I staggered wearily up a narrow ledge that any self-respecting goat would look at and say, “Fuck that” to. My back throbbed, my feet burned, my legs shivered and trembled, and the butt of my spear dragged in the snow behind me. If it weren’t for my Endurance jump and the abilities it gave me, I’d have been on my ass long ago, and I knew it. About the only thing that made me feel remotely good about the situation was that as shitty as I felt, Bregg seemed to be even worse off, and he visibly hated that fact.
After I melded the hunt spirit, I staggered back to the camp and basically collapsed directly onto the snow. I slept for a couple hours at most, according to Sara, and woke up groggy, still sore—and frozen to the snow. I quickly realized that the hunters slept on furs for a good reason. While I’d slumbered, my body heat melted some of the snow beneath me, soaking my fur, and the snow and chill refroze it into a sheet of ice. I hissed in pain as I sat up and basically tore a sheet of snow loose from the mountain, leaving a solid mass of it dangling from my stiff, frozen fur. Since we didn’t bother with a fire and ate a quick meal of jerky and a bar of pressed grains of some sort, the snow still clung to me as Bregg gave silent orders to his hunters, who began to break the camp, then turned to face me.
“We’re about to begin, Hemskal,” he said a little contemptuously. “I’ll be setting the pace, and I expect you to keep up.”
“I’ll be fine, Bregg,” I replied as calmly as I could.
“Unlikely. If you fall behind—no, when you fall behind, use whatever tracking skills you have to keep up with us. If you make me come back to find you, we might be late getting out of the mountains, and that means we’ll be stuck here for weeks until the first snows let up enough for us to travel. Understand?”
“Freyd will certainly do his best, Bregg,” Aeld said, his face hardening slightly. “And I’ll be staying with him, so be careful of the pace you set.”
“Like I said, I’ll be fine,” I told them both a little irritably.
“Says the Hemskal with snow frozen to his fur,” Bregg said contemptuously. “Keep up for a day, and I’ll be impressed.”
I did keep up the entirety of that day, despite the fact that Bregg set off at a run and kept running the entire time. He didn’t stop to eat; he didn’t slow when we crossed narrow ledges; he didn’t pause before scrambling up and down icy slopes. I even kept up as he shifted from a run to a jog after the sun dropped below the mountains, with Aeld moving into the lead so his staff could light our way. We stopped for four hours or so that night, ate a hasty meal, and took off again.
I was tired by the end of the second day, but help came in the form of a notification that popped up just as the sun set.
Due to a special action, you have gained:
Vigor +2, Celerity +2
Skill Increase: Endurance
New rank: Master 1
Benefits: You require half the normal rest to regain energy and can regain lost stamina even while performing normal levels of exertion.
Ability Gained: Pain is Gain
Ability: Pain is Gain
Passive Ability
Benefit: Pain reduces your sensations of fatigue, exhaustion, hunger, and thirst. The reduction amount varies depending on your Vigor stat.
Master Rank Achieved!
You have reached the Master ranks of the skill: Endurance.
As a Master of this skill, you automatically gain a 25% bonus to all checks made using it.
Note that advancing a Master-ranked skill is much harder than reaching the master ranks, requiring the skill to be pushed to its limits and beyond.
The increase pushed my Vigor up to almost 50, but that didn’t help anywhere nearly as much as gaining the Master rank of Endurance. The aching in my back and legs eased instantly, and the growing fatigue in my limbs vanished. I felt new energy coursing through me, and I found keeping pace with the pair a relatively simple matter.
By the end of the third day, it wasn’t quite so simple. By the fourth, I was struggling even with the extra points in Vigor and Celerity I got each day and my improved Endurance skill. I was also annoyed; I got how Bregg was keeping up this pace. The man probably trained his body for exertion like this for decades. Aeld, though, was definitely weaker than I was, and he didn’t look to be in remotely the kind of shape he’d need to be to keep up this level of exertion.
“How the fuck is he doing this?” I thought irritably as I puffed along behind the shaman, hwo ran smoothly and easily with no sign of exertion.
“He’s using his abilities, John,” Sara supplied. “Here, look.” My See Magic ability activated, and I could suddenly see the flows of energy pouring out of his staff and wrapping around him. See Spirits flickered to life a moment later, outlining the wind spirits pressed against him, carrying him along.
“So, he’s a cheating little fucker,” I grumbled.
“That’s cheating, but having an AI in you, helping you isn’t?” she laughed.
“Of course it is, but I’m the one benefitting, so it doesn’t count.” I chuckled at the inanity of my words. “Sorry, it would just be a lot easier if we could do that, too, wouldn’t it?”
“Well, I can see how to draw the spirits and get them to do your bidding, but I still don’t know how to power the spell to make it happen.” She paused. “Maybe you could ask the ojain?”
I hesitated at her suggestion. The ojain’s spirit had been silent ever since I melded the hunt spirit, but I could still feel the fear welling up from her deep within. I’d terrified the spirit, and I wasn’t sure that she would willingly help me anymore. Of course, I was pretty sure I could force her, but like Aeld had said, she’d probably only do the bare minimum to comply, and she might do it in a way that hurt me. Fortunately, she made the decision for me a moment later.
“You—will you still honor our bargain?” she asked in a soft voice.
“To free you? Yeah, I will,” I assured her.
“You could do to me what you did to the ancient one,” she replied, her voice filled with terror.
“I could, it’s true, but if I did, I’d lose the information I want, wouldn’t I?”
“When I tell you everything I can, I mean. When you don’t need me anymore. You could—you could devour me.”
I wanted to promise her that I wouldn’t, but the fact was, I couldn’t make that promise honestly. I’d do what I had to in order to see my job in this world completed, and if that meant I had to meld her spirit, I would. However, there was something I could promise.
“I wouldn’t do that unless I had no other choice,” I said slowly. “If it was that or die myself, then yeah, I might. However, the more you teach me, the less likely I’ll be in that situation, and the more likely I’ll be able to free you.”
She remained silent for several seconds before speaking.
“I don’t know how the arts of Anduruk work,” she said slowly. “I can’t teach you how to use the power you might gain, but drawing on that power is the same no matter what. That—that, I can show you.” She was quiet for a few more seconds before speaking again.
“Ancient spirits are wellsprings of power. They exist eternally, gathering energy from the world around them and focusing it withing themselves. We mortals can’t draw on that energy naturally, but we can request it from the spirits to use—or take it, as the case may be.
“Among the Oikithikiim, we offer the eternal spirits safe and pure vessels to inhabit, ones from which they can gather power far more quickly than they would otherwise, and in return, they gift us some of their power. It appears that the beasts do something similar, offering themselves as vessels and letting the ancient ones feed on them like leeches, but the result is the same. The spirit offers you a bit of its power to use as your own.”
“That’s great and all,” I muttered. “But how does it work?”
I felt more than heard her sigh. “You wanted to know about our ways, didn’t you? I’m sharing them with you. This is the way of the ojaini, blessed of the spirits.”
“Okay, I appreciate that, but how about we work out the practical applications first, then talk about the moral and cultural implications of it, deal?”
“Fine. Drawing on the power of a spirit is a simple enough matter. You simply have to reach out with your own spirit and touch the spirit offering their energy. It’s easier if the spirit is contained first—the power flows faster that way—but we can work on that another time. We use our vessels to contain the energy; you’ll have to work something else out within yourself, anyway.”
“If it’s that easy, why doesn’t everyone do it, then?” I asked suspiciously.
“Everyone does, to some extent. However, only one of the ojaini—or those savage letharvisa—can draw more than a sliver of energy. You see, when you draw that power, you take it into your own spirit first. Then, you can channel it from there in whatever fashion you see fit. Most spirits can’t hold more than a trace of the ancient power, though, and trying to draw more than that will tap your own vital energies, instead.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Wait, what’s this about tapping your own energies?”
“I was getting there,” she said a little irritably. “As I said, to draw on a spirit’s power, you have to take it into your own spirit, first. If you try to use more energy than your spirit can hold, though, you’ll draw on your own spirit instead.”
“And that’s a bad thing, I take it?”
“It can be, yes. Drawing on your own energy can damage your spirit, and if you draw too much, your spirit won’t have the power it needs to animate your body. However, if you only take a small amount, it’ll restore itself, just as the ancient ones restore themselves, given time.”
“Sara, do you think this is safe?” I asked cautiously.
“I think that first, you need to try drawing energy,” she hedged. “Then, I can get an idea of your capacity, and with that, I can judge what is and isn’t safe for you to do.”
“Okay, ojain—or would you prefer I call you Sointa?” I asked a bit belatedly.
“Sointa…” She paused. “No. That’s who I was, not who I am. You may call me ‘Kadonsel’.”
“Meaning, ‘misplaced spirit’, John,” Sara advised.
That seemed fairly appropriate. “Okay, Kadonsel. Show me how to draw on the hunt spirit’s energy.”
The process itself was surprisingly simple. I simply had to reach out with a mental finger and touch the pulsing ball of spirit energy that used to be the hunt spirit, then pull through that connection. Power surged into me, flowing quickly into the center of my body, and I let the flow lapse hurriedly. I didn’t want to draw too much, too quickly, after all.
“You were fine, John,” Sara assured me. “That wasn’t as much energy as you thought it was. Can you do it again? I want to see how quickly it flows, and how quickly you get to capacity.” I reached out again, drawing on the unmoving ball of spirit within me, and I felt it flowing into me swiftly. After a couple seconds, Sara spoke again.
“Okay, stop!” she ordered, and I released the power flow. “Can you—can you try reversing it? Sending it back into the spirit?” With a mental shrug, I reached back out, this time imagining that ball of power in my center flowing outward, pushing it back into the spirit. I felt the pressure in my center begin to drain, far more slowly than it had built, until it eased entirely.
“How was that?” I asked.
“Perfect, John. Do that a couple more times for me, and I think I can quantize it all for you.”
I drew on the spirit again, then returned that energy to it, then repeated the action twice more before Sara had me stop, and a new notification popped up in my vision.
New Stats Unlocked
Spiritual Power
Spiritual Power is a measure of the inherent strength of your spirit, and the energy you can draw on to power spiritual abilities and spells. Your native Spiritual Power is determined by your stats—especially Intuition and Vigor—and the levels of any Spirit-based Professions you possess.
You can increase your Spiritual Power by bonding, binding, or melding with spirits, allowing you to tap their Spiritual Power rather than your own.
Current Spiritual Power:
Native: 86
Hunt: 39/56
Mortal: 43/43
Spiritual Capacity
Spiritual Capacity determines how much non-native spiritual power you can hold within yourself at once. Casting a spell that requires more Spiritual Power than your Capacity will tap your native Spiritual Power instead. This Capacity depends on your vigor and any Spirit-based Professions you possess.
Current Spiritual Capacity: 98
Spiritual Flow
Spiritual flow is the rate at which you can draw power from a non-native spirit in units per second. You can also channel power from your spirit into a non-native spirit at half the flow rate. Note that flow rates to and from a melded spirit are doubled.
Current Spiritual Flow: 8
John Gilliam, Master of Beasts
Mental Stats
Reason: 29 Intuition: 31 Perception: 31 Charm: 23
Physical Stats
Prowess: 41 Vigor: 47 Celerity: 28 Skill: 37
Spiritual Stats
Total Power: 168 (86 Native, 39 Hunt, 43 Mortal)
Capacity: 98 Flow: 8
“Okay, Sara, explain all this to me, if you don’t mind,” I laughed quietly. “It seems pretty obvious, but I want to make sure I’ve got it right.”
“Happily, John. Obviously, Spiritual Power is how much energy you have available to draw on, in total. Capacity is supposed to limit that, but your capacity is currently higher than the amount of energy you can get from both your spirits combined—which could be an issue if you aren’t careful.”
“Because I could draw all the power from them without meaning to?” I guessed.
“Precisely. I’m not sure what’ll happen if you do. It might just mean you can’t draw on that spirit until it’s recovered; it might sever the bond; it might even destroy the spirit.”
“It shouldn’t,” Kadonsel offered quietly. “Normally, you can’t take the last bit of essence from a spirit. Of course, with what you did to that ancient hunter…” She fell silent, but I got the gist. Draining them too far was a bad thing.
“Fortunately, it shouldn’t be an issue,” Sara picked up her explanation after a few moments of silence. “That’s thanks to your Flow stat. It limits how quickly you can draw on a spirit, so I can make sure you stop well before you get to that point.”
“Good.” I couldn’t help but smile. “Okay, Sara, so now that I can tap that power—let’s see how we can use it to make all this easier!”
She laughed silently. “Of course. First, let me explain what it looks like he’s doing. The spell he used had a few parts. First, it called some wind spirits to him, then it bound them to his body, basically forcing them to carry him so he’s lighter and faster. The spell, though, channels power into those spirits, giving them the strength to do as he commands so they don’t run out of energy.”
“That’s only proper,” Kadonsel added. “The timeless ones will occasionally aid us, but only if we give them a proper offering in return. If he commanded them without an offering, they’d be justified in seeking vengeance for his effrontery.”
“That sounds a lot like what I did with the earth spirit to find that wolverine thing, Sara,” I suggested.
“It isn’t, though. Then, you were making a bargain—that’s what I think most people in this world have to do to harness the power of spirits. Aeld isn’t doing that. The energy of his spell holds the wind spirits in place and forces them to do what he wants, but it also gives them the energy to do it, so there’s no real cost to them. It’s a lot more energy-intensive than a simple bargain, but there are a lot fewer ways for it to go wrong, and I’ll bet the spirits are fine being part of it thanks to what they get in return.”
“Okay, so we need to build a spell that ties a bunch of wind spirits to me, making me lighter and faster, then feed them the energy to do it, is that it?”
“Basically, yes, and we could certainly do that…”
“But?” I laughed. “I feel a ‘but’ coming.”
“There is, and it’s a decent-sized one. While that’s not a bad idea, obviously—it’s working for Aeld, after all—it’s also highly visible to anyone with spiritual senses. If you do that, Aeld will probably notice it, and he might start asking questions you don’t want to answer.”
“Good point,” I agreed with a grimace. “What about using spiritual energy to empower my muscles, the way I did back in Kuan Yang?”
“That probably won’t work, I’m afraid. It only helped there because qi is a type of energy your body can tap naturally for energy. You can’t do that with spiritual power. You’d just end up wasting the power. You’d need to bind a spirit to strengthen your muscles for you.”
“So, what are my other options?”
“Why not do what the savage is doing, but ask the ancient ice beneath you for aid, instead?” the ojain suggested almost diffidently. “It might be willing to carry you in exchange for a steady flow of power.”
“That—might very well work,” Sara said thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing that Aeld is doing, but if it’s concentrated in the ice beneath you, it should be much harder to sense. The problem is that ice spirits seem to be a lot flightier than most, so you’ll need to use more energy to hold them in place.”
“What if I use Dominate Spirits first?” I asked curiously. “I could bind them to my will, then use the spell to get them to support me or whatever. That should take less power, right?”
“Yes, but when you release those spirits, they’re likely to be upset at being Dominated. However, your new aura might be useful; if you keep it active, it might replace a lot of the power you’re losing to the spell.”
“Okay, so how do we do this, Sara?”
“It’s not that different from casting a spell in Soluminos—or Puraschim, really,” she assured me. “The principles are basically the same. Focus your intent, gather the power, funnel it into your intent, and push it out into the world. First, let’s think about exactly what you want to happen…”
Creating the spell wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t terribly difficult, either. I’d had some experience in other worlds, after all, and more importantly, so did Sara. Kadonsel was helpful, as well; while she didn’t know how to use Menskie magic, it apparently shared some principles with Oikie magic.
“The key is efficiency,” the woman’s spirit told us. “Ask for only what you truly need, and offer the minimum that you have to in return. The less you ask for, the easier it is for the ancient ones to accomplish, and the less you offer in return, the easier it’ll be to maintain. Also, consider asking several of the ancient ones to perform different tasks: some to make the ice solid beneath you, others to make your feet grip the ice, and others to pull you forward so you need less energy to run.”
It took a couple hours to finally envision the spell I wanted, then several seconds to draw what Sara considered to be sufficient power—then another couple seconds when the ojain suggested a little more. I wasn’t sure if it would be needed, but I figured it was better to have too much energy rather than not enough, so I gathered the extra just in case. I poured the power through my feet, carefully envisioning what I wanted while using See Spirits to focus the energy on specific light-blue ice spirits swarming beneath me.
The energy of the spell lashed out, grabbing the ice spirits and pulling them toward my feet. Energy flowed outward as the small, amorphous blobs clung to my feet and spread out into the ice beneath me. The snow hardened into a consistency of packed earth, and my feet gripped the ice crust securely and firmly, without slipping and sliding. At the same time, I felt myself being drawn forward, and I had to slow down a bit to keep from rushing forward and slamming into Aeld’s back. The aching in my chest swiftly eased as I no longer had to work so hard to keep up, and my throbbing muscles relaxed as the spirits below me took up some of the strain. A new notification flashed in my vision, and I called it up with a feeling of satisfaction.
Spell Created: Swift and Steady
Power Required: 11, +3/min
With this spell, you summon the spirits beneath your feet to support you, stabilize you, and accelerate your passage. Your movement rate is increased by 20%, while fatigue is reduced by the same amount. In addition, you are not subject to normal trips and falls caused by hazardous terrain.
Note: This spell requires a surface beneath your feet capable of supporting your weight.
I couldn’t keep a grin from spreading across my face; I’d created my first spell, and it was a decent one. Twenty percent more speed and less exhaustion wasn’t a lot, but it meant I could slow down by twenty percent or so and still keep up, which meant a more than twenty percent reduction overall in my growing fatigue.
“About a seventeen percent reduction in velocity, John,” Sara suggested. “And your fatigue should be reduced by about a third.” She hesitated. “You might want to activate Draining Aura, though. Otherwise, you won’t be able to keep this up for long.”
I activated the ability, and instantly, I felt a slow flow of energy pour into the center of my body from all around. I funneled that power into the spell, using it to offset the constant drain somewhat, then settled into my new stride. I had a feeling that the rest of the trip was going to be a fairly simple one.
I really should have known better. Nothing I’d ever done as an Inquisitor was simple, and this was going to be no different.