Book 2 Chapter 14
The Kobolds were already up and scouting around as soon as they made it topside.
Emerging from the stifling cavern, Oskar was surprised to find the desert heat, though as intense as always, almost a relief; it was at least in the open air. He made sure the calico was free of the opening, and then Oskar swept the sand back into the opening with a much gentler push of Sora than before.
And thankfully, I didn’t feel any freaky, interdimensional attention that time.
The calico and its little wagging stumpy tail rubbed between Oskar’s boots and jumped up on Touwon’s shoulder, again finding a place on top of Touwon’s bag and settling down to rest. She obviously cared little about the heat as long as it wasn’t on her paws. Oskar and Erik were still sweltering, though, and after Oskar checked with the Kobolds on if they’d found anything, he set off towards the closest Wayspring.
As far as his ability to sense water, it was fully instinctual now. No longer a feeling of “finding” the Waysprings. The infusion of power from Bastet pushed Oskar into a whole new realm. They were moving slowly, though, wary under the bright lights of the rising suns. After feeling the safety of Bastet’s presence, it took some effort to flip the survival paranoia back into high gear.
Erik walked over and with a tiny flash of his power, the burn on Oskar’s hand was gone as if it had never happened.
Oskar was about to say something about Erik wasting his power, but his brother was already walking. He had to remind himself that Erik had been healed and rested well. Now walking ahead of Oskar, his brother didn’t look near as emaciated as he had after their fight outside the lair.
Slowly walking to take the lead as they drew closer to the Wayspring, Oskar considered his improved Spiritual attunement, and wondered if he could sense more about his brother’s condition.
As he feared, he gained nothing specific from the scan, but it did look like his brother was as healthy as he could possibly be right now. Not that he was fully healed, it was that he couldn’t heal any further.
Something had… for lack of a better word… locked away a portion of him. Whether it was his life force or some dark spiritual scarring, it wasn’t willing to release its grip on Erik.
Valla. She just thinks she can hurt and take anything she wants without consequences forever. Well, if you’re gonna be a ruthless, power-hungry psycho, be careful the people you leave in your wake are dead when you’re done with them.
Setting his jaw, he fought down the anger simmering inside him and walked towards the Wayspring flowing under the sand ahead of them. Touwon was whispering, of all things, to the cat laying on top of his backpack when Oskar suddenly realized he could feel the cat’s presence, just like Penny.
// Yeeahh… about that:
Companion Gained 2/2. Apparently, her name is Sara. Without an H. So don’t try to name her something stupid based on her color like you did Penny. //
Sara-Without-An-H, got it. Yeah, that’s not dumb at all. And, for your information, Penny loves her name.
// Did she love it, or did you rattle off a few and they just got worse and worse, so she just agreed to Penny before you started calling her “Shiny Brown?” //
Quiet, Brown Brain Bracelet.
// I want you to imagine me chopping you in the throat, cause that’s what I’m imagining right now. //
Oskar smiled as Penny leaped up out of the sand ahead and rolled onto her back playfully, looking back at the group. The tail of some unfortunate snack disappeared inside her cat-like mouth and as the group walked past. She lazily got up and followed.
***
The Dorn Collective closed in on the Wayspring with the familiar heat of the suns bearing down on them. Now that he was walking, Oskar was getting used to his Body improvement much quicker, now. Digging had helped a great deal, and strangely, when he’d channeled Sora to clear out the sand, he could feel traces of magic inside him now, reinforcing his body.
His body wasn’t just stronger, though, it was all around more efficient. Despite the work and sweat, he wasn’t dying to drink a gallon of Wayspring water the way he would have the day before.
He spent a moment focusing on shifting his spear into its maul form and was happy to see the transformation happened quickly enough to be useful in combat.
Imagine landing on someone from a hundred meters in the sky with this bad boy.
The weapon was unsuited for walking as a maul, so with a thought, he switched it back to a spear.
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Staring upward, he watched the sky for a moment as they came to a stop near the water below. When he gazed upward, his Goggles dimmed the sky and responded to his focus, granting Oskar the ability to see the faintest dots of distant stars through the red tinted atmosphere.
“I wonder how far we are from earth,” he wondered aloud.
“Too far, and not far enough,” Erik said behind him, and Touwon chuckled.
Okay, so apparently Touwon thinks Erik is hilarious. I get it, though. My time here has changed me in ways I can’t begin to explain, and we’re all looking for moments of escape. Dangerous or not, though, this world feels more like home than Earth does. It might sound strange, but my goal here has never really been to get home. I love it here, and I can only hope I never lose the surreal feeling of this world. It’s like being a kid again, exploring the forest near my and Erik’s childhood home. One of them, at least.
That reminder partially derailed the pleasant thought, but Oskar mentally pushed past it and focused on the world around him instead of the one in his memories. His eyes followed the streamers of sand passing overhead on the taller dunes. He could smell the foreign, but pleasant smell of the desert, and even the cloudless sky held a million curiosities.
Standing near the Wayspring, Fox pointed at a spot, and Oskar gave her a grin and a thumbs up.
Fox said, “I think it would be best if we filled our waterskins, rested for a moment… drank our fill, and then continued onward to distance ourselves from the lair and cavern as much as possible.”
Oskar nodded with a huff and set himself to drawing the water up closer to the surface. “Agreed. It’s early.”
Penny dug down to insert the siphon hose, her travel completely soundless now. Her strange ability to navigate the sand underground had obviously improved with her evolution. Even Oskar had trouble keeping tabs on her under the sand now unless he focused on her.
Pangolors would be formidable opponents, and Oskar was glad he had Penny to “kwinn” them out of any nasty situations if they ever found themselves on the wrong side of the creatures.
Oskar couldn’t imagine there were many wild creatures as intelligent as Pangolors, or Penny wouldn’t have made such an impression on the Kobolds. The family of Pangolors they’d run into a while ago had made fast friends with Penny and posed no threat to the group. Despite their friendliness, though, Fox had warned Oskar about the clever creatures and told him a story to prove her point.
“They are formidable enemies if you are foolish enough to be at odds with them. Hyena’s hate them and try to run them out of areas they wish to reside in. They will never hold a grudge the way a Pangolor will, though. For months, one team of Hyenamen who were stupid enough to kill one were completely unable to leave the Oasis without enough food and water for their entire journey. Two Pangolors lived outside their Collective encampment and would not allow them to hunt or find a Wayspring in peace. The Hyenamen eventually dissolved their Collective and went their separate ways.
“I am sure the Pangolors followed one of them,” she’d added with a laugh. “It is better just to stay on their good side, know that as a truth.”
As Fox instructed, they first filled up their water-skins, keeping a constant eye on the- thankfully empty- sky and then drank from the Wayspring directly as Oskar began working through some of his notifications, the most important being:
// World Gambit Updated – Step 4: This Gambit cannot be initiated at this time. You have a powerful enemy who bars your path forward. Valla must be bad news if even the World Gambit wants her dead. That shouldn’t happen unless there are worldwide consequences for failure. //
Oskar had known she needed to be dealt with, but knowing for sure that she influenced the World Gambit meant she had to directly contributing to the problem that was killing this world. Not the initial cause since, according to Bastet, that happened centuries ago, but she was what was now holding the reins, and that was one more very valid reason that she needed to be stopped.
Amid all his anger towards Valla, Oskar pulled on The Magic Within and felt it empowering him. This new magic, Rakiyu, differed from Sora and Talau in every way. He knew it was a magic all its own because of the notification when he’d unlocked Isother and Cryon, but it didn’t want to act like it. It wove in and melded with the other magics to empower them, and he had to make a mental effort to stop it- to force it remain in his control. He suddenly felt he was on the verge of something, another idea or Concept he was close to understanding.
The Spiritual magic seemed to be affected by the nearby Wayspring. It was tugging in that direction, but Oskar knew it could do more than just empower and enforce, and held it fast as he played with the shimmering magic swimming around him. He stopped holding it back, and instead pushed it into the other magic with intent instead of allowing it to do what it wanted. He had to admit, though, still nervous about the strange horrors he’d felt when he used so much Sora earlier.
For a moment, the Spiritual magic again strained against his control like it wanted to flitter away from him and into the sky. But like Sora, he cycled it like a whirlwind. Surprisingly, instead of swirling around him, he instead felt it inside him, which meant the shimmering new magic he was witnessing was its effect on Sora and Talau. So, instead, he pushed it outside his body with a great deal of effort. There was a moment of lightheadedness but just like with the Magic Above and the Magic Below, he muscled through and got to work learning and pushing the boundaries of the Magic Within.
Rakiyu didn’t directly affect the world around him like Sora did, but he realized when he added Sora, the Spiritual magic considered it an extension of himself… or maybe itself. Using that method, he spent the entire time they rested pushing it outward as far as he could.
It was getting easier and easier, and he found he could separate Rakiyu and Sora at will, unlike when he allowed Rakiyu to empower Sora on its own. Feeling like the magic was stable, he added Talau into the mix, and something clicked. Rakiyu nearly slipped from Oskar’s grasp in his shock; he had a sudden feeling that losing control while it was combined with the other magics could be catastrophic.
Sora still spooled around him, and when he soothed his channeled Talau and pushed Rakiyu carefully back into the mix, the air magic smoothed, no longer wild and rushing. Talau strengthened and anchored the magic from within. The whole thing spooled around him smoothly, gaining speed as he pushed the spiritual magic outward. The instant Rakiyu fully enveloped both Sora and Talau, they harmonized, and the air and earth magic “locked in.”
It was as if the magic no longer needed his attention, which was convenient. He felt the entire construct now relying completely on his control of Rakiyu. He realized Talau was honeycombed around his body in a way the he knew would offer protection. Not perfect absorption, but absorption, nonetheless. Even better, it still anchored Sora, which spun around him now as smooth as glass, almost invisible to the naked eye.
Just like outside the cave. This is… awesome!