She checked her reflection in the pond. She turned right and then left. The scars on her back from the various rounds of surgery had vanished. The scar from her appendicitis was missing and even the infrequent spots on her skin had vanished.
She raised her left arm and looked at her ribs, the birthmark she had been born with was gone too. Was she dreaming? Was all of this real? What if it was not? And what if all this was real? What did all of this mean then?
“She?” Ash’s voice pulled her out of her spiralling thoughts
“Yes?”
“What are you doing?” Ash asked.
“Looking.”
“Looking for what?”
She turned to him. He was floating on his back in the water as if nothing in this world could bother him.
She’s breath hitched in her throat and she took a few quick breaths “So…something…”
Ash turned his eyes to her. He stood up and walked to her. In a calming voice he stated “She, you need to relax. You are hyperventilating.”
She focussed on her breath. Took in two slow lungsful of air and looked at her bro... partner.
Noting that She had got her breath back he sat down next to her at the edge of the pool “Now tell me, what are you looking for?”
She took a large lungful of air and muttered “Ash, my body has completely changed.”
Ash nodded “Yup. Mine too.”
She looked at him inquisitively “Really? Then why are you so calm about it?”
Ash sighed “She, those scars on my body are just the superficial wounds. I have broken my ribs, wrists, fingers, and my left knee. I have been methodically tortured, gotten shot numerous times, and even got my teeth knocked out. Those things hurt and continue to hurt even after you recover from them. Now, I don’t feel the dull aching pain when I step wrong. You know, at first, I thought I was just blocking it out just like I always did but now…”
She watched Ash’s face transform into a grin and she completed his statement “You are awesome?”
“No. That is when I do something. Right now, I am perfect. And so are you.”
She turned away from Ash.
“She?”
“I don’t feel perfect.” She croaked out “I am not like you. My injuries might have gone but I feel like I have given up everything that I was for them, and I still can’t walk.”
Ash Looked at his partner and asked “Are you… Like doing that thing with your eyes?”
She glanced back at him with teary eyes.
“Oh man. You are doing that thing.”
“You mean…” Sheetal sniffed “Crying?”
Ash grunted “Emm… Yeah.”
“She, look. You are perfect. Look at yourself. You are flawless just like me.” Ash held up his hands “My calluses from my tonfas are gone and so are your frown lines. Along with the coffee stains on your teeth. Seriously, you should have taken care of them and your blackheads. But now, you don’t have to. You are per… No, I take it back you are not perfect but okay.”
“I didn’t have any blackheads.” She broke down
“Really? No seriously? No blackheads.”
“Shut up!”
“Right. Okay.” Ash exhaled and started again “I was going to wait for a better time to do this, but this might be the best time.”
She looked at Ash “What?”
“Open your computer thing in your eyes.”
“The hud?” She sniffed.
“Yes.”
“It’s already open.”
“You keep it on? Of course you keep it on. Nerd.”
She wiped her eyes and scowled at Ash “Brat.”
“Cry baby.”
“Freak.”
Ash smiled “Now that is the spirit.”
She rolled her eyes “What do you want me to see?”
Ash blinked “You don’t see it?”
“See what?”
“There are two blank characters after your name. The system gave you two more characters.” Ash smiled.
Sheetal looked at her name over the scaled silhouette of her body “Okay, so?”
Ash chuckled “Now I was going to do this later because the idea of you floating around with the name Sheet was going to be hilarious but…”
Ting.
Gift Received.
2 Characters from Warder Ash.
She blinked and looked at her friend “Ash?”
Ash held up his hand “Now you have gotten back a little bit of something you lost forever. And with this you can feel a little more yourself.”
She looked at him and then slowly added the alphabets to her name.
Sheetal
Class - 0
Shards - 1
Affiliations - None
“So? How do you feel?” Ash asked Sheetal with a smile.
She looked at her screen and then at Ash. For a moment she just sat there looking at him. Then in a blink of an eye she grabbed him and hugged her partner.
“Ahhh! You…You…are naked.” Ash screamed.
Sheetal nodded with teary eyes “So are you.”
“I know. Can you stop?”
“No.” Sheetal replied with teary eyes.
Ash was a manipulative jerk with narcissistic tendencies. Heck he was a sociopath. But whatever this place was, it had taken everything from her, even her name. And he had fought for it and returned some of it back. The fact that it was her name, the way Sheetal was now free to think about herself meant everything to her.
Sheetal raised her head slightly and asked ““What about you? You could have your name back too.”
“Meh! I like Ash. It suits me. I can be Ashoka or Asha. Ashley or Asher. See? It just works.”
“It also helps you be a better spy.”
“No, I am done with that.” Ash exhaled.
She looked at him again and snorted “You are such a weirdo.” And then kissed Ash on his cheek.
Ash stiffened “Please don’t do that.”
Sheetal rested her head on Ash’s shoulder and asked “But seriously you are okay with being Ash?”
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because, if this system changed everything about us, who are we anyways?”
“You are you.”
“No. If everything has changed about me. Then am I really me?”
“Yes.” Ash tried to free himself from Sheetal’s grip and stopped when she tightened her hands around him. He continued “Fine. Do you know what psychic continuity is?”
She blinked “Those are some awfully long words for you.”
“Ha ha… Very funny, She.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
“My name is Sheetal now.”
“Right, She.”
Sheetal pondered his response for a moment. He had called her She but unlike other times she was being compelled to think of herself with that name. In fact, his use of her former name felt like a term of endearment.
“So, psychic continuity is the act of our brain to make sense or an object in a linear reality. Take for example a pen. If the pen runs out of ink and you install a new refill, is it the same pen? You want to say yes but it stopped being the same pen as soon as you took out the refill.”
“Ash, whatever happened to us didn’t take out a refill, it changed our bodies.”
Ash rolled his eyes “And yet we are the same. Sure we see boxes full of spam now but we are the same people. I am still awesome and you are still a nerd.”
“Why are you so okay with this?” She yelled.
“Because it is not our blood and bones that makes us who we are. It is what we do that makes us, us.”
Sheetal was silent for a moment and then muttered “That’s a good line. It’s complete pseudo science hogwash. But it is a good line.”
Ash opened his mouth to respond and stopped when he heard someone whistle a tune. Ash turned his head towards the sound. He knew that song. A song about a gambler meeting his end in his sleep. That was his mother’s favourite song. For realist she had a thing for easy death.
Unlike her he knew wasn’t going to happen for her or him. People like him and his mother got assassinated in the open, to send a message to their supporters. Or they mysteriously landed in enemy hands and abandoned to be tortured until death.
A man in a hat appeared next to the altar. He adjusted his leather vest coat and looked around. He turned his head left and then right. Then focussed on their clothes drying next to the fire and stopped.
The man shrugged, took out one of his holstered guns and looked at his shoes.
He grimaced “Just my luck! Another one of those dark and dreary subterranean holes.” The man muttered to himself and shrugged “Could be worse. I hope they didn’t die to the sharded guardian. That would make this trip a waste.”
Ash shot into motion. He quickly picked up his tonfas and placed himself between Sheetal and the man. The dark blinded cowboy didn’t respond to his actions but turned slightly to look in their direction.
“Hello?” The man pushed his locks away from his face
Both Ash and Sheetal held their breaths.
After a moment of silence the light skinned man released a frustrated exhale and with a slight grunt aimed his gun upwards towards the ceiling.
Sheetal tightened her hand on Ash’s shoulder ready to move but was stopped when two rounds were shot up in the air. She watched the bullets reach their apex and stop. They lit up like flares just below the roof and didn’t float back down. They just sat still in the air and bathed the area in bright bluish white light.
Sheetal squinted and covered her eyes with a gasp “Fudge that’s bright.”
She looked at the man and a text box covered her vision.
Name - Harry Milton
Species - Human (Apex Variation)
Class - 2
Affiliation - Frontier Faction
The man nodded his head, holstered his gun and then swiped a screen upwards to scroll it. Unlike the screens both Ash and She used, Harry’s screen was visible to both of them. They saw him touch the screen to push it away and then stopped.
“Huh, warders? Where in heck did warders come from in the trials? And what’s this about weapon shards? Where am I supposed to get weapon shards?”
The fire in the altar sputtered and then shot out two lances of flames upwards. The flames transformed into two bright glowing motes of fire that congealed into shards.
Harry looked at the shards floating down and held out his hand. The glowing shards landed in his outstretched hand “Well, that solves that. You lot, you must have really impressed the formless one.”
Ash, who had stepped in front of She to cover her, looked at her with a baffled expression.
The cowboy swiped his brow under his cowboy hat and looked at them. He stopped for a moment as his eyes made contact with She’s bare chest. Then he whirled around “Holy mother of light, lady. Those are some mighty knockers.”
Sheetal covered her chest with her arms “Umm… Uhh…”
Ash grinned “Told you they were big.”
Sheetal smacked Ash’s arm.
“Now... now. You don’t speak to women like that.” The cowboy chided Ash.
“Hey, this girl, she is my…. Well…. Something. Basically, you don’t tell me how to speak to her.”
Sheetal, who was scrambling for something to cover herself with, shot a glare at Ash. “Something?”
Ash shrugged and whispered “What would you call us?”
“Well you are a crude little thing aren’t you?” Harry asked Ash with his back turned.
“Yes, he is.” She nodded.
“Thought so..” Harry nodded to himself and then asked “Are you descent now my lady?”
Sheetal lowered herself into the water and replied “Yes, sort off.”
Harry turned back around and looked at Ash who had walked closer to him “What, you didn’t take the time to cover yourself?”
“I am not lowering my guard or disarming myself.”
Harry gave Ash a once over. He looked at his nakedness and the lack of care of anything but the woman behind him. He raised his eyebrows and then nodded “Got to respect the fact that you are doing everything to protect your sister.”
Ash looked at She and then the man. He shrugged and gave an imperceptible nod.
“Okay then. Let’s get down to business shall we? Warders. Young ones. With one shard each. Basically babies. Well that’s unusual. ” Harry looked at the three shards on the ground laying where the scorpion had gone down and continued “I suggest you slot those”
She, who was now covering her chest with her arms underwater voice asked “Is it safe to do?”
Harry smiled “Of course lady warder. In fact, you need to power up if you want to survive the Rakshasas.”
“Rakshasas? Oh you mean those blue guys?”
“Well, the blue ones. They are Nishachars. They are from a planet with toxic air. They survive there by living underground in caverns like these. That’s why they are blue. They also eat their human slaves. But they are just scouts and weaklings. But be weary. There are more of them everywhere. As a matter of fact, you might be able to help me. Here take this.”
Quest Received - Cull the intruders
Quest Provider - Bad Harry
Description
Bad Harry, a Class 2 Ascendent who has retired on Reir has tasked you to repel the invasion of the Rakshasa Empire by killing the invaders.
Rewards
1 Kreck per 10 Vetaals killed.
1 Kreck per 5 Nishachars killed.
10 Krecks for every Asura killed.
Sheetal blinked and got a thoughtful expression on her face.
Ash ignored Sheetal “Hey, cowboy.”
“The name is Bad Harry.” Harry shot a look at Ash and then tipped his hat at She “Harry to you my lady warder.”
Sheetal focussed back at Harry and nodded with a smile.
Ash looked at Harry with a deadpan look “Okay. Stop flirting with her, Bad Harry. Now, why are you here and how were you playing the gambler when you came in?”
Bad Harry stopped in his tracks. He slowly turned to look at the two warders in front of him
“You know the song?” Harry’s question came out in a lower voice.
“Yes. Kenny something. Although I prefer the Johnny Cash version.”
“Wait, you are from Earth?’ Harry’s eyes widened.
“Yes.”
“And you are warders?”
“Yes!”
“Holy, mother father. How is that even possible?” Harry suddenly yelled.
“Uh…”
Bady Harry’s voice started increasing with every question “What are you doing here? Why are you here? How are you here!?”
“Why is Gamorah?” She giggled.
Ash gave She a chiding look “Shut up geek.”
“Hey.” That was a good movie.
Ash ignored She and looked at Harry “I guess the same way you got here.” Ash snapped back
“I came down here 268 years ago with the Navajo tribe. By the looks of you, you just popped in didn’t you? Let me guess, you saw floating lights and wondered, what would it be like if you just touched them. Didn’t you?”
Sheetal began “That is not entirely accurate. We did some preliminary tests and…”
Ash cut She off “Hold on hick. Don’t take that tone with us.” Ash said in a warning tone.
“Hick?” Bad Harry asked.
“Hick?” Sheetal repeated the word.
Ash shrugged “I don’t know, that’s what the American’s call cowboys in movies right?”
“What movies do you watch?” Sheetal asked Ash
Hary kicked the mud below his feet “Oh for crying out loud. At least tell me that there aren’t thousands of shards floating around on the planet.”
Ash looked at She “Well?”
She shrugged “More like just a few thousand.”
Ash raised an eyebrow.
“Okay a few thousand in India.”
Harry hung his head and started pacing in front of the pond “They told me, no Harry, leave the Reir. The planet is not safe. They told me don’t invest all your money in the city, things are going to go bad. They told me that the Asuras are coming. But no Harry, you absolute imbecile, you had to stay. You wanted to play politics. You wanted a place in the court of Kel.”
“Uh…” Sheetal started.
Harry held up his hand “Hold on. I am not done yet. Heck, lady, you don’t even know what’s happening do you, do you?”
“No.” Ash responded “But I am faster and she can float.”
“Hover. I hover.” She corrected Ash
Harry rolled his eyes and continued pacing “If there are thousands of shards flying around on Earth, that means there is a weak point in the barrier between the trials and the Earth. Earths! No, let's not over complicate things. We already have a place full of base humans. The perfect fodder for the empire. If they get to know about it, they are going to use that to open a gate. A gate that the Rakshasa empire can use to invade the planet. Eat the humans and convert their souls into raw potentiality to fuel their war machines.”
“You mean our planet?” She asked
Harry gave Sheetal and Ash an annoyed look “No. Not our planet. Earth is no longer my planet. I belong to Reir now. But, because of this mess I will have to fight for it once again. To save Reir. Because if the Rakshasa conquer your world they will have enough blood, meat, and souls to replenish their supplies and become stronger. And come at us hard” Harry explained.
“Great, I have no idea what that means. But I am so glad I am not there anymore” Ash responded.
Harry gave him a disgusted look “Oh you think you can just run away? No you miserable thing. You are a warder. You will have to fight the Rakshasas. There is no escaping that. And you will have to get your people involved in this fight. You both don’t sound like Americans. Who are you from anyways? Mexicans? Argentinians? Arab or Spanish? ”
“Americans? There are Americans here?” She asked
“First of all, I never said, I will run away. I just like to be aware of what’s coming for me. Secondly, we are Indians. We don’t lie down for anyone. Third, are you going to make sense or just keep grumbling incoherently. Fourth, what is this Rakshasa Empire? Fifth, who is this Kel guy?”
Harry blinked “Indians?”
She nodded.
Harry turned and yelled “Of course. They are Hindus! No wonder the Yaksha Agni has a soft spot for you.”
“Ummm… Actually, I am communist, and she is an atheist.”
She shot a look at Ash “Hey, who said I am atheist?”
“You are a scientist. A physisisis-cist?”
“A mechanical engineer, electrical engineer and a physicist.” Sheetal corrected Ash and continued “And all that doesn't mean I am an atheist. I keep saying gods so many times.”
“Yeah, but you don’t really mean it.”
"Who do you think I am, you?"
"What did I do?"
"You are a fake communist. You are an elitist. With you being the elite amongst elites."
"That would make me an autocrat. I am not an autocrat. That is too much work and not in enough fun."
Harry growled “Warders. I don’t have time for this.” He chucked the two golden Shards at Ash “Here, put them on your sticks. They will improve them.”
“They’re tonfas.” Ash corrected Harry
“I don’t care!” Harry snapped back “I need to go and inform others. We need to prepare for this. Heck, he might want to see you. He is curious like that. He might want to recruit you. Or he might just kill you. He is a cat. I don’t know how he will react.”
“Who?” She asked.
Harry looked at them “Never mind. Do yourself a favour. Slot those shards on the ground and then go to another trial. Get more shards. Become powerful. We will need you soon.”
Harry turned around and walked towards Agni’s altar. Before he reached it the floor under him pulsed and then he was gone.
Trial Complete.
You have received
2 Weapons Shards
40 Krecks
This trial area will collapse in 30 minutes.
Please evacuate the area before the collapse.
She was reading the new set of messages when Ash asked
“Okay, what the heck just happened?”
“I know he went from being slick and charming to broody and angry in a heartbeat.” She replied distractedly
“You thought that Hairy Harry was charming?”
“Yeah. He was.” She nodded.
“Didn’t he say he was 250 years old or something?”
“Nah! I think he was just confused.”
Ash shook his head “Virgin!”
She pursed her lips “Will you stop that?
Ash held up his hands “Fine. But I don’t like that guy.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t answer my question.”
“What question?”
“How did he play that music?”
Sheetal rolled her eyes
Ten minutes later they were both dressed in their damp clothes and looking down at the shards next to their feet.
You have found
1 Speed Shard
1 Wind Shard
1 Sense Shard
Integrations Possible
“I am still not very sure about these shards.” She muttered.
“Why?”
“Ash, we are seeing boxes when something comes in front of us. Our bodies have changed. We don’t even have the scars that made us, us. How far do you want to push things before nothing about us remains the same? How long before we stop being us?”
Ash raised an eyebrow “So? I should take the speed shard?”
Sheetal looked at him in disbelief “Didn’t you hear a single word I just said.”
Ash picked up the speed “Yeah, you said you don’t want to change. That means I get the speed shard. You can do the flying around stuff with the wind shards.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Ash felt a pull from the speed shard. Like the first one he felt it when his body told him where it wanted to go. The sensation was replicated on Ash’s hud.
Warder Soul Structure Found - Ribboned
Possible Integration Spots
Upper Spine - Atlas C1 - Available
Heart - Right Atrium - Available
Brain - Cerebellum - Available
Lower Spine - Lumbar L5 - Occupied
Initially when Ash had to slot his speed shard, he was given three options.
Linear - Common Structure
Constellation - Advanced Structure
Ribboned - Customisable Structure
Linear was a straight line of eight shards which glowed brightest. The other shards in that structure were represented with smaller dots and his hud called them subsidiary shards. He supposed that the straightforward nature of a Linear soul structure had its appeal, for an infant. And he was pretty sure that his younger brother would have picked that. But he was not Abhay, and he was absolutely sure that he was not common.
The constellation soul structure, well that was messed up. It reminded him of some sort of an art project. Or should he call it a puzzle? It was all about achieving some sort of a balance. He could not just throw in shards into the constellation. They needed to complement each other. And all he wanted to do was jump around, have fun and punch bad guys. Okay he wanted to bludgeon them to death. And since he was no longer in India, he didn’t need to worry about the cops, or his mother. So that had put that nonsense firmly out of the picture
That left him with the ribboned soul structure. Which was to be honest, the ribboned soul structure was also the prettiest one amongst them. It was like someone had wrapped the mockup of his body in sparkling multi coloured wraps. That made his frame look skinny hot. Well, the mockup of his face under the ribbon looked a bit uncomfortable but since the thing was not really on his face so it wasn’t a problem. That is why he had picked Ribboned.
And now it was telling him where to put the shard in his hand. That was awesome. Just like him. The only problem was that the first one had slotted itself in the base of his spine. Every time he channelled potentiality into his shard it felt like he had a protrusion on his back. He had gotten used to the feeling but initially he had wondered if he had a tail. When he had asked She about that, Sheetal had given him one of her patented, you are so weird looks.
Anyway, this speed shard wanted to go at the top of his neck. Ash let it do just that and smiled in the slight tickling sensation as it followed his ribbon structure.
Sheetal watched as the speed shard flew into Ash’s torso. It spiralled all over his body and then flashed twice when settled at the top of his spine. All the while Ash smiled goofily with his eyes closed. He was the strangest man she had ever met.
But one thing kept bringing her back to the shard she was hovering above. She needed to stop being a burden on Ash. That didn’t mean she was going to mess with her senses. So the sense shard was completely out of the picture. That left the wind shard. She picked it up and just looked at it.
Warder Soul Structure Found - Constellation
Number of Shards 1/20
Do you want to integrate wind shard?
She licked her lips and hit yes.
The shard flew into her body and the box with the mockup of her body expanded to cover her vision. Then it zoomed further into her torso. The shard flew into her empty constellation. When it reached her polar forces shard. It began to orbit it vertically. With each orbit, its speed increased and those began to multiply by tens. Soon the shard couldn’t take the pressure and began to break down into wind. The feeling wasn’t painful. On the contrary, it was like eating something light and nutritious after being starved for a day.
Sheetal revelled in the feeling and then felt a phantom pain shoot through her head.
“Ahh!!!” Ash’s voice made her snap out of her hud.
“What the fud was that?”
“What?” Ash grunted.
She looked at Ash. His eyes were flashing red.
“What did you do?”
“Used the sense shard.”
“Why?”
Ash clenched his eyes shut “Well with the look you were giving it, you weren’t going to use it. So, I did.”
“Why would you do something without discussing it with me?”
“Uh…. Um….”
“What?”
Ash was silent for a moment and then decided to plunge ahead “I also used the weapon shards.”
Sheetal gave him a look which obviously he couldn’t see with his eyes clenched shut.
“You are giving me a death glare, aren’t you?” He raised a hand “Before you start screaming at me again let me clarify. Those shards wanted to go into my arms, but I decided not to do that. I put them in my tonfas. Look, it worked.”
Ash held up his tonfas. The scuffed textures from his tonfas were gone. They were smoother and darker now. And instead of the shine of machined steel they looked they had been anodised silver with golden dust particles here and there.
“Okay, we will discuss that later, but can you stop…”
Rumble.
The ground below Ash and She quaked. Ash with his eyes closed almost lost his footing. He collected himself at the last moment and squinted his eyes open. Tears ran down his eyes and he closed them back again.
“Oh man, that hurts.” He croaked out.
Sheetal looked around and stated “We need to get out of here.”
Her words were punctuated with the part of the ceiling falling down into the pond.
Ash nodded “Yeah… She, I can’t see.”
Sheetal grabbed Ash by his arm and pulled him behind herself “Come on. Just follow me.”