(Strive 13:3)
I was immensely relieved when the ground began sloping upward out of the mud, turning into blissfully solid earth. My pant legs were crusted over, and I had to call for a break to change out of them for a fresh set. Once again, I mentally thanked the commissary for having the forethought to pack spares.
“Penny for your thoughts?” I asked Selene, who’d been quiet for a while.
“Mia was on this floor,” she said. “When I did the reading on the last floor, it indicated she was here. But we haven’t seen her, and now El is above us.” More phantom rabbits drifted down like rain, closer now, as if to confirm her message.
“Maybe we should’ve left someone at the elevator to make sure Mia didn’t slip down past us.”
“Mm.” Selene took the wolf’s skull from her inventory and balanced it on her fingertips. “Perhaps I should do the reading now to make sure. What do you think?” I could see the shine of her one purple eye in the dark, fixed on me intently.
“Oh,” I said. “Well, I agree knowing her whereabouts would be good. But I don’t know if I alone can defend you if we’re attacked while you’re casting. And given that El’s already up ahead, we’d probably need to go up regardless of what the bones say.”
“That reasoning seems sound.” Just like that it was decided, and we continued walking up the slope. Every once in a while, spectral rabbits cascaded down, like furry smoke signals, assuring us that we were heading in the right direction.
The hard ground became cracked with scraggly weeds, then a carpet of grass, and the outlines of trees began to appear further up the knoll. A dim gray light overcame the darkness, until finally, at the peak of the hill, we came to a massive trunk that stood as solid as a castle tower in the pale half-light.
“What now?” I asked Selene.
“Now, we climb.” She began rolling up her long shirtsleeves, a look of determination on her face.
“Wait,” I said. “Let me try something first.” I took several steps away from her and Hardened, the flames leaping up. She flinched slightly, and I walked even further away. I augmented my aura with Quicken, and felt my energy drain frighteningly fast with the double aura. Finally, I cast Power Strike, and threw my fist at the tree trunk. Empowered by the dual enchantments of speed and strength, the strike sounded a sharp whip-crack as it broke the sound barrier.
There was a second crack as the bones in my hand shattered on the tree trunk. Blinding pain shot through me, and I gritted my teeth to keep from screaming, letting out a small groan instead. “What are these trees made of?” I gasped. There was no indication of any damage left on the tree.
“You can’t just punch everything,” Selene said, starting to sign as characters scrolled around her amethyst bracelet. It flashed with light, and she took my wrist in her hand. A warm violet glow enveloped my limply dangling hand, and I felt the bones grind back into place. “No more hitting trees for a while,” she said before releasing my wrist. “Doctor’s orders.”
“Alright,” I sighed. “We climb.”
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Selene immediately began to lag behind as we ascended. She was a more technically skilled climber than me by far, but the strength and dexterity lended to me by the Corpus aspect allowed my clumsy ass to power through even with my terrible form. In addition, Purgator allowed me to swing from branch to branch with ease.
I levered myself up to a bough wide enough for a two-lane highway and looked over the edge. Selene was still climbing, a few meters below. Her movements seemed in slow motion to me, Quickened as I was by the dexterity-enhancing spell. I reached a hand down to assist her, and she extended a hand to grab mine—
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There was a slight humming sound, and a second later, the whole world lurched sideways with a hollow boom.
I had plenty of time to appreciate the sight in slow motion as a thousand leaves startled at the shock of the towerquake and spun crazily into the air, making the gray dappled light swim on the ground far below. A single phantom rabbit was trailing down in the distance. But worst of all was the look of slow horror filling Selene’s eyes as her hand slipped, and she began to fall backward. Her kada hand twitched, and a single character bloomed on her bracelet. She wouldn’t make it in time, whatever spell she was trying to cast.
I whipped Purgator out and fired it at her, my other hand gripping the branch beside me. The rope uncoiled like a darting snake and the cup struck her in the chest. I had time to register a twitch in her left eye, an opening of her mouth like she was going to speak, before I yanked upward and retracted. Her body arched backwards as she was flung toward me, and I put out an arm to catch her. The second jolt of the towerquake almost made me miss, but I adjusted and caught her around the waist.
It was the fault of Quicken that I had ample time to feel her softness against me even though I let go as soon as possible. To my surprise, she looked as abashed as me. Though she recovered quickly, every emotion lingered on her face twice as long due to my slowed-down perception of time. I wondered if Mia had ever taken advantage of that fact to manipulate others. Corpus was turning out to be a bit of a misnomer. It enhanced the body, sure, but this was almost like an emotion-reading cheat code.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
Selene stared at me and began laughing, every gasp a second apart, and I realized I was still in chipmunk-voice mode. The stuck plunger cup rose and fell with each breathless exhalation. After the spell had passed, she said, in a slow deliberate voice, “I’m alright. Now can you please get this thing off of me?”
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“Promise me we’ll never speak about that again,” Selene said. “Or this.”
“Of course.”
We were standing on the same wide bough, Selene behind me, and she hesitantly put her hands over my shoulders. I grasped her wrists, holding them like backpack straps, then squatted slightly and lifted her up. A few experimental steps showed me that this was feasible for walking, at least. We’d have to see if climbing was possible. “That one guy did El Capitan without any help, right? And we’ve got the advantage of magic plungers and strength candies. We’ve got this.”
“Inspiring,” said Selene dryly. She turned her head away and cleared her throat. “Can we get this over with?”
We’d come to the conclusion together that this was the best way to avoid being thrown to our deaths by another towerquake. Quicken made it so that I could react to the quake in time, theoretically, and stick the plunger to lock myself in place. But I couldn’t both do that and use it to save Selene, and besides, I had the advantage of increased strength and dexterity for better climbing. As convincing as the arguments were, and the fact that we’d both agreed on them, I couldn’t help but feel like I was somehow taking advantage of the situation. Or I was being taken advantage of. I was unclear which one.
Leaves brushed my face as I climbed the well-worn grooves of the great tree trunk. It was dark and cool in the thick of the canopy layer, and the gray light warmed to a verdant green. From all around came the rustling of foliage in the wind. It was pleasant, although lacking in the small sounds of life that I’d normally associate with a forest: the chatter of squirrels, the squawking of nesting birds. Buoyed by the scenery and my enhanced strength, I honestly could’ve forgotten I was carrying Selene if it weren’t for her long hair on my neck. That was distracting.
Purgator and my aura of Quickening had made the ascent easier than I expected, and after some time, the regularity of the climb became a comfortable rhythm. Now the leaf cover was thinning out, green giving way to flecks of sky blue as neighboring branches parted ways to their own destinations. Finally, the last few hangers-on fell away, and I could see the fourteenth floor’s cloudless sky. We came up to the last wide branch, and I staggered forward onto it as Selene let go of me.
Was it just me, I thought, or did she not release her arms as quickly as she could’ve? But it could’ve just as easily been due to my altered perception via Quicken.
“Next step,” I said, forgetting to turn off my chipmunk voice again. “Find the missing raccoon.”