Salire waved her hands in the lab, desperate to clear the air of the smoke. Theo had entered the lab moments ago and simply stood there as she fought against the billowing clouds. When she spotted him at the entrance, she gave him a sheepish smile.

“You touched the essence, didn’t you?” Theo asked. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Salire said, coughing.

Theo crossed the room, opening a window and fanning the smoke outside. “Good. That stuff can be explosive. Good thing it was just an attribute essence.”

“I’m sorry,” Salire said, still coughing.

“Never be sorry for trying to do something you want to do. Except if you blow someone up,” Theo said, turning to Rowan. “Could you get Zarali for me?”

Rowan simply bowed, then left the room. Sarisa stayed behind, helping with the fanning efforts. Once they got the room cleared, Theo distributed the stored essences into flasks, storing most of them but leaving some out for brewing. Instead of lingering on the mistake Salire made, they got to work on the next set. [Manashrooms] were far easier to process than any other reagent. The soft mushrooms fell apart in a person’s hand, removing the need for the grinders.

Even without a core, Salire could handle this part just fine. She just couldn’t touch any distilled essence, and Theo needed to be the one to start the stills. The woman didn’t have the intent created by a [Drogramath Alchemy Core] yet. After they got the stills ready for a [Freeze Essence] run, Zarali showed up.

“Hello, brother,” Zarali said, crossing the room to give him a big hug.

“Hello to yourself,” Theo said, chuckling. “What’s up?”

“Xol’sa is in great spirits,” Zarali said, grinning. “I think your little trip did him good.”

“That’s great,” Theo said, pushing his adoptive sister to arms-length. “So, I need to have a word with Drogramath.”

Zarali scoffed. Her expression soured considerably. “Good luck with that. It feels as though my prayers fall on deaf ears nowadays.”

Theo stood there for a long moment. He tapped his foot nervously, lost in his own thoughts, as both Zarali and Salire sulked. Having a perfect memory didn’t mean recalling everything unbidden. The alchemist had to will himself to access those things, and something that Drogramath said had slipped his mind for some time. They needed to select patrons for the town, but when did that come in? He didn’t want to consider the implications that Khahar and Drogramath were working together, but there it was.

“I’ll be back,” Theo said, rummaging through his stores.

“He’s gonna disappear,” Salire whispered.

Theo stuffed various reagents into his inventory. “Wanna come, Alex?”

Oh, yes!

Both Theo and Alex fell through the [Tero’gal Dreampassage] ability, passing over the Bridge and landing on their familiar island. He got to work on his stills, expecting Benton to arrive at any moment. The alchemist wanted to run as much [Freeze Essence] as he could, even if that wasn’t the purpose of his visit to the realm. The bear god might have answers on how he could dedicate his town to a patron. Until the Toora arrived, he worked on his stills.

The upgraded version of Throk’s stills were a joy to work with. Alex played in the pond while he worked, and once those were filled, he shifted his gaze to the plot of land containing the wheat. He inspected the crop, unsurprised at what he found.

[Wheat]

[Alchemy Ingredient] [Food]

Common

A common plant often milled into flour.

Properties:

[Healing] [????] [????]

Benton’s archway rose when Theo was halfway done with clearing the wheat away. He was stuffing it all in his inventory when the bear god appeared with booming laughter.

“So good to see you, Theo! Want some tea? Perhaps a few scones?”

“Yes, please.”

The pair settled into the cottage and brewed some tea. Benton seemed more excited than normal to see Theo.

“I have a question,” Theo said, nibbling on his scone. “Do you know how to select a patron for a town? Or a nation?”

“You need a temple,” Benton said. “It can be any old thing. A proper seed core temple, or just some shack that a priest has blessed. I think you also need a shrine in the temple.”

Theo nodded. Of course it was that simple. He appreciated that the system would let him designate any building as the temple. That made things easy, assuming Fenian didn’t have the right seed core with him. And of course he didn’t, because he would have offered it. Khahar, Drogramath, and Fenian were all working together on something. That was obvious.

“That makes things easy.” Theo nodded, sipping his tea. “How are things in your realm?”

“Oh, we’re plodding along. Expansion is hard when you don’t have many followers,” Benton sighed. “But we’re having a great time as a lower realm. No drama from the big guys. Just scones and tea all day.”

“How does that work, exactly?” Theo asked. “Time moves differently here, right? Can people reproduce?”

“No, they cannot. Not at my level, anyway. Any of my mortal worshipers that want to ascend to my realm can. And anyone who worshiped me that dies comes on up to the land of eternal winter. My followers don’t age in my realm, but your mind works differently once you leave the mortal plane.”

“I had noticed that,” Theo said.

“Except you’re still a mortal so I bet that’s weird.”

“Pretty weird. So, can a soul die once in your realm?”

“They can die. Unfortunately.”

“Interesting. I wonder how I can get followers up here…”

“Who knows? More scones?”

“Yes, please.”

One of Theo’s experiments was still brewing in the realm of Tero’gal. His suffuse potions should have taken a year to finish on the mortal plane, but up here they’d be done in a few days. They sat on the table near the pond, bubbling away in their flasks. Just like those potions, the alchemist planned on planting the spirit seeds given to him by Khahar. That was the ascended man’s intentions from the start, but Theo hadn’t caught on. Once he was done with his tea with Benton, he approached the plot of land.

“I have these spirit seeds,” Theo said, withdrawing the box from his inventory. “They’re supposed to take a long time to grow.”

“That’s interesting,” Benton said, picking up a [Fairy Plum Seed] for inspection. “Yeah, plant these here. Grow some extremely rare spirit fruit.”

“I’ll do a few to start. There’s no need to get crazy,” Theo said.

“I mean… maybe. What else are you going to plant here?”

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“Good question. I don’t have an answer,” Theo said, jabbing a thumb back toward his stills. “I’m gonna freeze the ocean, though.”

“That’s a plan I can get behind,” Benton said, rubbing his hands together. “Freeze the entire planet while you’re at it. Should grow my power.”

Theo gave his companion a discerning look. He doubted that. All that didn’t matter. It was time to plant the various fruits. Theo started with the [Fairy Plum Seed], planting two a good distance apart. He tilled the soil with his hands, burying both seeds at the same depth. While he didn’t know if it was correct, he went with his intuition.

Each seed that Khahar had gifted him had a different name. Theo managed to plant 5 types in his cleared area, 2 of each. [Dragon Apple Seeds], [Xotl Orange Seeds], [Gorgon Cherry Seeds], [Fairy Plum Seeds], and [Devil Peach Seeds]. Each one radiated power, even after planted in the ground. Benton was excited to see what they would become, but had his doubts as to their growth rate. That left the pair to mind the stills, drink tea, and muse threads left unexplored.

The [Wisdom of the Soul] potion had been a strange thing the moment Theo discovered it. The description claimed there was a meta barrier between a person’s soul and their [Wisdom] attribute. But no one knew what that meant.

“Doesn’t help that the Dronon are so hesitant to share information,” Theo said.

“I’ve got an idea. Why don’t I head off, talk to some folks around the realms, and see if they know anything.”

Theo shrugged at that. Benton had pulled greater feats out of his ass in the past. He had hours of watching the stills in front of him. Hours still of brewing and bottling his potions. “Why not?”

Benton trotted through his gate, leaving Theo to consider his next course of action. His purpose for entering Tero’gal was to figure out the religion thing. It felt like a quest with several steps. Salire needed a core from Drogramath, but they couldn’t talk to old Drogy. So the alchemist had to go to his realm to talk to a bear god… and so on. It was a welcome reprieve, though. The bear left some scones.

Theo fed Alex some [Nature Motes] as they played in the pond. He swapped out his run of [Freeze Essence] for a smaller run of [Mana Essence]. The goose was disappointed about the lack of bugs, and the constant shoveling of motes into her stomach, so the alchemist withdrew some of Tresk’s store of insects from their shared inventory. He didn’t want to consider how that worked with time moving slower where he was. Over the edge of the island, he saw the Marshling’s face frozen in laughter.

With only a few hours left on the [Tero’gal Dreampassage] ability, Benton’s portal rose up. The bear god stepped through, covered in a layer of snow and laughed. “That was a journey.”

“How’d it go?” Theo cleaned out his stills as his friend walked over.

“Well, there’s a wayward alchemist’s soul wandering the lower realms. I’ve talked to him before, he’s interesting enough. He rambled on for hours, like souls do, but I’ve digested most of what he said. Based on my notions of what something like that would do, of course.”

“Alright. Anything interesting?”

“Think of your soul like a web stretching between your physical body, and your spiritual body. That web interprets the signals from your spirit and cores to your physical being. What would happen if you broke down that barrier?”

Theo didn’t have a damn clue what would happen if this theoretical barrier broke down. The entire system was magic as far as he was concerned. Most things in this world were magic, hardly following rules of physics. Conservation of energy was meaningless here. Objects had more power than they ought to, often stored in impossibly small containers. So if there was a barrier between the meat of his body and the ethereal part of his soul, so what?

Even his intuition, another magical thing here, couldn’t give Theo the answer. “Is the ‘web’ acting like a filter for the system?”

“Well, a little scholarly debate is in order. What does it mean to be more wise?”

“I’ve never understood it. The thing I notice the most is my increased intuition. Which is magic, by the way.”

“Magical indeed. I think that if you drink that potion, one of two things is going to happen.” Benton rubbed his hands together. Theo could tell he had some grand theory about this entire affair. “Breaking the meta barrier means you no longer get the system benefits of the attribute. That’s the bad option. Second option is that it increases the connection, layering your wisdom directly over your body.”

“Both options suck, though,” Theo said. “You’re either denied the benefits from your attribute, or you have too much of a good thing.”

“Really? With all you’ve seen on the mortal plan, you think suppressing an attribute is bad? What would have happened if Khahar brewed this potion? Toned down his fading mind.”

Theo shook his head. “If Khahar could have done it, he would have done it. Pretty sure he had at least one high-level alchemy core.”

“This is the fun part. The only way to figure out what the potion does is to drink it.”

There was a level of excitement to that idea. They could read the description of the potion all day and come no closer to a solution. The only way to know was to drink it, and Theo wasn’t about to do that. He filed it away in his mind with the horrible undeath potion.

“A purely academic discussion.” Theo nodded at the bear god. “Right?”

“Sure,” Benton shrugged. “Not like I’m going around to brew potions.”

Benton sensed the conversation about the potion was over. Instead, they spent the last few hours of Theo’s visit drinking tea and discussing the realms at large. Whispers of the Southlands Alliance had filtered up to the lower pantheons. There were a range of opinions, most concluding that the alchemist was some kind of antagonist in the Qavelli conflict. More worrying was the other whispers.

“Dead gods are rising,” Benton said, keeping his voice low. “Clawing at the high pantheons. They want to return to the world.”

Theo sipped more tea. “I’m not sure they’ll like the way the heavens are now. Maybe they’ll make an attempt on Khahar.”

Benton chuckled. “Good luck with that!”

The remainder of Theo’s time in Tero’gal was pleasant. When the time came, the alchemist tucked the goose under his arm and bid farewell to his friend. They jumped from the side, using the [Approach] ability on Tresk. They snapped into existence next to the Marshling, startling her.

“By the gods, you can’t sneak up on me like that. I’m unsneakable.”

“We thought it’d be funny… oh… well, I guess now is a good time.”

A system message flashed up the moment Theo started talking.

[Tara’hek Core] received experience (2%).

[Tara’hek Core] leveled up! Level 30.

[Tara’hek Core] gained the ability: [Tara’hek Command]

“Woohoo!” Tresk shouted. “I was waiting for that to happen. We’ve been stuck at 29 for a few days, huh?”

Theo inspected the new ability.

[Tara’hek Command]

Marshling Bond Skill

Epic

While within the Tara’hek’s sphere of influence, you gain the inspiration of command.

Effect:

While within the influence of your bond, reduces the negative aspects of increased attributes and cores.

Also increases your ability to command all other Tara’hek abilities.

The description was more vague than normal. But the effects were clear. Theo felt something wash over him once the skill was added to his core. The last bits of his mind that had been clouded by his attributes and various cores were gone. He stood, blinking on the battlements of Broken Tusk. A sense of calm washed over him, and he could feel both Tresk and Alex experiencing the same strange sensation.

“I was hoping for a laser beam, but this is nice,” Tresk said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Theo scoffed at that. This was something he just talked to Benton about. But it was more complex than just a skill that he activated in his core. If the bear god was right, and there was a layer between his body and spirit, he could now feel it. Like a sheet that had been draped over his thoughts, obscuring them from inspection. He could now pull that sheet back with great effort, opening or closing the floodgates of his attributes and cores.

“This requires practice,” Theo said, closing his eyes and feeling that sheet in his mind.

“It feels like someone splattered mud on my thoughts my whole life, and I just wiped it away.”

Honk!

There was too much testing to do in order to figure out how it worked. Theo always understood there was an influence from cores and attributes. Especially the mental attributes, intelligence and wisdom. Those did more to change the way a person thought than anything. Entering the Dreamwalk reduced the effects of that sensation by a little. Tero’gal banished it away. But if the moment he exited that realm, the sensation of an outside force pressing in on his mind was always there.

Now it was gone. Entirely.

The shadows burst to life at the base of the wall. Sarisa jumped from the ground to the top of the wall in a single burst of strength. Her massive pole-ax-thing leveled as she scanned the area.

“She said you should have been back by now,” Sarisa said, still scanning the area.

“My bad.” Theo held his arms up apologetically. “We can go back to the lab now. I gotta talk to Zarali. I mean… we could get some tea first. Would you mind making me some tea? Bringing it to the garden at the manor?”

Sarisa blinked a few times, her mouth hung open. “Yeah. Sure. Rowan is watching you now.”

In a flash, Sarisa’s armor vanished, replaced by that maid’s outfit. She jumped from the wall, then ran off to make some tea. Theo and Tresk were left trying not to giggle. But Alex honked, and they all broke out into laughter. After a good fit of the giggles, the alchemist headed over to his lab to help Salire out. Before heading off for more tea, he pulled Zarali aside.

“I want Xol’sa in the manor,” Theo said. “Until he has recovered.”

“Aren’t you sweet?” Zarali asked, patting her brother on the shoulder. “I’m sure he’ll be delighted. I’ll bring him over for the tea.”

Theo stayed behind to help Salire get the next batch of essence going. She knew where he’d be, so there was no reason she should blow herself up. Again. When the alchemist headed off, he was confident she wouldn’t do anything stupid. For now, he needed to sit down with Zarali and iron their temple out. He didn’t know if it was good fortune or bad when he arrived in his garden to find Fenian chatting with Zarali.

“Got any temples in your bag?” Theo asked, approaching the trader.