Deciding that knowing is better than just wondering about it, and wanting to know about any flies in the ointment before I dip my finger in there, I turn back to the giant leopard who’s watching me with a hint of knowing amusement.
“You probably already know what I’m going to ask,” I accuse her a little grumpily.
Ask it nonetheless. Perhaps I don’t, she replies, her amusement becoming more obvious.
“Then why are you trying to make me more powerful? Even if I had a Bond with every single lizard-kin in River’s village, how would that provide any guarantee for you? I mean, we have an Oath, yes, but you said you’re not willing to trust Oaths with your cub’s life; how is this situation any better?” Kalanthia doesn’t answer immediately, instead stretching out her paws and yawning a little.
Markus Wolfe, I am a little peckish; do you have a snack in that invisible storage of yours? I huff in irritation at her avoidance of the question, but pull out a few lizog corpses to feast upon. Guessing my other companions might be hungry too, I pull some more out and set them in front of Bastet and the cubs and then River. Fenrir comes in from outside to share one happily with River. Returning to Kalanthia, I pull out a few bits of cooked meat and chew on them slowly, not exactly hungry, but not wanting to be left out. Even Lathani’s joining in on the action, coming to chew at a corpse near her mother. You might wish to consider not storing your kills in this space, Kalanthia comments as she eats. They offer nutritional value, but nothing more. Any Energy within them seems to have been stripped from the meat.
“Yeah, I’m aware,” I sigh, “But it’s the most convenient way to carry them around.”
Convenience, perhaps, but you will have to work extra hard to gain all you must through kills alone.
“Speaking of gains,” I say, trying to redirect us back onto the previous topic. “Can you explain how me gaining new Bound gains you anything?”
Are you intending on turning on Lathani? she asks bluntly.
“No!” I reply immediately.
If you gained enough power to overcome me, would you do so?
“No,” I reply again: even if I could force a Bond on Kalanthia, I wouldn’t. First, I’ve vowed to not force a Bond on any creature; second, she’s part of my pack. My...family.
That is why. I huff again in frustration, not getting it.
“But how do you know I’m telling the truth? How do you know I wouldn’t change if I gained more power?”
I know, she responds unhelpfully. Then, seeming to take a little pity on me, continues. You are the same human who saved my cub almost at the cost of his own life without even knowing anything about her. You are the same human who has played and looked after her in my absence. The same who came across me in a vulnerable condition and didn’t consider for one moment killing me and benefiting from what my death could give you. The same who then agreed to save my cub even without any reward promised. I know.
Well, I suppose, put like that… And no, I hadn’t actually thought about killing Kalanthia for one moment: it would have been like considering killing my father for my inheritance. Maybe some people can do that; I couldn’t.
So if you wish to avoid me razing this tribe of lizard-folk to the last survivor, take them under your wing: I trust you with my cub; I will trust them if you are their guarantor. Now, such unpleasant business aside, we may return to more agreeable topics. Markus Wolfe, what do you wish as a boon for your actions in saving Lathani?
A little whip-lashed by the abrupt change in topic, I try to redirect my mind to answer her question. I’m a little surprised that she’s still offering me a boon: for some reason I’d been under the impression that leaving River alive was the boon, and was OK with that. However, if she’s still offering one, I’m not going to refuse. Considering the matter, I think back to what I’ve been considering on and off recently.
Obviously, the damage to my Core is my biggest obstacle right now, followed close behind by the damage to my ‘internal matrix’. I need to know if Kalanthia has any tips for me about those. But do I want to ‘waste’ my boon on that? Then again, do I have a choice? I think I may have found a solution to the cracks on my Core, but it seems to be very Energy-heavy and going to get more Energy-Hearts will mean either putting myself or my companions in dangerous situations, or going back into that poisonous environment. Without Lay-on-hands available, either of those seem rather risky.
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Not to mention the time it would take, of course. And then there is the greater damage to my internal matrix to deal with. Who even knows if regrowing those golden threads would actually do anything to help with the reductions to my mana pool and regeneration? I sigh, pushing away the other idea I’d been hopefully playing with.
“I damaged myself when I touched the Pure Energy. I was wondering if you had any ideas of how I could fix my issues.” I start describing my issues. When I’m done, Kalanthia is quiet for a few moments, licking at the blood around her mouth.
Markus Wolfe, I do not believe you understand just how lucky you were to survive your contact with the pool of Pure Energy, she says finally. Had your Bound not knocked you to one side and forced you to lose contact, you would have had no chance. Do you know why the Energy density increases as you descend into the valley? It seems like a non-sequitur, but I’m sure she has a reason for raising the question. Though, not knowing the answer, I shake my head. I’ve wondered but… It is because there is an Energy geyser that erupts into the lake that fills the crevice.
Every drop of water in that lake contains diluted Pure Energy, and yet it is still enough to kill any creature below the Core stage. Even those with cores would struggle to direct the Energy sufficiently to prevent it ravaging their channels and cracking their cores into pieces. But for the most powerful? It presents a much easier and safer way of progressing than chasing down others of similar or greater power.
The amount of information and the questions raised threaten to choke me as I don’t know what to ask first. Core stage? Channels? Cracking their Cores – is that what almost happened to me? Why is she calling them ‘Cores’ and not ‘Energy-Hearts’? I don’t get a chance to voice any of my queries as she continues.
The waters of that lake when they heat under the sun release the Energy into the air around them. It is this Energy which reaches us even here, though it is barely more dense here than anywhere else on the planet.
The few drops that you absorbed would have probably been enough to blanket a large area of forest in Energy for a good while. Given that, what is surprising isn’t the damage which you accrued, but that it was so little.
“I know, I’m lucky to have survived,” I say. “But if that’s a way of you working up to say that I should be thankful only to be a little maimed rather than dead, I’d rather you saved it.” I only realise after I’ve said it that it might be considered just a little rude. Fortunately, Kalanthia doesn’t appear offended.
No, I wished to say that I don’t know any answer. My heart sinks a little. But it appears that you do.
“Yeah, but it’s slow and Energy-heavy,” I complain a little. “I used up a good third of an Energy-heart and only fixed a tiny bit of a single crack.”
Are you sure that all the Energy you used actually went towards the repairs? she asks meaningfully. Well...she has a point. Like everything, practice will both speed up your actions and improve their efficiency. Also true. And I even have that Energy-manipulation Skill – surely that would help here. Since I cannot help you, you still have a boon to claim. I hum, my eyes narrowing as something she said is making my mind turn.
“The vine-stranglers,” I say slowly. “They’re feeding off the Energy in the Pure Energy stream, right?”
Not the Pure Energy itself, Kalanthia qualifies, but it seems likely that they are greedily consuming the evaporated Energy, yes. I see no other reason for their explosive growth or the lack of other beasts coming to claim the Energy-dense area. In fact, from your story, although the Energy in the area is heightened, it’s not anything near what I would expect from somewhere so close to undiluted Pure Energy, even such a small stream of it. I would guess that the trees are the cause of the lack.
“You’ve been near Pure Energy before?” I ask curiously.
Indeed. When I first came to this world, I entered at a point of much higher Energy density. Pregnant and not wanting my cub to face such powerful denizens as soon as she came out of the womb, I quickly moved up the mountainside. That was where I first encountered such trees – I passed through a grove of Vine-Stranglers about half-way between my entry point and here.
There, the Energy density really cannot be compared to here: it is a lake where this is a trickle. And the Vine-Stranglers drink deep of the lake. Like trees that need to grow beside a water source, Vine-Stranglers cannot survive in areas of low Energy density; let alone thrive to the point that they have. However, in areas of such greater Energy-density, a grove would not grow as unchecked as these have: there are enough other creatures which are powerful enough to feed off them. It is unusual that there is such a growth here in such a short time. It is even more unusual that there do not seem to be any contenders for the source.
“Do you have any ideas why?” I ask her, lacking the background to venture a guess.
Kalanthia tilts her head.
The stream of Pure Energy running deep below the ground is significantly smaller than the one in the depths of the valley must be, otherwise our area would have significantly increased in Energy density – and the resulting danger it attracts. That is fortunate for us. However, the question remains: how did the stream become uncovered?
“You don’t think it was natural?” I ask, my mind racing. I’m not surprised; I had, in fact, been wondering something of the same myself. The two tunnels leading in and out are just...too strange. The tunnel we travelled through to reach the stream had almost seemed melted, whereas the other was too even to seem natural. I remember passing through the tunnel to the salt cave. That one had seemed natural with the tunnel changing shape regularly. Sometimes it had been wide, sometimes narrow; sometimes high, sometimes almost impossible to traverse because it was so narrow. I shiver again at the memory. This tunnel had been practically the same size all the way – about two body-lengths wide, and almost that high.
No I don’t, Kalanthia agrees. But I do have a theory, if you care to hear it.
“Of course,” I tell her eagerly.