Of course, things couldn’t be that simple. When I returned to the fire to train and eat, I found Bregg waiting for me. “Don’t think that this trip is going to get you out of your lessons with me, Hettlug,” he said with a nasty grin. He held up my backpack and handed it to me. “You can eat while we travel. For now, take this.” I nearly fumbled it as I grabbed the pack; it weighed a hell of a lot more than I’d been expecting. I opened it to confirm that, yes, the asshole had filled it with rocks.
“Put that on, and we’ll start with a short run—at full speed,” he told me. “Then your training drills, and finally, a sparring session.” He glanced at the two warriors. “They’ll serve as opponents.”
I was exhausted when we broke camp an hour later. After the run, Bregg had me practicing my spear drills while standing in the current of the river, which made my footing unsteady and kept trying to wash me downstream. He used the time to empty my pack, flinging the stones at me as he took each one out. We finished with thirty minutes of sparring, at which point I realized that the warriors the valskab had sent with us were damn good—and that Bregg hadn’t brought training spears. Fortunately, Aeld healed our wounds afterward—while I hadn’t given as well as I got, I marked the two soldiers a few times, at least—and Bregg declared the training if not a success, at least not a complete failure.
The rest of the day passed with me sitting quietly, channeling Kadonsel’s spirit and moving around the two spells I was supposed to be practicing. We traveled until dark, then set up camp next to the wagon. Bregg ran me through another round of training, then Fifa and Aeld led me away from the camp into the darkness. Aeld had me draw a circle around the three of us, and Fifa called a fairly substantial water spirit from the river. I was forced to draw on my hunt and steam spirits to fight the thing and defend myself from the spears and whips of water it flung at me, but eventually, I whittled it down and claimed it.
Spirit Melding: You have Melded a Water Spirit!
Class N Land Spirit
Spiritual Power: 41
Benefits: Skill +2, Vigor +1, Flowing Form
Ability: Flowing Form
Passive Ability
You gain some of the fluidity and flexibility of your water spirit. This increases your ability to dodge by 10% and decreases damage you take by 5%.
“Is it just me, Sara, or was I getting more benefits from spirits of the same power before?” I asked curiously.
“You were, John. The fact is, each spirit of the same type that you bind to yourself improves you a little bit less as your body adapts to the increased energy levels. Eventually, you’ll get to a point where weaker land spirits don’t give you anything.”
After I melded the spirit, Aeld showed me the pattern for his basic healing spell, then demonstrated how he drew fire from his spirit and projected it outside himself.
“You should be able to do the same with lightning from your storm spirit, Freyd,” he told me. “If you can work out the patterns, you can do it with the power of any land spirit, in fact. As far as healing, though, please don’t use that pattern unless and until you’ve claimed—melded, as you put it, a healing spirit. Most likely, you’ll simply waste power, but if not, the result isn’t likely to be what you expect, and it could endanger you and others.”
Fifa then rather grudgingly showed me a pattern to create a shield of ice that I could use to block a single attack before it shattered or melted. It wasn’t a great spell, but it didn’t have to be. The pattern was what mattered; with it, Sara could work out something better.
“Absolutely, John,” she agreed. “I think I can create a spell to give you an actual shield, one you can wear on your arm, made of ice or stone—or a wall, although that’ll take a lot more power.”
“What about using other spirits to make a shield? Could we craft one from, say, wind if I got the right spirit?”
“Absolutely, but I don’t know how effective it would be. You’d have to get the air moving really, really fast to protect yourself with wind, after all, and that means a lot of power.” She paused, and I could almost feel her thinking. “I could probably modify the spell to create a shroud of steam or smoke that might make you harder to see, though. That might also help baffle spiritual senses like the kind Aeld has.”
“What do you mean? Baffle them how?”
“Well, if you completely cover yourself with the energy of a specific spirit, to a casual glance, you might look like that spirit. Aeld and Fifa can’t seem to see mortal spirits, after all, so they wouldn’t be able to detect yours—although it would take a lot of power to hide all the other spirits you’ve melded. Those would be something of a giveaway.”
“Can you work on it?” I asked. “Maybe I can power it with energy from the high spirit, if I have to.” I chuckled. “I can definitely see some use in being able to hide from a letharvis.”
The next few days passed the same way. Bregg woke me before the sun came up each day and put me through his training regimen, then did the same every time we stopped. I trained my spell channeling through the day, then claimed a land spirit every night to show Fifa and Aeld what I was doing. As Sara predicted, I got less and less from each spirit, until on the fourth night, I got nothing at all.
Spirit Melding: You have Melded Multiple Spirits!
Earth Spirit
Class M Land Spirit
Spiritual Power: 35
Benefits: Vigor +2, Stone Bones
Ability: Stone Bones
Passive Ability
Your bones are more resistant to damage, reducing damage by 10% and making fractures and the loss of a limb 50% more difficult.
Fire Spirit
Class N Land Spirit
Spiritual Power: 38
Benefits: Prowess +1, Heat Sense
Ability: Heat Sense
Active Ability
You can tune your vision to see shades of heat within a distance determined by your Perception stat.
Wind Spirit
Class M Land Spirit
Spiritual Power: 32
Benefits: Wind At My Back
Ability: Wind At My Back
Passive Ability
The wind aids you when traveling, increasing your movement speed by 10%
“To boost your stats at this point, John, you’ll need to meld something other than a land spirit, I’m afraid,” Sara told me after I’d seen the rather disappointing results of that last melding. “You’ll still get power from land spirits but no more stat boosts, and the abilities will keep getting weaker, as well.”
The addition of those spirits did have one unexpected positive effect: Sara found it easier to create spells with them than with their more complex counterparts. She used that knowledge to give me a few new spells based on the templates Aeld and Fifa had shown me.
Spells Created
Elemental Blast
Power Required: 23
You send a surge of elemental energy associated with one of your melded spirits at a target up to 10’ distant. The amount of damage done depends on your Intuition stat and the levels of your spirit-based professions.
Special: Creating a blast of a type not associated with a melded spirit requires an additional 5 power and may fail.
Self-Heal
Power Required: 31
You attempt to summon a spirit of healing to close your wounds. If successful, you heal injuries based on your Intuition stat and the levels of your spirit-based professions.
Special: This spell has a significant chance of failure and a smaller chance of summoning a possessed creature.
Ice Armor
Power Required: 44
You wrap your body in a layer of spiritual ice that lasts for one minute. The armor is flexible and does not inhibit movement, but its weight reduces your movement and attack speed by 10% each. The armor improves your defense against physical and magical attacks by an amount dependent on your Intuition and Skill stats. It is vulnerable to melting and shattering.
Special: This shield can be made of stone, as well, which is heavier but more durable, improving defense by 50% over Ice Armor but increasing the movement and speed penalties to 20% each.
In addition to the new spirits, abilities, and spells, the spear training pushed my Spear Focus skill up two levels, while practicing moving Kadonsel’s spirit brought me up to the adept ranks in Spirit Channeling.
Skill Increase: Spirit Channeling
New Rank: Adept 1
Your spirit-based abilities that require power need 1% less per skill level. All Spirit-based abilities are 1% per skill level more effective.
Of course, everything wasn’t all sunshine and roses. Every day that passed, whatever was going on with Fifa got worse. My body’s reactions to her intensified daily, screwing with my focus, and her obvious discomfort at being around me increased at the same time. The others avoided her whenever possible, staying far from her when we camped and leaving her to her own devices while we traveled. On the second day of our travel, Aeld finally confirmed what I had begun to suspect.
“You can’t blame Fifa for her discomfiture, Freyd,” the shaman told me quietly that evening after Fifa blamed me for her failure to understand how my melding worked.
“It’s kind of hard not to, Aeld,” I snorted. “She’s the one yelling at me, after all.”
“But it isn’t her fault.” He sighed and looked up into the sky, examining Flikkur far above. “Do you know about kyroska, Freyd?”
“That translates roughly out to ‘time of fertility’, John,” Sara said quietly.
“I’ve heard of it,” I said vaguely. “I never really learned about it.”
“That confirms something I suspected. You’ve been alone, without the company of others, for a long time, haven’t you?”
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“In a manner of speaking,” I hedged. “Why?”
“Because you would have learned of this otherwise.” He laughed quietly. “Every male hears this from an older authority figure in their twentieth year, just when it starts to matter. I never thought that I’d have to explain it, though; that’s not usually part of being a letharvis.” He took a deep breath, but before he could speak, I held up a hand.
“To save us both from some discomfort,” I chuckled, “let me tell you that you don’t have to explain reproduction to me, and from how I’ve been feeling around her, I’m assuming that’s what this is, right?”
“Yes,” he sighed with obvious relief. “If you know about reproduction, then you know that while the act is always possible, it can only lead to offspring during certain times. A woman is mildly fertile for five days out of every ninety, during which period she’s somewhat more—aggressive, I suppose is a good way to put it.”
He glanced toward where Fifa sat alone in the darkness, away from the campfire. “However, every five years or so, a woman goes through a period called kyroska, where her reproductive urges become much, much stronger, and where her presence creates those same urges in the males around her.”
“And Fifa’s going through that,” I sighed. “Which is why you were saying that this might not be a good time for her to travel.”
“Yes. Typically, a woman in kyroska decides if she wishes to indulge in her appetites or not, and if not, she sequesters herself for her own comfort and everyone else’s. Fifa was isolating herself, until…”
“Until you brought me to her,” I finished.
“Yes.” He paused, and I saw another flash of discomfort cross his face. “The thing about kyroska, Freyd, is that it doesn’t affect everyone equally. Those who are close-siblings to Fifa will notice it, for example, but they won’t feel any strong urges toward her, and she won’t toward them, either.”
“Close-siblings?” I echoed.
“Those who are closely related by blood. Members of a valskab are often more comfortable mating with others in the valskab, but those who share a parent, or who have parent that share a parent, aren’t permitted to mate, and for whatever reason, their close blood lessens the effects of kyroska on one another.” He gestured at the two warriors traveling with us. “Ossur and Skuta were chosen for this journey not only because of their skill, but because as close-siblings to Fifa, they aren’t as affected by what’s happening.
“However, emotions play a role, as well,” he added. “As does intent. If a female finds a male appealing physically, her kyroska will affect both her and him more strongly. Even more so when she finds him emotionally appealing.” He gestured at Bregg, who sat nearby, his face amused and suspicious at the same time. “Bregg, for example, finds Fifa’s presence a little more uncomfortable than I do. Neither of us, though, find it as difficult as you—and Fifa seemed to be more comfortable around us than you, as well.”
I stifled a groan as I understood what he was saying. Basically, Fifa yelled at me because she liked me—or was physically attracted to me, I guessed. Either way, it was way too high school for my tastes.
“So, what can I do about it?” I asked a little irritably.
“Very little, I’m afraid,” he laughed. “Eventually, her kyroska will pass, and it won’t matter anymore. Until then, understand that in your presence, especially, she’s fighting her own body’s urges, and that’s going to make her much more short-tempered than normal. Try to be patient, and know that she’s doing the same. Oh, and I would avoid touching her. Contact usually makes things worse.”
While his explanation certainly put things into perspective for me, it didn’t really make me any less annoyed with her behavior. However, it did give me an idea for how I could get some time to myself. If Fifa was struggling to control her emotions, then it wouldn’t take much to push them out of her control.
I waited until the fifth night to try it. When she asked me to meld a spirit, I simply refused, telling her that there wasn’t any point, and she wasn’t going to understand what I was doing no matter what. While that might have been true, I also made a point to say it fairly undiplomatically. Predictably, she exploded, screaming at me and tossing around all sorts of threats, from abandoning me there to telling the rashi I was untrustworthy. I endured it as long as I thought necessary, then stormed off, leaving her shouting at my back with Aeld attempting to calm her.
I stomped off into the darkness using Heat Sense to navigate. When I was certain that I was out of sight of the camp, I stopped and took a deep breath. I actually felt a little bad about what I’d just done—I still wasn’t sure if I trusted Fifa or not, but I had manipulated her emotions to get what I wanted—but the fact was, I needed the time alone. Her little tantrum would keep the others occupied and would make sure that no one would be interested in coming after me until she’d calmed down. At the same time, I didn’t feel very bad since this was something that I needed to do, and I still didn’t really know who I could and couldn’t trust.
“Okay, Sara, I think we’re far enough now,” I said silently. “You said you had a method for calling a more powerful type of spirit, right? One that’s safer than the standard spell?”
“Yes, John, I think so. After watching your calls—and Fifa’s, and Aeld’s summoning spells—I think I have a way to generate a much more powerful call, but one that will only draw one spirit of one type and will repel all others.” She hesitated. “However, it’s too complicated to be cast as a spell. You’ll have to perform it as a ritual.”
“A ritual? You mean, like Viora’s augury back on Soluminos?”
“Exactly. Don’t worry; I’ll walk you through it. It’s complicated, but not all that difficult, really. First, we have to decide what kind of spirit to call.”
“Well, I’d say another high spirit is out,” I chuckled. “And I might have trouble explaining walking away and coming back with a close spirit. How about a beast spirit?”
“That should work. I can actually use the call that the hunt spirit put out to help boost the spell. Okay, first, you’ll need to draw a circle—but don’t empower it. Just draw it.”
I spent the next half-hour using my spear to carve various lines and curves in the gravelly soil around me. Sara coached me through each step, explaining what the purpose of every group of etchings was and how they all played into the whole I was creating. As I worked, I realized that in a way, we were doing the same thing I’d done on Puraschim: taking a three-dimensional spell and turning it into a two-dimensional shadow. In this case, though, it felt like instead of turning one spell form into a written representation, Sara took a bunch of spell effects and tied them all together in a very specific fashion that I barely understood.
“That’s fairly accurate, John,” Sara agreed with my thoughts. “Although it’s even more complex than that. Each of the individual spells is incomplete, and the way they interlock completes one another. Even the entire ritual isn’t the complete spell, though; it’s more like a method of processing the spell so that what you put into it comes back ready to be cast. The ritual creates the shadow of the spell, rather than being it.”
Although the diagram I ended up creating was complex, it really wasn’t as hard to make as Viora’s augury had been. Then, I’d had to erase and redraw lines and curves over and over again. Sara simply lit up the ground where I needed to carve with my spear, and when I went wrong, she could literally put a finger down for me to trace behind without worrying about getting cut. The final result looked vaguely like a hexagram with a lot of extra, wavy lines written over the top of it and a circle drawn in the center.
“Now, John, you’ll need to call and Dominate four land spirits, one of each major element,” she said, pointing to four glowing spots on the diagram. “Place them in these spots.”
“Why?” I asked as I prepared my calling spell.
“They’ll provide the power for the ritual to function. Right now, it’s just a bunch of lines on the ground, more or less. It needs power to turn into something else. Viora used the Altar of the Sun to power her ritual; Ilinca used the deaths of thousands plus the stored energy of all the Altars of the Sun to fuel hers. Every ritual has to have a power source. Spirits are the only choice here, and four minor land spirits should be enough.”
It took another few minutes to call the spirits and then use Dominate Spirits on them. The ability felt almost like I was grabbing the spirits with my will and squeezing until something in them broke, at which point they had no choice but to do as I said. I positioned them the way Sara instructed, then readied myself.
“Okay, now what?”
“Now, you’ll begin casting the spell,” she said. “This is going to be the difficult part, John. You’re going to have to carry the whole thing for a moment before the ritual will take it, and that won’t be easy. All you have to do is keep the pattern in mind and push it here.” A spot in the center of the diagram lit up as she spoke. “The ritual will do the rest, as long as you keep the pattern mostly stable.”
“And if I don’t?”
“In all likelihood? Big spell backlash, and you won’t be happy for a while until you recover.” She hesitated. “And there’s a very slight chance that you might turn the repulsion into an extra-strength calling, in which case I suggest you run back to the camp before a horde of whatever’s out there arrives.”
“Well, that’s not ominous at all,” I sighed. “Okay, let’s do this, Sara.”
“Here you go, John. This is the pattern.”
An incredibly vast and complex spell image appeared in my head, one far too complicated for me to perceive, much less understand. I hissed in pain as the pattern filled my thoughts, and my head throbbed in pain as I felt the spell trying to lurch free on me. It was simply too big, too vast, and too complex to hold.
“Don’t let it go, John!” Sara said sharply. “Add a touch of power, then push it here!” The center of the diagram began to glow again, and I took a deep breath, hardening my will as much as I could. I pulled up a slim thread of energy and fed it into the pattern. I almost dropped it as the spell began to suck energy from me greedily, pulling power as fast as I could draw it, but I held it long enough to push it into the center of the diagram. I sighed with relief as the pressure flowed out of my head and sank into the ritual, which lit up as the spell touched it.
I watched in awe as the spell flowed through the parts of the ritual, lighting each of them in turn as they activated. It swept past one of the trapped spirits, and the thing shivered and dwindled as the spell sucked power from it to boost itself. One by one, the spirits shrank to a much smaller size as the ritual sucked energy from them and fed it into the growing spell. As I watched, understanding filled me: I could see exactly how this was working, how Sara had created something that wasn’t a spell but a sort of production line for a spell. Each grouping of lines and curves shifted, twisted, and warped the initial pattern into a new shape, compressing it and causing it to slowly fall together. At last, the spell raced up the thin line of power still connecting me to it and poured into my mind once more, but this time, holding it was a simple matter. The pattern had become a true spell, and it only needed my guidance and will to push it outwards.
I added another touch of power and flung the spell out of me, into the darkness. I could feel it spreading out like a wave, calling and challenging, daring predators to heed its cry. It struck something, and as it did, the spell twisted and shifted, now a warning rather than a summons, driving back everything that wasn’t what it found. I could feel that affected creature through the spell’s link; I sensed its presence drawing closer it as it raced toward me at fairly high speed. The beast burst into sight, but rather than charging me, it rushed toward the center of the diagram, and as it did, the outer circle suddenly pulsed with power.
The creature was small, about the size of a large mastiff—which was small compared to me now—and obviously reptilian. It stood on two legs bent backward like a bird’s. Its body reminded me of a dinosaurs, except that thick, grayish fur covered its body instead of scales. Its head was distinctly crocodilian, with a long muzzle filled with bladelike teeth and round, unblinking eyes. Its forearms were long and ended in sharp, tearing claws, and as it swung its head toward me, it sprang forward, reaching with those claws toward my flesh. I tensed myself for its charge, but when it struck the outer circle, it rebounded off and tumbled to the ground below.
“That won’t hold it long, John,” Sara said urgently. “You need to initiate spiritual combat with it, quickly.”
“Any idea how to do that through the circle?” I asked nervously.
“Try cutting yourself with your spear, then stabbing it. The mingled blood should do the trick.”
I followed her advice, stabbing myself in the outer thigh with my spear, just hard enough to draw blood. I waited for the creature to bounce off the circle again, and while it was prone, I thrust my spear into it. Instantly, I felt myself rising as the haze of the spirit world surrounded me. The beast stood opposite me, a violet figure roughly the size and shape it had been in life. It hesitated for only a moment before sweeping toward me, lashing out with claws and talons.
In turn, I coated by body with a layer of hardened ice and grew claws and fangs of my own. On a whim, I reached down into myself, mimicking the patterns of Channeled Strike, and channeled lightning into my claws. I ducked a claw strike and slashed back, digging my talons into the dinosaur, and it screamed as I ripped out a hunk of flesh, while my lightning raced through it, scorching it.
It wasn’t much of a fight, really. The beast’s slashes and bites did get through my ice armor, but every blow I landed on it healed the damage it did, while my claws weakened it and sent lightning coursing through it. It steadily shrank, and I felt it offering submission, but I ignored it. I wanted the thing’s power—Sara needed it to mimic the boosting spell Bregg could use on himself—and there wasn’t much it could do to stop me. At the end, I descended into my body with a new spirit attached to me.
Ritual Created: Improved Calling
Power Required: 81
With this ritual, you can target a specific type of spirit or a specific spirit and call it. The ritual will call only a single one of that spirit type, excluding spirits possessing mortal bodies, and will repel all others. If the spirit is a type with whose resonance you’re familiar, the ritual will always succeed as long as there’s a spirit of that type within range. Otherwise, the ritual may fail or call a different type of spirit than intended.
Spirit Melding: You have Melded a Predator Spirit!
Class N Beast Spirit
Spiritual Power: 39
Benefits: Perception +2, Celerity +2, Reason +1, Groundsense
Ability: Groundsense
Passive Ability
You can sense anything large moving around you through the ground. Distance varies with your Perception stat.
Special: This requires direct contact with stone or earth.
“It worked, John!” Sara said excitedly. “Well done!”
“I can’t take much credit,” I chuckled as I began to scuff out the diagram, erasing any trace of what I’d done. “You did most of it. I just kind of followed directions.”
“Well, you understood it enough to gain three ranks to your Ritualism skill, so you were doing more than just following along. Still, that was your first ever ritual, and it succeeded. You should be proud!”
“I feel lucky, actually.” I shuddered slightly. “That spell was powerful, Sara. I barely held it.”
She appeared before me again, looking slightly uncomfortable. “The truth is, John, most people don’t cast rituals quite that way,” she admitted. “They do it slowly, over a long period, adding a little bit of the spell’s pattern to it at a time. That way, they aren’t overwhelmed by trying to hold the whole spell at once.”
“And we did it differently because…” I gave her a dubious look.
“Because I wasn’t sure how much time you’d have. Someone’s going to come looking for you soon, John; you’re the whole reason for this trip, after all. I had to trust that your talent was enough to let you hold the spell for that moment or two…” She flashed me a grin. “And I was right. Of course, in the future, it’ll be better to cast the spell more slowly. Which reminds me; there are mortal spirits headed this way from the camp. They’ll be here in a couple minutes. They probably saw the flash from the ritual.”
I nodded and finished scuffing out the diagram. I scooped up the body of the dinosaur-thing and paused for a moment before cutting its throat and letting its blood splash over the diagram where the spirits remained trapped. I’d release them when I was farther away, and hopefully, the blood would keep them from being pissed at me. If it didn’t, well, just because I didn’t benefit from new spirits didn’t mean I couldn’t claim them to protect myself.
I began dragging the creature back toward the camp, wondering what else I’d have to do to protect myself in this world—and to get my job here done.