“Thanks,” Zuha said, ducking forward to kiss him quickly now that she was dressed and darted for the door. “I’ll be back in a few days!”
Wilburn leapt to his feet. A few days? “What?”
But she was already gone, the sound of the apartment door closing cutting off his question.
A second later he had to throw a sheet over his legs to cover himself up as Mitch appeared in his bedroom doorway with a shit eating grin on his face. “Enjoy yourself, did you?”
Wilburn grinned. “A gentlemen doesn’t kiss and tell.”
Mitch waggled his eyebrows. “More than kissing I’d hope. No girl’s ever made noises like that just from being kissed.”
“Maybe you’ve been kissing them wrong,” Wilburn said, attempting to hide his burning ears behind a smirk.
Mitch laughed. “We’re ordering pizza, want to chip in for some?”
A few moments later, Mitch retreated, closing the door behind him and asking that Wilburn put some pants on before joining them. With a sigh, Wilbrun collapsed back onto his bed. His new Self Reflection ability allowed him to recall the incidents leading up to this moment with preternatural clarity but even so he had a hard time believing it.
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and began to focus. The power thrumming through him demanded a place within him and the only way he knew how to give it purpose was through his mind palace. Another deep breath and the castle floated to the fore of his mind as he’d envisioned it, only now it held four towers instead of two.
But the additional towers weren’t what made him jolt upright in the bed, gasping and feeling as if someone had just slammed a hatched into the back of his skull. The pain was so bad that he nearly threw up. Clutching his skull he rocked back and forth, trying to make sense of what he had seen and wondering why he hadn’t recognized it before.
Or, did he recognize it?
The castle his imagination conjured to serve as his mind palace was the same one, childish proportions and all, that he had just dreamed of. He shook his head, slowly, and the pain began to recede. His subconscious mind must have drawn upon his experience with the mind palace when he’d been dreaming, it actually made sense that it would appear there.
He shuddered at the phantom sensation of being crushed. “It was just a dream,” he whispered to himself. “Just a dream.”
The pain was all but gone now, as if it had never been. And the power he had gained from his new union with Zahu continued to thrum through him, demanding he give it place and purpose. With another deep breath, he laid down again, and returned to his mind palace.
Chapter Ten
The night sky over his mind palace wasn’t empty as he remembered it. Shining down, bright and visible against the otherwise empty void, was a collection of stars. Wilburn frowned as he considered it. He’d thought that he’d put all of the star-memories inside of his mind palace. Had he missed some or were those new?
“They are not new,” said the two voices from behind him. He was really beginning to dislike the way that no matter which way he turned, the two speakers were just out of sight.
“How did I miss them before?” He asked, and reached out, trying to will them down out of the sky as he had the others. The stars made no move, only continued twinkling down at him.
The two voices giggled. “They aren’t memories and you hadn’t begun using your abilities yet. Now that you have, the constellation of our House is visible to you.”
Constellation? Wilburn had never been good at recognizing those. How anyone could look at the stars and think that they resembled half the things they were named baffled him. Maybe he could understand the Big Dipper. Maybe. But Orion? How was that supposed to look like a huntsman? Looking at the constellation overhead he could not identify it, though as a whole it was vaguely triangular in shape. It was easily over ten stars though before he could begin counting them the invisible girls behind him spoke up.
“We expected you back much sooner,” they said in tandem.
Wilburn started to say something but stopped. He got the distinct impression that his psychic guides were teasing him. Almost he could hear the smirks on their faces.
As if to confirm his thought, they burst into giggles. “Congratulations on making Zuha your first virga. You are going to be a wonderful magis primus.”
Wilburns ears went red. “You, uh, know about that, do you?”
The two laughed all the harder. “We are in your head! We are helping you build your mind palace, which holds all of your memories. Of course, we know about that. Every…little…detail.”
Wilburn planted his face in his palm. “Shoot me now.”
“No!” the voices cried, all humor gone.
Wilburn’s head shot up. “What?”
“Do not ever joke like that,” the voices said. “The time when you can give false commands is behind you. As powerful as you are and are becoming, nothing you say may be idle.”
Wilburn swallowed. “You mean, I might accidentally Suggest that someone actually shoot me?”
“That is a very real possibility,” the voices said. “You must learn to mind your tongue.”
Wilburn took several deep, calming breaths. The idea that he might accidentally use these newfound abilities had never even occurred to him. All the ways giving commands could go horribly wrong played through his head, ranging from telling someone to fuck off to shut up and die. Good grief, he gave all sorts of sordid commands when he was playing videogames with his cousin. They’d tell each other and other gamers to do all sorts of horrible shit.
“We are glad you begin to comprehend your position,” the voices said. “We suggest that you refine your abilities in the Tower of Domination and begin exploring your other towers. Some will need power to be summoned. Others are simply hidden. We will help guide you, but your decisions are yours alone.”
There was a weight to that last sentence that Wilburn didn’t care for. “Would they not usually be?”
The voices did not answer.
“Uh? Spirit guide voices?”
“No. Usually when someone is extolled, as you have been, it falls to their creator to lay the foundations of their towers and control the flow of power and experiences that shape their abilities. We have never heard of another primus giving one they have extolled the freedom that we offer you.”
If Wilburn didn’t know any better he’d have said that the voices sounded nervous. But that made no sense. What did they have to be nervous about? He was the one who should be freaking out.
“What’s going on between me and you right now,” he said. “It’s a lot like what is happening between me and Zuha. I claimed her and now she has to do what I say. You made me and I’m supposed to obey you now, aren’t I?”
The voices did not answer for a moment. “You are not supposed to. No. We do not want your obedience. We want…we want you to be free and powerful. We made you but have not laid the claim upon you that another primus would. You are your own man, Wilburn Graves. We would not see you diminished.”
“That…that’s a huge relief,” Wilburn said. “Thank you.”
There was a palpable flood of relief from behind him. It washed over and through him, leaving Wilburn gasping for air for a moment, before remembering that this was his mind and he didn’t actually need to breath here.
“We were worried,” the voices said. “That because we might hold you in thrall you might be angry with us.”
“You’re not holding me in thrall or controlling my mind, are you?” he asked.
“Of course not!” There was an almost childlike sense of urgency to their protest.
Wilburn smiled. “Then we’re good.”
He turned to consider the towers of his castle. “Now, what should we level up?”
The voices giggled. “It is like a videogame to you, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “Oh yeah, and do you know what that means?”
“No,” the v
oices said, sounding both puzzled and giddy at the same time.
Wilburn grinned. “It means that I’m going to munchkin the fuck out of these powers! Let’s go over options. Tell me everything.”
Everything might have been too tall an order. There was no real sense of time in his mind palace, but soon his head was starting to hurt. Which, since this was all taking place inside of his head, was so confusing that it somehow managed to double the pain.
“Let me see if I have everything correct,” Wilburn said. “Just for a quick, layman’s gamer review.” He had taken up a seat on the ground beneath a tree that was growing from the center of his castle’s courtyard.
“The towers are skill trees. Each room inside is a different branch. The more I focus on one area, the more niche, or specialized it becomes. These are extremely powerful but very limited abilities.”
“Yes,” the voices said, sounding now as if they were positioned on the opposite side of the tree.
“And the more specialized abilities down these skill tree paths, the more expensive they become to progress.”
“Yes,” the voices said.
“But then there’s also mind palace itself,” Wilburn continued. “This is the most expensive to level up, but it increases the rest of my abilities. Kind of like a character leveling up. It’s the basic power behind everything else. So when calculating just how powerful any given ability is, it’s the strength of my mind palace plus the strength of the individual skill or ability that determines the total.”
“Yes,” the voices said. “It is not quite that simple, but essentially you are correct. Some abilities the strength of your mind palace will count more towards, other less.”
“And the House constellation,” Wilburn said, pointing at the cluster of stars overhead. “That will have some bearing on certain abilities as well.”
“Yes,” the voices said. “You will naturally be more powerful with the abilities from the Towers of Domination, Might, and Fire.”
“So basically, the best ones?” Wilburn said, only half joking.
“Not necessarily, though Domination and Might are most prized among other primus.”
Wilburn thought for a long moment. “I think I see a trap here.”
“Oh?” the two voices asked.
“Yeah. Normally specializing is the way to go when creating your build. But that’s in a game. There’s no practical application per say. Just because I have these abilities doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ll personally be good with them.”
“You would be powerful with them,” the voices said hesitantly. “But…applying the more specialized abilities is something that takes time to master.”
“Kind of like the difference between having a really well-made sword and being a kick-ass swordsman,” Wilburn said.
“…Yes,” the voices said. “Though again, we must stress that this is not always the case.”
“Okay, is there any way to really determine what that rule won’t apply to ahead of time.”
The voices sighed. “We are afraid not. No, you will only know how practically skilled with an ability you actually are after you have used and practiced with it. This is your disadvantage. A primus usually has their powers from the onset of puberty, they do not have it all dropped upon them at once but instead learn how to use their abilities as they grow.”
“Sure,” Wilburn agreed with a nod. “But how many of them have so much available to them right from the start?”
“None,” the voices said. “In all of the secret history of primuses, there has never been one extolled with so much power and experience for growth as you. And you have already added to it by claiming Zuha.”
“Then that’s going to set our course,” Wilburn said. “I don’t have the finesse that the other primuses do. What I do have is power, so that’s what we’re going to focus on. I want to improve my mind palace. Absolutely max it out until I can’t level it up any further. Then I’ll spend whatever’s left on expanding my Towers. We’ll probably focus on those three the constellation gives me a bonus to, but we’ll see how it goes after this.”
He could hear the voices smiling as they replied. “Very good. This is an optimal time to spend your experiences as well.”
“It is?” Wilburn asked. “Why’s that?”
“Zuha explained some of this earlier. If experiences pave the roadway for a primus’s power, then life and death are fuel to your engine. And you have just lost your virginity. You are very well fueled.”
Heat rose in Wilburn’s ears again.
The voices continued. “Focus on your mind palace, make it clearer. Focus on the walls, the foundation, the towers that are growing from it. Reach out to the power in the night sky…. Now draw upon your experiences and those that have been given to you by us and by Zuha. They fill the night, now let them fill you and shape your fortress….”
There was a rush as Wilburn obeyed and images flashed behind his eyes. All five of his senses exploded as memories began pouring through him. At first they were familiar, clearly his own. The sense of motion from riding a unicycle. The taste of his first bite of pizza. The pleasure from the first time he’d had sex.
But the memories came faster and faster, blurring together, overwhelming him. Some flew past that he knew did not belong to him. He had never climbed a mountain or driven a semi. He had never experienced sex as a woman. He had never tasted… touched… seen… heard… smelled… so much. It was all too much.
“Wilburn,” the voices cried out from very far away. “Wilburn you must stop. You are pouring in too much too fast. It is overwhelming you. Stop!”
But he didn’t know how. His mind, his body, his very being, vibrated with energy, quivering as if about to combust.
He thrashed about wildly, reaching in any and every way that he could think of to break the stream of power flowing into him. It did not good.
He screamed….
Chapter Eleven
First he was aware of pain.
He was floating in an ocean of it. Drowning in it. Hurting so bad that up and down were the same thing and seconds became miniature eternities. He drifted in the currents, lost and sick until he found a light.
It was warm and welcoming and his. He recognized it. Knew it’s—her—name. He tried to call out for it but another name left him instead of the one he was familiar with: Frostbite. Her name among the other primuses, some distant part of him realized. It wasn’t just a name to sound cool. It was a marker of some kind.
Announcing the name drew that light toward him and when he touched the pain lessened enough that Wilburn could remember his own name and actually think.
A shock ran through him at the contact and through Zuha too. He could feel her as if she were split in two. A part of her was very far away and moving very fast, faster even than a car could manage. The other part was with him. So close it may as well have been a limb.
“Wilburn?” Zuha asked. She did not use her voice. Wherever they were there was no need of sound. He simply felt her question. Felt her concern. “What happened to you? How are you reaching me?”
“I don’t know,” he said, and he felt strangely at peace with that thought. He did not know what had happened. But he was okay now.
“You are in pain!”
“I am,” he agreed. But that didn’t seem to matter. As soon as he was able, he would eliminate the pain. Until then he would bide it and wait.
Was there something he was supposed to be waiting for?
“Wilburn, you’re scaring me,” Zuha said. “Magis primus forge connections with their virga like this over years, not hours. We should not be able to communicate mind to mind like this. I need to know what happened.”
“I leveled up,” Wilburn said. “But I used a cheat code and think I got all the levels.”
“Are you drunk?”
“Maybe. I don’t think so,” Wilburn said, contemplating the question for a moment. “No. I am no
t drunk. I just hurt a lot. Like, a lot a lot. I don’t think it was supposed to go that way.”
“I’m coming to you,” Zuha said. “Hang on. My plane can’t turn around now because of fuel, but as soon as we land and refill I’m coming back to you.”
“That’s why you’re moving so fast,” Wilburn said. “You’re flying. But you’re also here with me. You’re so shiny.” He stroked the light that was her and felt Zuha shiver miles and miles away in her plane seat.
“Oh wow! What was that?” she asked.
“I just kind of, stroked you,” Wilburn said. Her golden light was mesmerizing. He wanted it. Was glad that it was his. He pulled it closer and felt her shiver again.
“Oh, that feels good,” she murmured. He could feel the pleasure scintillating off of her and swelled with pride.
She was his treasure.
He spotted another pair of lights. Not nearly so bright but still shiny and well-cared for. They were connected to Zuha somehow. And because they were connected to her they also belonged to him. He drew them close and basked in their collective light. Bernard and Belinda. They were his now too. He should have known that.
Together their light, their power, eased the pain away. It ebbed, driven back until all that remained of the ocean was a bearable agony. It didn’t matter how the pain touched him now. He was with his treasures and they gave him power.
“Hey, Wil!” A distant pounded sounded, echoing with fresh pulses of pain.
He wanted it to stop. Needed it to stop. He’d just gotten a handle on the pain that already existed.
“You need a name,” Zuha said. “A primus name. You’re too powerful not to have one. I think it’s hurting you.”
He had a name. What did she think was wrong with it?
“Wil!” The distant pounding continued. That voice sounded familiar.
“Okay,” Wilburn said, clutching his treasures tight. “A name. I’ll get right on that.” He wanted to curl up with his treasures. He wanted to claim new treasures. He couldn’t claim new treasures where he was now. There was nothing else to reach out to. Nothing. No matter how far he reached….
Psychic Awakening: A Dragon Shifter LitRPG Harem Psychic Thriller (Primus Vitae Book 1) Page 7