Chapter 30

“I could use it, I guess - But, I only know how to hold it and maybe focus a tiny bit of Stamina into Essentia. What good would that do?”

A swirl of energy popped to life in his stomach before a mirror did the same at the top of his head at the thought of the Gates.

“One moment.”

Mikel shifted and waited, peering back out a few times to check on the Dead Tide’s progress - it continued to circulate on its set path and didn't deviate.

Within minutes he went back to counting and before long he was lost in the act.

He jumped when Librarian spoke to him again.

“Can you like… Give me a warning or something next time?” Mikel asked as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. You scared the crap out of me.”

“Pay better attention,” Librarian said, “I wasn’t doing what I was doing for my health. I have something for you. It'll help with your growth and maybe you'll be a bit better at protecting yourself.”

Mikel perked up.

“Oh?”

“Hold out your hands.”

Mikel put his hands together and held them out flat in front of him. He didn’t have time to wonder what was going on before a black slate about twice the size of a deck of cards plopped into existence from nothing.

He caught it and pulled it to his chest, eyes wide with surprise.

“What is this?” He asked, holding it out to look at, still held in both hands.

“It’s called a Monitor,” Librarian said, “It has many uses, most of which are sealed within The Market of Dreams, but some smaller, useful functions you can access right now.”

Mikel turned it back and forth in his hands, trying to see what made it different from any other piece of black slate.

It was a perfect rectangle, but with rounded edges so there was no chance of cutting himself on sharp edges. Both of the large faces were flat black with no markings. The piece of slate was about half an inch thick and weighed a bit more than its thickness suggested.

Aside from that, it appeared non-anomalous.

“What do I do with this?”

“You said you can access Essentia through a Gate Conversion?”

Mikel nodded, not sure he’d used those words. He would have to be more careful with what he said to people in general, and what he thought loudly. He was suspicious Librarian had some way of reading his mind.

“Drum some up. Just a trickle.”

“Just a trickle is what I can do,” He mumbled as the Gate in his stomach, Nodd, rolled to life. A slight weakness overcame his muscles and he held the Monitor with one hand while reaching out to steady himself with the other.

He pushed the tiny trickle of warmth that formed in the center of Nodd up his spine and into his head. As the warmth passed his mouth, he began tasting more of the natural flavor of the place and the bit of warmth vanished. Books, dust, ancient things… And death. He screwed up his mouth as the flavor of a thousand dead bodies glopped onto his tongue.

He nearly retched at the taste and lost his concentration.

Mikel coughed and spat to the side, the flavor draining away, but like The Dread, leaving its essence behind.

“What in the nine hels was that?” Mikel grumbled as he wiped his tongue with his hand. The flavor of sweat and flesh preferable to whatever the dead flavor had been.

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“Did you access Nodd and draw some excess Stamina off?”

Mikel nodded, still clapping his tongue against the top of his mouth in an attempt to rid himself of the flavor.

“It passed my mouth and…” He wretched again and shook his head, a foul expression on his face, “And it tasted like I licked a corpse.”

The air hummed around Mikel and it was all he could do to not yell at Librarian as the feeling came to him that she was laughing at his predicament.

“You used some of the Stamina you drummed up to enhance your sense of taste. Stamina can do that to most of your body and it’s how Martial Skill users enact their abilities. You can learn later on how to codify certain actions into your body so that they become automatic and you don’t have to manually guide Stamina to the points you need to do the Skill.”

Mikel nodded, spat one more time then said, “So it’s kind of like breathing, once you get it down. I’ll have to be careful - I don’t want my tastebuds amped up every second of every day. That’d be gross.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it. I don’t have tastebuds.”

For the first time, Mikel thought a bit more about the existence of Librarian. The voice was female, human, and eloquent in a way that denoted a deep, subtle intelligence… But was she alive? She’d just said she didn’t have taste buds - Did that mean she didn’t have other things like… A body? A head?

He made a mental note to ask, but at the moment there were more important things to follow up on.

“So how do I avoid triggering senses or muscles that I don’t want turned on?”

“You must route the Stamina through your energetic circular system. Much like blood, Essentia, Stamina, and Health flow through your body on a set route. These routes intersect certain points within your body to sustain life functions, and over time, can be trained to convey large amounts of the previously mentioned resources to do as you see fit.”

“But I don’t have Essentia,” He said said, “Or at least any amount to speak of. I’m not going to touch Health… I’m not even sure what that is. So, I’m left with Stamina, which I have very little control over. How do I route it through my body?”

He didn’t want a repeat of tasting the dead bodies that were so near.

“Summon Nodd again and form some Stamina.”

“Are you going to make it so I taste those things again?”

“If that happens, it won’t be me who makes you taste them. Think of it this way - tasting them is better than them tasting you.”

Mikel gulped and couldn’t help but agree.

He closed his eyes, concentrated, and then a moment later a warm thread of what he was learning to identify as Stamina shivered into being directly behind his belly button.

“Now what?”

“Feel the currents of your body. Close your eyes and focus on the thin thread of Stamina you created. Where does it want to go?”

Mikel glanced around the corner at the still-shambling mass before slipping behind the bookcase again and closing his eyes.

The thread of Stamina shimmered into being in his mind, appearing as a green sliver of light that pulsed and writhed like a piece of spider silk caught in a spring breeze. A sense of strength and well-being wafted off the tiny thread and it soothed his irritated mind.

He wondered what more of the resource would feel like.

“Now,” Librarian’s voice cut through the darkness around the shimmering green strand, “Observe the thread of Stamina. Where is it headed?”

Mikel used whatever perception was conjuring the image to examine the thread. For several moments nothing happened, while outside thoughts bombarded the black sanctuary that had formed in his mind.

He was about to give up when the shifting green strand made a sharp move upward and vanished into the darkness.

The movement was so sudden and so unexpected that Mikel opened his eyes and gasped.

“It went up,” he said, his heart racing, “It went up… and…”

“Where did it terminate?”

Mikel touched the spot just below the hollow of his throat but above his sternum.

“Here… It vanished into whatever is here.”

“There is another Gate there - I won’t get into its function at this time, but it is just as important as Nodd or Teff.”

Mikel felt a sense of health and power flow from the spot and found the sensation entirely enjoyable.

“Are you sure you can’t tell me? That was way better than tasting a thousand dead things.”

Librarian ignored him and continued with her instruction, “Summon up another shred of Stamina - make sure you’re watching your body. You’re new to this and you should note any strange feelings or sensations. You’ll also need to eat much more if you’re going to start using Stamina regularly. Your reserves of that resource are directly tied to your physical energy reserves. That strand of Stamina was sucked into the Gate I just told you about and is now gone. Like feeding Stamina from Nodd into Teff, you can feed Stamina or Essentia into this gate to create a new resource. We can go over these points at a future time. Again, make sure you aren't overdoing it. What you're doing is not the standard practice in any land on the planet - if you overdo this you will hurt yourself.”

“I feel alright, but I'll watch it,” Mikel said as he closed his eyes and summoned up the dark space once again. Easier than last time, the shimmer of green popped into existence and Mikel watched, more slowly, as it began to wend its way up towards the other, unknown gate Librarian had told him about.

Getting ahead of the path of the shred he was able to sense the new Gate as a whorling mass of red energy. This time, instead of letting the Stamina get sucked into the center, he guided it to the edge and allowed the current to pull it up and up and up until he felt the shred enter his throat, where a similar, dark blue whorl became obvious. He guided the Stamina up past it in the same way he’d done the previous whorl and then was almost startled when he came upon a final, shimmering, white whirlpool that dwarfed the previous whorls that were Gates.

“I see the white whorl - I think this is Teff,” Mikel said out loud. He knew Librarian would answer and was rewarded a moment later when she spoke.

“Good, now, allow the shred to be pulled into Teff’s orbit, but don’t allow it to fall into the center. You need Teff to exchange the Stamina for Essentia.”

Mikel, using some sense he'd previously been unaware of, nudged the tiny bit of Stamina into the outermost edge of Teff and watched as something strange began to occur.

First, he felt an inordinate tiredness sweep over him from the tips of his toes to the top of his head. It was all he could do to stay upright and maintain the image of Teff in his mind.

Next, was the feeling of warmth emitting off of Teff as the Stamina slowly revolved around the whorl.

If Mikel had been standing beside Teff, he estimated the size to be at least thirty yards across - as it stood, this was a mental image, and although he could feel the immensity of the Gate, he wasn’t encompassed by the feeling.

All the while he watched as the shred of Stamina slowly began to change into something entirely different.