My method worked. It’s gone, finally. The Energy in my hand has vanished, all sucked up through the tube to my core. That doesn’t mean it’s the end of the matter now, though: the substance might be gone, but it has left behind significant damage. I’m going to have to investigate that more closely at some point, but for now, I force my eyes open.

They’re sticky, clogged with the salt from my tears of pain. I’d been fairly confident already from the lack of any sounds of combat that my screams hadn’t caused other creatures to come to investigate, but it’s a relief to see my companions safe. They look concerned, anxious even, Bastet nearly standing over me and River on high alert as he guards, sending glances over to me. When he sees I’m awake, he hurries over.

You’re alive, he says, relief evident in his voice.

“You know what that was?” I say. Well, I try to say it – my screams have wrecked my vocal cords and they haven’t yet recovered. I reflexively try to send a tendril of healing magic to them, but don’t even succeed in drawing it from that glowing centre before an exceedingly sharp pain strikes through me like a lightning bolt. I flinch and abandon the attempt. Hopefully I’ll be able to use it later and haven’t somehow destroyed my capacity to heal in my stupidity at touching something I didn’t know anything about. Fortunately for communicating with my companions, however, they aren’t actually listening to my words anyway.

I believe I do, he replies, then hesitates. But among my people, it is nothing more than legend.

It’s Energy, right? Pure Energy, I conclude, fairly confidently considering everything. For now, I figure I’ll send messages to him mentally; give my voice the chance to recover.

I believe so, he agrees heavily. Which may explain both the strength of the guardian-beast and the speedy growth of the Forest of Death.

They’re feeding off this? I ask, frowning a little. Did the liquid have such a bad effect on me because I’m from another world, or just because I’m too low-level?

Not directly, I would imagine, he replies, since the stories all say that touching the Life-blood of the Realm is rather too much of a good thing; very few survive such an encounter. Well, that tallies with how I felt on multiple occasions that I might explode. How are you feeling? he continues by asking.

I use a few moments to take stock. If I thought I stunk to high heaven when I levelled up last time, it’s nothing to how I smell now after who knows how many level ups. My body feels like it was stretched on the rack, then crushed under stones, and then finally twisted into a pretzel and baked. No, microwaved – it’s worse inside than out.

Closing my eyes, I instinctively reach for Meditation, only this time, I don’t reach outwards, but inwards. Something about my battle within myself has opened a whole new world to me, and I’m now aware of some glowing core at my centre. As I observe with some sense that is somehow both completely new to me and completely familiar, I realise that my body has come off lightly compared to my insides.

The glow at my centre is spluttering, flaring and dimming at odd moments. It’s also incredibly tender in a way that’s indescribable with words. I feel like...a glass vase, full of cracks and ready to disintegrate at any moment. Frankly, all that’s keeping me together is hope and a prayer; I dare not even press too hard with my metaphysical presence in case it causes everything to finally shatter. Now I understand why trying to heal myself earlier hurt so much: it must have been like pressing my fingers into that shattered glass and pulling.

If my centre, that which I’m increasingly convinced must be the equivalent to one of River’s Energy-Hearts, is bad, my hand is even worse. Although nothing looks damaged to my physical eyes, to my mental gaze, it’s like a black hole. I’m not an expert; I’ve only just discovered how to ‘look’ at myself in this way, after all. Still, I hadn’t even realised how much my whole body glows, not just the centre of it. If the glow of the Energy that had been there was the molten heat of the sun, the glow of my Energy-Heart is that of the moon. Before looking at my hand, I had thought that the rest of my body was dark, but in fact it’s more like a dim twilight, evenly diffused across the whole of me.

My hand, in comparison, is a black hole, a darkness so deep that it seems to suck me in as I observe it. I swiftly pull myself back to a sense of my physicality to break the pull, settling my consciousness back into my body and its aches and pains. My mind is also tired, a mixture of lack of sleep and the strain I put it through in the last while making concentration difficult.

I’m alive, I finally answer River, not even trying to keep my sense of exhaustion and pain from him.

You need to sleep, he tells me.

I know, I admit. But we also need to get out of here.

We do, he agrees, but there is no guarantee that our passage out will be without conflict. For now, we are undisturbed. Sleep.

I want to fight him on the idea. I want to push myself to my feet and carry on until we can get out of this wretched forest. Out of this cave which, at first a treasure trove, now feels like the lair of a beast. But I can’t. I expended all my fight on mere survival after touching something I really shouldn’t have.

I sleep.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

*****

When I wake, it’s dark. Darker than before, at least. The torch I’d lit earlier has gone out. I’m not completely blind: the Energy-Hearts growing from the walls around somehow give off light even without the torches shedding it for them to reflect and refract. The pool of liquid Energy still shimmers, even without any other light source. I shudder as I look at it. Despite everything, I can still feel a draw, a temptation to touch it again. But now, knowing the consequences, it’s not overwhelming.

Refusing to make the same stupid error, I forcibly look away. I’m feeling better. A little, at least. My body is still aching, my Energy-Heart is still sore, and I can sense that my hand is no less a black-hole than it was before. My mind is less tired, though, and I realise how my decision-making skills had not been at their best due to being mentally exhausted after the fraught days. The last proper sleep I had was with Bastet and the cubs in the temporary forest shelter, after all.

I’d convinced myself to come down here more because of curiosity than because it was logically the best option: at least the forest was the devil-I-knew. Using the salamander’s fire gland, I’d probably created enough torches to make sure that we got out without running out of fire, though there was certainly the risk of having to walk through the dark. But I’d been curious about the hole, and about the salamander, and about the quest which was so obviously pointing me towards exploring it all, that I’d convinced myself that it was the best thing for us to do.

Then, I proceeded to be the Abu in Aladdin and touch what clearly should not have been touched. And that even after seeing the effects the Hearts had had on my Bound. Heck, I’d castigated them over it. Yet, when gripped by the same type of temptation, I failed to prove myself any better. I suffered for my failure, have done damage to myself that has unknown consequences and will take an unknown amount of time to heal – if it can at all – and has proven to actively prevent me from fulfilling my arguably most successful role in combat: healing. All because I didn’t take the time up there in the clearing to actually rest – and let greed overwhelm the doubts I had about continuing here.

When will I stop making stupid mistakes like this? I wonder morosely. My emotional state must communicate itself to my companions completely unintentionally, because the large mass lying beside me shifts to sit upwards. In the light of the Energy-Hearts, I can’t see any details, but I know who it is from his size and shape.

Do not chastise yourself too much: Energy calls to Energy. It’s unsurprising that you felt a pull to it, and not having any idea of what it was, that you gave into the attraction. We did much the same when exposed to the Energy-Hearts, if you remember.

Yeah, but you were able to return here and harvest them without losing yourself when you became aware of it, I point out bitterly. I knew about the temptation, and still touched the damn stuff.

What called to you is many, many times more powerful than an Energy-Heart. Many times more powerful even than such a number of Energy-Hearts as we have here. It is unsurprising that the temptation was commensurately greater.

Then why didn’t anyone else feel it? I question sourly.

We do not have Energy-Hearts, he replies calmly. My brows knit together.

That makes a difference? I ask, curiosity managing to cut through my recriminatory thoughts.

A significant one. For us, Energy is transitory, flowing in and flowing out, leaving small specks of it behind with every wave. Once we have accumulated enough specks, we cross the threshold and an Energy-Heart is created. Energy-Hearts provide a quick path towards forming one of our own, so we are strongly attracted to them. You can already store Energy so have no need to form an Energy-Heart – presumably, since you already have one. Your being knows this and so instead you are attracted to what can fill your storage. The greater the concentration of Energy, the greater the attraction. And no other substance has a greater concentration of Energy than the Life-blood of the realm.

I see, I respond, intrigued despite my desire to self-castigate. Touching the liquid Energy was only the last in a series of bad decisions, but it’s nice for it not to be all my fault. I sigh. Well, just sitting here and moping is only compounding my failings. We need to decide what the next move is to make. Trying to project my thoughts to both the companions with me, I regret that Lathani won’t be able to be part of the conversation since this affects her too. Unless she manages to pick up my thoughts with her own telepathy even when I’m sending them down the Bonds, that is.

What do you think we should do? I’m aware that I wasn’t making decisions in the best frame of mind before: do you think we should continue down here, or back out and just go through the forest. It’s not too late. River is the first to speak.

Whatever else we do, we should collect as many of these Energy-Hearts as we can. They will be a great boon to our ability to progress towards gaining our own Energy-Hearts. I feel a wave of enthusiastic agreement from Bastet.

OK, I accept. That’s the first step. And then after? We know that there’s a route out via the tunnel Bastet found – should we continue that way?

Neither of them respond for a long moment. Then Bastet sends a questioning thought with images of the route ahead running right alongside a stream of shimmering water, identical to what I just touched. She seems to be asking whether that will be manageable. It’s a good question.

Grab me if I move even a fraction towards the Life-blood, OK? I ask River, getting his agreement before turning to look at the water. Gazing at it, I can see the same sort of images playing within the shimmering ripples as I had before, feel the attraction trying to grab me. This time, though, I’m more able to resist it. I don’t know if it’s the points in Willpower or the knowledge of the consequences to touching it, but I’m relieved when the temptation doesn’t go above really, really wanting it. It should be OK, I say in the end. As long as I don’t touch it, that is.

Then I think we should travel through the tunnel. Despite all of this, it appears less treacherous than the Forest of Death, opines River. And, perhaps, we’ll be able to discover exactly why there is Life-blood so freely available here.

That’s not normal? I check.

No. OK, clear.

Do you agree, Bastet? She quickly does so. Alrighty then. You guys keep harvesting Energy-Hearts while I try and see what I can do to help myself recover. Then we’ll get going as soon as possible. They send agreement. Then I realise that Lathani’s potentially been out of the conversation entirely and open my mouth to tell her what’s going on. When nothing emerges from my damaged throat, I frown. Bastet, can you get Lathani up to speed, please? She sends an affirmation and I suddenly sense...something passing between the two big cats.

I think the tunnel is a good idea, carer, Lathani’s voice comes into my head. I did not like those trees. They had a strange feel to them. Well, with unanimous agreement for the tunnel, but for collecting Energy-Hearts first, it seems like we have our plan. After a couple more exchanges, Bastet, River, and Lathani go back to harvesting Energy-Hearts. As for me, I have another task: checking through my messages and status since I’m sure there’s a lot to go through there. Opening my status panel, my eyes widen. Yup, definitely a lot to explore.