Rushmia, and the man who hunted me with the lightning storms paired up to fight this old woman I’d put my money on the hag. Although she’s immoral, she feels like absolute power. If I can steal or learn some of that power from her, I can become immensely powerful myself.

Yet, it feels like selling my soul to the devil, quite literally.

The question is, can I sell my soul to the devil for power? What will I do for power? Where are the limits? When do I tell myself, ‘ok that’s enough! This is a line I won’t cross!’

I have no answer. I was never into the religious babbling of the Noxi or Brigit temples, good, bad, and all that. People have to do their best to live their decent life, how hard can it be? No stealing, no killing, no abusing, and no cheating.

Yet I want power, am I willing to work for a cannibalistic hag? One that treats humans like cattle? Only for the sake of getting a few more drops of power?!

I don’t know the answer to that, I wonder if I even have a choice in the matter.

*~*~*

Power level: 2nd stage apprentice.

Mana pools status:

Crown-knot: Affinity 10: formed: 1 gem replenished per five minutes.

Neck-Bridge: Affinity 6: formed: max amount of gems drained per day: 66

Abdomen-storage: Affinity 5: formed: 6 gems. Conversion ratio: 6:1

Air: Affinity 4: formed: 18 gems

Fire: Affinity 2: formed: 9 gems

Light: Affinity 3: formed: 14 gems

Water: Affinity 6: formed: 27 gems

Earth: Affinity 1: opened: 3 gems

Wood: Affinity 2:

Gravity: Affinity 9: formed: 41 gems

Cantrip known:

Air: Shavi’s breeze, Shavi’s sword.

Fire: Nuriss’ flame.

Water:

Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burst. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s Lesser Shield. Imari’s Minor Telekinesis. Leo’s Pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light body. Alino’s Heavy body.

Spells known:

Focus capability: 9 patterns

Social status: A clerk at the maven of mysteries.

Wealth: 300 gems. 1876 gold coins, 2 silvers, 42 coppers.

Items:

Two simple healing potions.

Two potions with unknown effects.

An enchanted belt with eight pouches, the enchantment keep the pouches’ content fresh.

Various spell materials.

Companions:

Injuries and scars: Back, lightning scar.