Second Skin Omnibus

by M Damon Baker

  Sintári Abilities

  Natural Affinity – The Sintári’s unique connection with the natural world may manifest itself in random ways at times. While these effects are generally beneficial, they are also typically outside the direct control of the Sintári. Modifier – Charisma.

  Protector Abilities

  See Truth – Once per day, the spoken words of your target become visible to you, allowing you to see the truth held within them. Strength and duration of this effect increase with proficiency. Cost – 60 Aura. Modifier – Wisdom. – 12%

  Spells

  Enhanced Sight – May be cast on self or ally. Improves visual acuity of the recipient in dark or obscured conditions. Cost – 20 Aura. – 40%

  Create Trap – Place a magical trap upon an area. Size, type, and trigger of traps is determined by your proficiency. Cost – 40 Aura. – 38%

  Elemental Arrow -Your next arrow is imbued with elemental energy and causes additional elemental damage accordingly. Cost – 30 Aura. – 24%

  Bolt – Release a Bolt of pure Lightning at your target(s). Cost – 40 Aura. – 22%

  Skills

  Bow – 42%

  Critical Hit – 35%

  Blades – 30%

  Long Sword – 29%

  Short Sword – 28%

  Dagger – 26%

  Critical Hit – 22%

  Two-Handed – 27%

  Pole Arms – 14%

  Spear – 23%

  Armor – 26%

  Medium Armor – 29%

  Perception – 35%

  Environmental – 37%

  Identify Enemy – 32%

  Identify Person – 32%

  Combat Dodge – 21%

  Subterfuge – 28%

  Stealth – 29%

  Find Trap – 11%

  Disarm Trap – 8%

  Set Trap – 10%

  Manipulation – 23%

  Persuade – 31%

  Barter – 21%

  Survival – 23%

  Tracking – 24%

  Identify Creature (Beasts) – 10%

  Skinning – 13%

  Field Dress – 12%

  Alchemy – 17%

  Herbalism – 25%

  Potion Craft – 21%

  I had intended to first look to my improved Skills, but the change to my Attributes stopped me dead in my tracks. The individual tokens had always just granted a single point bonus to each stat they affected. Now, instead of the single point, all of the Attributes were increased by two, doubling the effect of each token. I finally understood what the message had meant by a ‘significant’ increase in the Amulet’s powers.

  Glancing back at my Inventory screen, I realized what I had overlooked before—the tokens listed under the Amulet no longer had the prefix ‘Minor’ in front of their names; they were now simply individually listed as ‘Tokens,’ in deference to their increased potency. Awestruck by the changes, I reluctantly turned my attention to the original reason I had opened my personal sheet.

  Looking over my talents I saw that I had indeed broken the 40% plateau, not only with the Bow talent, but with my Swarm arrows as well. I hadn’t noticed any difference in the final Swarm shot I had sent into the Defiler’s body, but to be honest, I hadn’t been watching that closely at the time, so I wondered if the increase would even make a difference.

  Still somewhat numb, I closed everything down and sat still for a moment, contemplating what had just happened. With the addition of the fourth token, the power of the Amulet had effectively doubled. What would happen when I added the suspected fifth and sixth tokens? Something similar, or something completely different? Or perhaps nothing at all.

  Once again, I was confronted with a series of questions I had no hope of answering. It was pretty much the story of my life so far; I seemed to be repeatedly thrust from one incomprehensible situation to another.

  But this was different, or at least I thought it was. The Amulet was somehow linked to my Sintári nature, and so far, it had proven to only be a benefit to me, rather than represent any sort of risk. I felt certain that whatever the possible effects might be from the remaining tokens, they too would be of the beneficial variety.

  Considering possible threats, I remembered that I still had the Defiler’s bow and armor tucked away in my pack. I would have liked to have dealt with those items right away, but since I was unable to identify them, they would have to wait.

  Having dealt with all of the issues I could, I left my room and wandered back into the common area. Stel and Khorim were sitting around, deep in conversation, and as I entered the room, they turned as one to face me.

  “Well,” Khorim said mockingly. “Look what the cat dragged in.”

  I ignored his jab and spoke to Stel instead.

  “Any change?” I asked.

  “Not yet,” he replied sadly.

  “Ahh, don’t worry,” Khorim said reassuringly. “That little one is tough. She’ll be fine.”

  “Did you just refer to my friend as ‘little,’ master dwarf,” I replied icily.

  “Nope, you must have misheard me,” he said as he hurried out of the room to escape my wrath.

  “You know,” Stel chuckled as he watched Khorim’s retreat. “Nobody has ever managed put him in his place quite like you do. It’s an absolute pleasure to watch you take him down a notch.”

  “The pleasure is all mine, I assure you,” I smiled as I replied with a mock bow.

  “So, what do we do now?” I asked after a moment.

  “Now, we do what all adventurers must do from time to time,” Stel smirked in answer. “We wait.”

  And wait we did.

  For the rest of that day and the next, we spent our time helping the villagers piece their lives back together while we waited for Tási to wake up. Venna supported her as best she could, providing for her needs while Tási remained unconscious, and the villagers debated the merits of trying to rebuild versus simply abandoning the place. The task would be daunting, but in the end, they decided to make a go of it in honor of those who had fallen. Finally, on the morning of the third day, Venna came downstairs to speak to us as we sat sharing breakfast together.

  “She is awake, but not yet ready to see all of you,” she announced. “Soon, but not just yet.”

  “Is she alright? How is she?” I cried.

  “She is… tired. Even with all the rest she has had,” Venna sighed. “Tási will need a few more days to recover before she will be ready for the journey back to Oróna.”

  “When?” I pled. “When can we see her?”

  “As you might imagine,” Venna answered, “she has already asked to see you, and for now, I forbid it. Your conversation, though necessary, will likely be strenuous for her. When I think she is ready for that, you will be the first one she talks to.”

  Seeing my dejected expression, Venna continued.

  “She is not upset with you,” Venna offered. “And that is all I will say on the matter.”

  Despite the rather vague information, we offered a toast to Tási’s recovery and finished our meal with a renewed sense of optimism. Then, as we began to disperse for our various morning activities, Venna pulled me aside discreetly.

  “I did not tell you everything,” she whispered. “I tried to find out what had happened to her, to find out if what she had experienced was similar to what you described to me. She refused to tell me anything, even when I threatened to command her to do so as her Teacher.”

  “I had no intention of following through on that threat,” Venna continued, “but if I had, her refusal would have meant immediate dismissal from my service. That should tell you how seriously she feels about this.”

  “She says she will only speak of the matter with you,” Venna concluded.

  “That doesn’t make me feel any better, Venna.”

  “No, I didn’t think it would,” she replied. “All the same, I thought you should know. I am going back upstairs now to tend to her, and will come for you when I think she i
s ready.”

  For the next few hours, I moped around the village. My mind was preoccupied with thoughts about the impending conversation with Tási. I had no idea what she had experienced, what I had put her through. Although Venna had assured me that Tási wasn’t upset with me, I didn’t feel quite so certain.

  I was wandering aimlessly when Broda found me and told me that Venna had finally granted me permission to see Tási. The news filled me with a mixture of relief and dread, but despite the conflicting emotions I rushed back, fairly bursting through the front door before launching myself up the stairs. After reaching her door, I paused for a moment to regain my composure, and taking a deep breath, I steeled myself to accept whatever recriminations Tási might have for me before I walked inside the room.

  Venna sat by the bedside, almost exactly as she had before; the obvious difference was that this time, Tási was sitting up in her bed as well. A sense of relief washed over me when the halfling looked up and greeted me with a weak, but genuine smile.

  “I will leave you two alone now,” Venna said as she rose from the chair. “But I caution both of you, if things become too stressful, you must stop. I will be most upset with both of you if Tási’s progress is set back.”

  Venna stared at each of us with a meaningful glare, letting us know that her words were no idle threat. As Venna closed the door behind her, I found myself all alone with Tási and was suddenly afraid of what she might say to me.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said as I sat down beside her bed.

  “Don’t be,” she whispered softly.

  “Why shouldn’t I be?” My voice trembled as I replied. “After what happened to you? What I did to you?”

  “After what we did for Venna? Saving her life? Are you truly sorry for that?” Tási seemed to grow a little stronger as she spoke the words.

  “No.” I admitted reluctantly.

  “And I’m not sorry either,” she declared. “Despite what I went through. And if I had a chance to do it all over, I would do it again if it meant saving her life.”

  “Tell me, please,” I asked her. “What happened to you?”

  Tási turned away from me, averting her gaze from mine as her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. After a moment, she seemed to regain her resolve and looked back at me once more before as she began to speak.

  “At first, when you put your hands on me, it was much as you described,” she recounted. “Your touch was like nothing I ever felt before. So intense, so enticing…” She paused as the memory of that moment seemed to run through her mind.

  “That feeling wasn’t only where you laid your hands on me,” she continued after her slight pause. “It was everywhere.”

  “It nearly overwhelmed me. I barely managed to maintain control over the Spell I had been casting. Fortunately, I finished before I had to draw on your Aura. That’s the only thing that saved Venna.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked when Tási paused once more.

  “The magic I used converted my Aura, our Aura, into Health for Venna. And it continues to do so automatically until it is either cancelled or it runs out of Aura to convert. Once I drew on your Aura, I completely lost myself in your power.”

  “When I drew on your Aura, it flowed through me completely, flooding me with incredible sensations. I can’t even begin to describe them or how intense they truly felt. I could feel you, your touch, your presence softly caressing every part of my body. The intense sense of pleasure filled my entire being, just like the touch of your hands had before, only this was even stronger, more powerful. I doubt I could have withstood it all, but along with intensity also came a sense of tenderness. I—I can’t explain it. Despite how overpowering it was, I could also feel a certain delicateness as well. It made me…”

  Tási halted there, her cheeks once again flushing bright red as she looked away in embarrassment. I knew what she had been about to say. I knew the inevitable consequences of my intimate touch as well as the reaction it had obviously brought on in her.

  “That must have been when you finally collapsed,” I said after giving her a moment to collect herself. “I’m amazed you were able to hold on for so long before that happened.”

  She looked at me with a slightly puzzled expression.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, thinking that my question had caused her some additional embarrassment.

  Her odd expression vanished and Tási’s eyes suddenly went wide.

  “You think it took the whole time for it to have that effect on me?” She asked incredulously.

  “I… it didn’t?”

  “No!” She replied. “That happened right from the beginning! It only ended when I collapsed!”

  I stared at Tási in amazement. I knew the raw power of my own touch, and the sheer intensity of it had overwhelmed me in mere seconds. I couldn’t even imagine how it might have felt to be wracked by those sensations for minutes on end. Adding the incredible force of my Aura on top of those powerful impulses made me understand why Tási had been unconscious for so long.

  I looked away from her in guilt over what I had done. Holding my head in my hands, I felt tears of shame running down the sides of my face and I wondered how I could even begin to make up for what had happened.

  “Dreya?” Tási called to me softly.

  “Yes, Tási?” I replied without looking up.

  “Venna told me you might react badly to what I had to say.”

  I picked up my head to look at Tási. Despite all she had been through, the only the tone in her voice was one of compassion.

  “You are the first Sintári this world has known in countless centuries. You will make many mistakes, many missteps as you discover what that means and who you are, but you are not responsible for the things you cannot know. Neither of us knew what would happen, but we took the risk together. I told you I do not regret my decision and I still don’t, even after I have felt the consequences.”

  “Dreya,” she continued, “I count myself as lucky just to travel alongside you. I do not want this to come between us, and I certainly do not blame you for it. All, I ask is that you help me to recover.”

  She had spoken with such feeling that when she had finished, both our eyes were filled with tears. I simply nodded my head in response, too caught up in my emotions for words.

  We sat in silence for a few moments, both of us drained by the conversation. When the sound of Tási soft snoring interrupted my thoughts, I left the room quietly, allowing her to sleep in peace. As I walked downstairs, Venna was waiting for me impatiently. She glared at me as I approached, and I answered the question her gaze had been asking.

  “She’s fine,” I said reassuringly. “We talked. It went better than I expected and then she fell back to sleep.”

  “Good,” Venna sighed. “I was worried things might not go so well.”

  “I hadn’t noticed.”

  “Shut up.” Venna responded to my barb. While her tone was sharp, she couldn’t hide her smile.

  The rest of that day and the next seemed to pass fairly uneventfully. We continued to help the townsfolk restore their village while Venna aided Tási in her recovery. They began taking short walks in preparation for the journey back to Oróna, and Tási rejoined us once again at our mealtimes.

  But on the third day, I noticed that Tási had begun avoiding me. She would suddenly find some reason to be elsewhere when I entered the room and refused to meet my gaze during our shared meals. Even Venna noticed the odd behavior.

  “What is it?” I asked her. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “I don’t think so,” Venna replied. “I think she may be having a bad day. She seems a bit off in general, not just with you.”

  “Alright,” I said, somewhat relieved. “But let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”

  “I will,” Venna promised.

  We spent the rest of the day helping to rebuild a barn that had collapsed. The work was exhausting and after dinner we all retired immediately, worn o
ut from the day’s efforts. I had just changed into my sleeping dress when I heard a soft knock on my door. I bid my visitor to enter and was surprised when Tási walked in, hugging a blanket she had wrapped around her body.

  “Tási, are you alright? Is there anything you need?”

  “Yes, I think there is,” she answered, taking the seat beside my bed. “But I need to tell you a story first, so you will understand.”

  Without waiting for me to respond, she went into her tale.

  “When I first joined the Order, I had only just begun studying spellcasting,” Tási began. “My people have a unique affinity for magic and spells, and I had been progressing well in my training, but the Order has a special focus on healing magics, and I knew none of those spells. They sent me to one of the monasteries to begin my studies… it was not a pleasant experience.”

  “We tended to the sickest and most severely injured people. Many were simply sent there to die, having already passed beyond our means to restore their health; still, we did our best to ease their pain, offering them the most powerful tonics we had available. For those who were beyond our help, this did not matter, but for the few badly injured we managed to save, the tonics had an unfortunate side effect.”

  “Once their pain was gone, we could not simply stop giving them the tonics. Along with relieving their pain, the treatment also provided them a powerful sense of euphoria. Their bodies began to crave this euphoria, and when we stopped giving them the tonics abruptly, they reacted very badly.”

  “Initially, they would become restless, agitated, and cranky, and would have difficulty sleeping as well. Then the symptoms would begin to get even worse. At first, there would be nausea and vomiting, with mild shakes and tremors. The tremors would only grow worse, often resulting in severe seizures. If we did not restore the tonics at that point, they would suffer tremendously; many even died.”

  “So, instead of denying the aid they so desperately needed, we slowly weaned them off the tonics, allowing their bodies to adjust over time and still provide them the relief they so desperately needed.”