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Chapter 23 - Gates

Chapter

“If I have to use The Jewel, then teach me how to do it so that I can… Resist that shift until I absolutely can’t. If it’s going to happen, this shift to Blood, then I need to learn to deal with it. To at least slow the process down.”

The ongoing conversation had shaken Mikel. He was stout and could handle bad news better than most - living in a household of Rot did that to a person, but the information Celine had given him didn’t bode well for any future he saw himself living past his mid-twenties.

He knew of the dangers of The Jewel when he acquired it - or rather, he thought he did. He knew The Jewel could make you behave strangely and often ended its owner's lives with erratic and chaotic behavior. It seemed, from reading everything he could on the topic that as long as he didn’t use The Jewel too much he could push that fate off indefinitely. He’d planned to do that, and had thought it a small blessing he couldn’t use Essentia. Now, he knew that small sense of hope he’d had to be false.

The danger The Jewel presented was much more than what he’d anticipated and he cursed himself once again for his short-sightedness and stupidity.

“The Jewel will make you use it. As it did in your dream, it will force you to use it and delve ever deeper into its power. As you access more of its power, it in turn can access more of what makes you - you. Describe the dream to me, as best you can.”

Mikel glanced at his hands, his left still thrumming with cold-induced pain.

In brief, he described the fight with the demon and how The Jewel had found its way into his hand although he’d been unaware of what he was doing. He told her of how he'd slammed his fist into the Time Demon’s face with The Callisto Jewel clenched tight in a death grip. He told her about how the dream had erupted like a popped bubble when he awoke.

Mikel found out, that even though the fight had been in a dream, the consequences were all too real.

Celine nodded, playing with a curl of hair that had fallen over her eyes. Mikel gathered this was a normal occurrence and didn’t bring attention to it.

She leaned forward and it was all he could do to not look at the impressive show her chest made in the V-cut dress.

“Normally, with your Cross Associations veiled as they are, you shouldn’t be able to use The Jewel - however, it appears whatever malignant consciousness behind The Jewel discovered a way to make it work. That in itself is promising in so many avenues of study that your life might very well be worth the information we can glean from this.”

“I’m right here,” Mikel said, glowering at Celine, her impressive figure forgotten for the moment. “You’re supposed to be helping me NOT die, remember?”

Her eyes flicked to him and she graced him with a dazzling white smile which sent his head spinning before she spoke again.

“Sorry. Just musing. Love is one of the chief healing deities and I’m always after bits of information to help people. The veil cast over your Crosses is rare, but not unique. It happens from time to time and to date there isn’t a good way to treat it.”

Mikel’s stomach dropped, “But… There is a way to treat it?”

“Not the time for that,” Celine said, biting her lip and looking at The Jewel, “Our time here grows short. Love only permits a short time of discretion before Telgil and Helsket will feel my presence and come running down to see what’s going on. Although… Some part of me wants to see Helsket, but I can’t. As I mentioned earlier, things have changed. I can however help you at least learn a bit about The Jewel and we can workshop a few techniques. Pick up the gem for me, in whichever hand you feel is correct.”

Mikel’s eyes went wide at the command and flicked between Celine and The Jewel.

“Seriously? After all that?”

“You need to learn how to use the Jewel. If you use it intentionally you will be able to feel it pull on your Associations - in return, you can pull back. If it makes you use it, you’ll end up fighting things worse than the Time Demon again and again - each time allowing The Jewel to drag you to the Blood Node at its pace and not yours.”

“I can’t just… Hide it somewhere?”

She looked at him, crass, “Don’t joke. You know what you did to acquire the artifact - do honor to the person you killed.”

Mikel gulped as he felt the blood draining from his face, “Noted. I… Won’t do that.”

“It wouldn’t do any good anyway,” She said, using her chin to point at The Jewel, “If you sincerely meant to do something like that you’d be stopped long before you succeeded. The Jewel would see to it. The best case is you’d just have an impossible time with it. Worst case, The Jewel would pass to a new blood-soaked palm.”

Mikel gulped again, now realizing just how deep of water he’d jumped in when he’d won The Callisto Jewel.

He picked it up with his right hand and grunted as the shivering, cold gem radiated frigid vibrations up his arm. It was the strongest he’d ever felt The Jewel react and he didn’t care for it.

“Now, you said you punched the demon, correct?”

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Mikel nodded, not appreciating her sardonic tone and slight grin.

“That might be how The Jewel sidetracked the veil. There is a Martial Node on the Descendent Cross, but even people without the correct Association can use Martial skills. Association to the Node just makes it more efficient to perform those skills. Your Essentia is sealed because of the veil, but your Stamina isn’t. The Jewel is, in a roundabout fashion, using your Stamina to fuel itself instead of Essentia. Fascinating. I would have never guessed such a thing was possible without extensive training.”

Mikel’s head spun, both at the in-depth explanation and the pain and cold growing ever outward from his right arm.

“Is… That what the cold is? Partially at least? It’s converting my Stamina into a usable resource for its abilities?”

“I think it is the closest we’re going to get to an answer tonight,” She muttered as she pointed to his quivering hand, “Can you push back against The Jewel?”

“How do I do that?”

“Ah, I forget. You haven't had Essentia training or the mental training that goes with it. Allow me.”

She held out her hand and Mikel moved to put the hand with The Callisto Jewel in it, but she shook her head and pointed to his left hand.

Mikel cleared his throat and shifted, embarrassed for his mistake.

She took his hand and the same fire from before crackled through Mikel’s arm, blasting the cold away as if it had never been. The relief was immediate.

“Wow - I wish you could do that all the time.”

She smiled and stroked his hand, the warmth spreading as if she were stoking a gentle fire. The warmth spread through Mikel and before too long met the bitter cold within his chest and stomach...

“Feel that?”

Mikel winced as the discomfort from The Callisto Jewel grew to a dull, throbbing pain as the two sensations battled. The sensation only increased where it met the warmth.

“I’m okay for now, but it hurts. It seems to be getting worse.”

She continued to stroke his hand and bands of warmth slid up his arm like hot spring water. They traveled through his muscles, over his shoulder, and down his chest to settle in the area just above his belly button. The warmth felt as if he’d finally come home out of the cold and dark. It was what The Reverie offered, but amped up one hundredfold.

“Feel where the sensation is gathered?”

Mikel gasped, “Yes. It’s… Amazing.”

She nodded, a thin smile flickering across her lips.

“That’s the source of your Stamina - your stomach Gate.”

“Gate?”

Mikel had read about things called Gates - natural collections of certain energies in the body. The primer he’d read hadn’t gone into detail and since he hadn’t been too interested in the topic at the time he didn’t delve further. There didn’t appear to be any practical knowledge to help his dad. He’d been incorrect.

“They are areas within your physical body that bridge the gap between the immaterial realm and our realm. Careful study of these Gates can lead to great power. This one is,” She stroked his hand and he gasped as another powerful band of sensation rolled into his stomach, “known as Nodd. It is the source of Stamina. Your body uses Nodd to forge food into Stamina. All people with normal functioning bodies have this relationship between Nodd and Stamina. Material Skill users tap into Nodd to fuel their Skills - although many only know the basics of the subtle mechanics happening within them. You'll have to do better though. This is what you’re going to have to use to prolong your life.”

“How can I do that?”

She shifted and held his left hand with her right and reached over to his right, the hand with The Callisto Jewel, and touched it.

Instantly, an electrical shock crackled through Mikel and he yelped in surprise and pain. He was only just able to keep his seat.

“Hold steady…” Celine said, biting her lip, “Just a little…”

Another crack shattered through Mikel’s body and he howled in pain, unable to contain the agony skittering through him.

He was about to jump up and run away when the pain dropped off all at once and another feeling became apparent within his body. Another Gate by the thrumming feeling, similar to Nodd.

Celine was locked in concentration, sweat beading and dripping from her forehead as she continued.

“Do you feel Teff?”

Mikel nodded, a lightheaded sensation rippling through his body.

“Teff” felt like a whirlpool mounted inside the top of his head.

“Teff is where your body pulls Essentia in from the ambient Essentia loads. It is your connection to the immaterial realm and generally your source of Essentia. Yours,” She shifted and the whirling sensation dwindled to almost imperceptible levels, “is veiled and doesn’t pull in any but the absolute minimum level of Essentia to keep you alive. That strong force you felt was me feeding you some of my Essentia as a demonstration. What you feel now is the amount you naturally pull in.”

“It’s… Tiny,” He said, mentally weighing the sensations against one another, “The power you fed me, how much is that? Would a regular Essentia user think it was a lot?”

She smiled through the discomfort plain on her face, “What I showed you is a trickle of a trickle. You couldn’t even make a tiny flame with it.”

Mikel’s stomach dropped.

“So what? I can use Stamina-based Skills, but not… Not Essentia Skills because something is veiling or blocking my ability to do so?”

“Yes,” She said and winced as she pulled her hands from Mikel, breaking contact.

He didn’t want her to pull back but kept his head. There was too much going on to lose himself.

As the seconds ticked by the cold from the Callisto Jewel reasserted itself over his body and the full, whirling sensation the Gates had elicited fell under its sway until they vanished.

“You’ll have to guide your Stamina through your body and into Teff - there you can create Essentia. It will be a tiny amount compared to what people without a veil can pull down. It will be inefficient, probably painful, but it will function.”

“Will it be enough to use The Jewel? The way you’re making it sound, it’s as if I don’t stand a chance of making this work.”

She bit her lip again, then wiped the sweat from her forehead and upper chest. Mikel was utterly entranced by a drip that slipped between her breasts and vanished from sight.

Focus.

He concentrated on the pain the Callisto Jewel shivered into him and within moments he was back to himself.

Mikel wasn’t sure of many things in the world. Food was good, sleep was good, and beautiful women were good - he had the basics. Celine, by any measure of imagination, wasn’t simple, and exceedingly dangerous. It was all he could do to throw off her spell and keep his wits about him. The thought that this wasn’t her full effect terrified him on a level he thought impossible.

“You’ll have to make it work. It’s all you have right now.”

Suddenly a wave of tiredness swept over Mikel and the cold retreated back into The Callisto Jewel, leaving a tingling numb sensation in its wake.

“Wait -” He said, eyes so heavy he could hardly keep them open, “I - I’m so tired all of a sudden. What did you… What did you do?”

It was all he could do to slip The Jewel back over his head as his mind and body began to shut down. For some reason, the hard wooden chair was the most comfortable thing he’d ever sat on. It actively sucked him in and made him feel as if he were floating on a cloud.

The last thing he saw was Celine smiling thinly before speaking.

“Your body just woke up to the reality of your situation. It’s tired. You’re pushing yourself too hard. Keep doing this and …”

Blackness overtook Mikel and his head hit the table with a gentle thump, and he knew no more until the next day when the call of adventure woke him up and whispered his name.