As the sun started to set, Sister Greta had them break off from the road and find a place to camp for the night. What had started off as a gentle horseback journey for Daniel had eventually become boring and uncomfortable one. His body was unused to riding, and he especially felt it when he finally got off his horse to stretch his legs. He had to admit that after the first few hours, he’d ended up burning small amounts of essence to dull his aches and pains. He was hoping that now that they’d stopped, he would have the opportunity to try out the punch box and also tackle the bracelet challenge.
The group found a spot in the woods, and Alanna offered to go get firewood. Caspian volunteered to go with her, and while Abigail’s mouth formed a tight line at his offer, she said nothing. Daniel couldn’t help but notice that Dain was still lingering near her as well. It shouldn’t have bothered him, but it did, and he didn’t know what to do about it.
Daniel decided to focus on training and take a closer look at the bracelet while he waited for the others to return. Brant had said that the only way to unlock it was with a perfect essence cycle at a rapid rate. Daniel had yet to manage a perfect one at any rate, but since he had nothing better to do, he figured it was worth trying.
The surrounding woods held some ambient essence. He activated Aura Sight and saw every living thing suddenly give off a faint white glow. Daniel pulled some of this essence towards him. It came to him easy enough, but as soon as it entered his body, it was like wading through thick mud. Daniel had to increase the pressure to force it to move. He felt himself unconsciously holding his breath, straining as he forced the essence to slowly trickle into his hands and up his arms. The essence made it to his shoulders before Daniel gasped and let go of it. The essence inside of him instantly turned to vapor and misted off of him.
This was bad. He hadn’t even managed to get it into his core, and he only had a couple of essence potions in his pack. If he didn’t figure out something soon, and then he’d run out of essence long before they’d reached Fordham.
Daniel took several slow, calming breaths. I’m not going to solve this right away, he told himself. Forget about perfect for the moment. I’ll take Brant’s advice and go slow.
He started again by absorbing ambient essence, but this time only through his left hand while remembering to breathe. If he felt strained, he would pause and hold the essence in place to recover before continuing to push. Slowly but surely, the essence reached his shoulder and around to the other one. Daniel was sweating, but he was able to get it down to his other hand and then back up and around his lower body before his core accepted it.
It was sluggish, grueling work with the cycling bracelet, making it ten times harder. But he had managed to absorb some essence, which meant that progress could be made, even if it was slow and imperfect.
Daniel opened his eyes to find Sister Greta, Dain, and Abigail staring at him.
“What?” Daniel asked.
“They noticed the difficulty you were having,” said Sister Greta. “And now they’re wondering how hard it will be for them. You may not like fighting Abigail, but I’ll wager that you’ll find yourself in for a shock when your core is empty and you can’t use essence for the aches and pains one gets while traveling on the road.”
Before Abigail could respond, Alanna and Caspian returned with firewood. Alanna looked displeased while Caspian remained his amiable self.
“He didn’t bother you, did he?” Abigail asked her, throwing an accusatory glare Caspian’s way.
“He said the monster is probably a Corebeast and anyone who think’s it’s the Scourge are superstitious fools,” she replied.
Sister Greta raised an eyebrow at Caspian. “Did he now?”
Caspian’s smile deepened. “I stand by my statement. But then again, maybe the church will determine that the Scourge created Corebeasts and find a way to take credit anyway.”
Alanna seemed to flinch at the blasphemy before setting her share of the firewood down.
“The church will protect and guide its flock as it always has done,” said Sister Greta. “Now put the wood down so that I can get a fire going.”
Caspian dumped his pile with the other and Sister Greta arranged the logs out in a pattern and then made a circle around those logs out of nearby stones.
“Do you require assistance?” Dain asked her. “I’ve camped before.”
Sister Greta held out her hand and a fiery chain erupted out of the ground and set fire to the logs. “No need,” she said.
Alanna’s eyes widened and then she clapped, excited by the magical display. Daniel couldn’t blame her. He remembered the first time he’d seen a Spirit weapon in action. He was just as awed and brimming with a million questions.
“My Spirit weapon is called The Chains of Belthi,” Greta explained to the girl.
“Truly, I feel humbled to have a Spirited with us,” said Alanna.
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“Four,” Greta corrected her. “There are Four of us, though I’ve been told the one who isn’t is still quite formidable.”
Dain inclined his head at the compliment as they sat around the fire, eating their rations for the day.
“So what are your Spirit weapons?” Alanna asked the rest of the group.
Daniel shot a look at Abigail, who was still ignoring him. While Caspian summoned a shadowy dagger. It floated above his hand and started to spin. He launched it up into the air right above the fire and as it came crashing down Alanna threw up her hands to shield her face, but the dagger vanished before it touched the firewood.
“I can create a copy of any blade and control it with my mind,” Caspian bragged.
Alanna nodded in a way that Daniel thought meant that she was just trying to be polite. It seems that Caspian had offended her religious sensibilities by denying the existence of the Scourge. She turned to Daniel and asked, “what can you do?”
Giving a demonstration made him feel a seal bouncing a ball on his nose, so instead he just said, “I summon a metal gauntlet and punch things.”
“Can I see it?” she asked.
“Some other time,” he said.
When Alanna looked at Abigail, she responded with a brusque, “likewise.”
Alanna feebly nodded and stared down at the fire.
“Don’t take it personally,” said Sister Greta, consoling her. “Spirited in Veden are often reluctant to show their weapons unless there’s fighting.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because it scares the Stones and makes other essence users jealous,” said Dain. “It starts to give them ideas about what it would be like if they killed a Spirited and took their weapon for themselves. They’d be hunted down, of course, but there’s always the chance that one of them manages to cross the border and start a new life for themselves as a Spirited.”
“That’s awful!” said Alanna, horrified. “Everyone knows the weapons were handed down by the gods and that each wielder was specifically chosen.”
“Even their families?” Dain asked. “Even their great great great and so on descendants?”
Alanna nodded.
“What about those who earn Spirit weapons in places like Andarta?” Dain probed.
Sister Greta frowned. “I think we’re getting off topic. Does anyone care to recite the prayer of Osmun after eating?”
Daniel had already finished his meagre meal and stood up. “I think I’ll go train,” he said before grabbing his pack and walking into the woods.
“Me too,” said Dain, heading in the opposite direction.
“Well, I think that went rather well for our first day,” Caspian joked.
He was content to stay at the camp until Sister Greta asked him for the prayer. He looked to Abigail for help, but found she’d pulled a book out of her pack and buried her head in it. With no one left to help, Caspian said, “sorry sister, training calls. You understand.”
He got up and hurried off in search of Daniel. It would be nice to talk privately. He could finally ask what exactly Brant had said and if there was anything he needed to know about his teleporting ability. Caspian wasn’t sure how he was going to fare with the trip. The Sister and Alanna’s religiosity made him uncomfortable and Dain had always been stuck up around him. Abigail not liking him was a new one though, and he wondered if it had anything to do with Daniel since you could cut the tension between those two with a knife at the moment.
Caspian made his way past some trees and stopped. There was Daniel sat on the ground next to a box talking to himself. But as Caspian lingered, he noticed how Daniel would pause and then respond. No, he wasn’t talking to himself. He was talking to someone. Caspian activated Aura Sight, but could see nothing. Perhaps this was another of his world’s strange technologies?
Caspian made his presence known by loudly walking through the brush, cracking leaves and twigs with his feet. Daniel’s head whipped around in shock that only marginally decreased when he realized who it was.
“I had to get out of there,” said Caspian. “Once Sister Greta pulled a prayer book, I knew it was now or never.”
“Sounds like you made the right choice.”
“What is that?” he asked, pointing to the box.
“It’s something Brant gave me to practice one of my abilities.”
“And have you?”
“Not yet.”
“Because you were busy talking to someone.”
Daniel sighed and realized it was time for more truth. “I didn’t want to freak you out earlier, so I never told you, but in acquiring my Spirit weapon, there were complications that ended up with me getting attached to a spirit.”
Caspian was skeptical. “You’re saying you have a ghost?”
“Of sorts, but you need to keep this to yourself. Sister Greta might try to kill me if she learned of it.”
Caspian nodded. “Right, she’d think it was the Scourge or something and burn you alive to purify your soul. I guess a couple of other things make sense now. I remember Dain stumbling over nothing during the sparring match. I assume that was your friend?”
“Yes, his name’s Melos, and with a certain amount of essence, he can interact briefly with the physical world.”
“That seems like a useful ability to have,” said Caspian.
Daniel looked off to the side and frowned before saying, “no, he doesn’t know any better.” Before turning back to Caspian. “It’s not exactly Melos’s choice to be here, and he’s not exactly comfortable being forced to follow me around like a ghost. One of the things I promised him was that eventually I’d find a way to set him free.”
“Makes sense, but still, I don’t get why you’d keep this a secret from me or Brant.”
“It was Melos’s idea. He wasn’t born on Alarstardes but instead projected his spirit to this world and took over a body. That body died and left him trapped in the cave until I came along.”
“Wait, are you saying…”
“That Melos is a demon or one of what your people call the Scourge?” Daniel nodded. “Given what little we’ve been able to dig up, it seems likely.”
Caspian sat down, looking shocked. “The Scourge is real?”
“In a sense. Melos thinks that a few demons came here thousands of years ago and fought with your ancestors. The demons were defeated but the myth of the Scourge remained. He doesn’t think there’s going to be a demon in Fordham either. Says that they’re almost unheard of in this world currently.”
“And you take its word for it?”
“His word and I do. He’s helped me on more than one occasion, even when it didn’t benefit him to do so. I think he’s telling the truth.”
“Aren’t you worried? He’s going to… you know?”
“Take over my body? No, he can only appear if I give him essence, otherwise, he vanishes somewhere and sleeps. I have complete control over whether he’s here or not. Other than coming out here to train, I needed somewhere secluded to bring him out and update him on our quest.”
“This is a lot to take in,” said Caspian. “It’s also a little unsettling since I can’t see or hear him. I’m going to go for a walk and think all this over.”
Melos called on Daniel to do something, but Daniel knew that Caspian needed space. He’d trusted Caspian this far to keep his secrets. Plus in the future, there might not always be time to isolate himself in order to talk to Melos. It would be useful to be able to talk freely when Caspian was around.