by A F Kay
“That makes sense.”
“Let me show you the other two quickly,” Rami said. “Here is the fire one.”
Rami snapped her left leg up and almost into Ruwen’s chest. She stomped the foot down and thrust her chest outward while striking with her left arm.
“And now the healing one,” Rami said.
She stood up straight, palms crossed over her heart. As if making an upside-down triangle, Rami quickly moved her hands past her left ear, across her forehead, and down past her right ear to rest in front of her chest. She raised her hands to her neck and then down to her abdomen. From there, she traced the figure of an eight across her torso ending again at the abdomen. Slowly she brought her hands back to her chest, separated her hands, and pushed them outward.
They practiced the three forms, and in a few minutes, Ruwen had mastered the simple movements.
“I’m ready to go back,” Ruwen said.
Ruwen’s vision blurred again, as he returned to the bottom of the lake and the burning sensation of water in his lungs.
Which one will you start with? Rami asked.
The healing form didn’t make much sense since he didn’t have any injuries. Fire, while so deep underwater, didn’t seem smart. Plus, he had seen the power of steam first hand in an alchemy lab and didn’t want to start with something so dangerous. That left the cold form.
I think the cooling one. The water is already ice cold, but hopefully I can spot the difference when I’m done.
That’s a good choice.
Ruwen took another few breaths of water as he prepared himself. He closed his eyes and studied the Streams feeding his twelve Meridians. He figured if left alone, the current Core Velocity would feed them for over a day before stopping.
Satisfied with his internal state, Ruwen opened his eyes and stood up straight. Copying the motions he learned from Rami, he squatted, bent forward, weaved to the right and left, and stood again.
He might have felt a twinge in his back and stomach, but the pain in his chest from water-filled lungs made it hard to tell. The surrounding water didn’t look or feel any different.
It hadn’t felt like any Spirit had left his body. He could try to use essence from his Meridians now that he had started Refining, but without his interface, he didn’t know how much he had. Plus, he didn’t know the recipe for what Meridians to use. Rami had said Spirit was a substitute, so maybe he should just use a little of that.
Ruwen repeated the form, but this time he took a tiny pinch of Spirit from his Core, and as he stood up straight at the end of the short form, he willed the fraction of Spirit outward and away from him.
This time something happened.
Ruwen stood locked in place, the surrounding water frozen solid.
Rami? Ruwen asked.
I see you were successful.
I guess. But I can’t move. The water appears frozen.
I can feel it pressing against your head. I’ll send out some vibrations and see how far the ice goes.
After a few seconds, Rami spoke again. How much Spirit did you use?
A tiny bit.
Rami remained quiet.
Rami? Ruwen asked. Is everything okay?
Not really. You need to learn how to use less Spirit.
Why?
You didn’t just freeze the water near you.
Ruwen got a bad feeling. How much did I freeze?
Rami paused, and then in a resigned voice, she continued. The entire lake.
Chapter 13
Rami’s statement echoed in Ruwen’s thoughts.
You must be wrong or joking, Ruwen said. The energy involved in freezing this much water is staggering.
It’s only fake frozen. Rami said.
What does that mean?
How do you cool anything?
By removing heat?
And you didn’t do that. If you had removed that much energy, that quickly, it would have destroyed this entire mountain.
Something about that statement made Ruwen’s brain itch, but he didn’t focus on it. He wanted to understand what Rami meant by fake. He pushed against the ice surrounding him.
It feels solid, Ruwen said. Then what did I do?
What Meridians do you think you touched?
Ruwen had already thought about this when he’d been learning the forms. I think Order at the beginning and end when I stood with my spine straight. I’m not as confident about the scrunched weaving. But my guess is that I also touched my Dark Meridian, which holds all my organs.
Very good. Those are my guesses as well.
Since I didn’t remove any energy from the water, but it’s still frozen, it means I forced Order and Darkness on it with the Spirit.
Excellent. And that means you added energy to freeze it. A lot of it.
Adding energy to freeze something is the opposite of how nature works. Which means what I just did is probably really unstable.
Now you’ve caught up with me, Rami said.
Any ideas on how bad this is?
I think the longer it’s locked in this unnatural state, the worse it will be when it unravels.
Great. So I’m locked inside a bomb.
Rami vibrated against his ear again. The edges are unraveling, and the water volume expanded.
Which means?
It means the water is warmer now, but not so hot it boiled away. The real danger will be unstable pockets of Spirit.
What are those?
Spirit is usually locked in a stable form. But you just cast a spell that likely only required two Meridians. That means ten Meridians contaminated your spell, and they have nothing to do.
The frozen water around Ruwen turned to slush, and then quickly started to heat up. A heartbeat later, Ruwen’s skin burned. His clothes and wraps didn’t seem to help much, and he funneled this new pain to his mental shield.
How dangerous are these pockets of unstable Spirit? Ruwen asked.
Even if this lake were boiling, your Copper and Silver body would easily withstand it. But a bubble of chaotic Spirit would likely melt you.
Ruwen remembered the rules Blapy had for Harvesting. One of them had prohibited Spirit Venting, which sounded kind of like this.
Is that what happens with Spirit Venting? Ruwen asked.
Basically, yes. Spirit Venting is considered unsophisticated, brutish, and wasteful. But it’s also powerful.
Ruwen could move again as the slush quickly melted. Tiny round balls appeared throughout the water. They varied in size, but each looked like a trapped round rainbow. It was the first color Ruwen had seen in the Spirit Realm.
Are those all chaotic Spirit? Ruwen asked.
Rami vibrated against his ear again. Yes, and they surround us. In the Material Realm, they would never have lasted this long. They must be more stable here.
Ruwen had seen drawings of a giant swarm of glowing jellyfish in the Sea of Tears. It had looked amazing, and he had dreamed of seeing them someday. These bubbles with their prismatic coloring looked beautiful but were far more dangerous than jellyfish.
Slowly he turned in a circle. While the bubbles surrounded him, they were all at least ten feet away and seemed to be relatively stationary. He looked up just in time to swim out of the way of a fist-sized bubble. It struck the lake bottom and continued down, dissolving the stone as it went.
Ruwen tried to remain calm as he studied the area above him. The waterfall created a downward flow of water and caused the spheres of chaotic Spirit to move erratically.
Worse, in the few seconds that had passed, the spheres had doubled in number. It would be difficult to swim through them now. Ruwen’s heart thudded in his chest. Any one of these could melt right through him, dissolving the pathways between his center and Meridians. It would be catastrophic.
Ruwen waved his arms and pushed himself to the right, avoiding a three-inch bubble. Intense pain from his left hand made him gasp. He brought his hand up to see the top portion of his four fingers were missing, melted
off by a bubble he hadn’t seen. He crouched down, hoping to find them on the lake bottom, but no fingers were there.
Looking up again, Ruwen found dozens more headed downward. He channeled the pain from his injured left hand to the mental barrier. Panicking would only make things worse.
Rami vibrated against his ear once again. The chaos orbs are dissipating along the edges of the lake. We should be safe in about ten seconds.
It hadn’t occurred to Ruwen that Rami was in danger too. He’d only been worried about himself.
The bubbles of chaotic Spirit would reach them in less than ten seconds. Could I Harvest this energy to recover it and keep it from hurting us? Ruwen asked.
Yes. But you might hurt your friends. Your control is poor.
I know. I need to fix that.
I agree. Because the last time you destroyed an entire dungeon.
Rami’s mention of the dungeon gave Ruwen an idea. Fractal? Did you sense a surge of Spirit?
Yes.
Ruwen didn’t know how to manipulate Spirit very well yet, but Fractal had been doing it as a Dungeon Keeper for a long time. He hoped Fractal could also do it quickly.
Can you remove the extra Spirit from the lake, please?
Yes. But yours it be.
I’m giving it to you.
Ruwen’s left hand throbbed in pain, and in a few seconds, more holes would follow.
Please hurry, Ruwen said.
The chaos orbs as Rami had called them floated down toward Ruwen like lazy snowflakes. They filled the water above him. He crouched into a ball to give himself and Rami as much time as possible.
In a blink, the chaos orbs all disappeared. Even the water returned to its frigid temperature.
Ruwen stood back up, relieved. Thank you, Fractal.
Welcome.
Ruwen spent a minute looking for his missing fingers and then gave up. The unstable Spirit had probably dissolved them.
I’m sorry for putting you at risk, Ruwen said to Rami.
Thank you. The risks are necessary.
Maybe I should leave you with Hamma next time.
No. Our paths are intertwined. We’ll face the dangers together.
Ruwen reached up and gently rubbed the wraps around his right ear. Thanks.
He swam toward the tunnel and worked his way back up to the cavern.
He crawled out of the water and stayed on his knees as his lungs and stomach emptied of water.
“We saw the water freeze,” Sift said. “How did it go?”
Between coughs, Ruwen answered. “The usual.”
Sift winced. “That bad?”
Ruwen held up his left hand.
Hamma gasped, rushed over, and roughly grabbed his wrist. “What did you do?”
“I learned some valuable lessons,” Ruwen said.
“I doubt that,” Sift said.
“Where are the tops of your fingers?” Hamma asked. “We need to attach them, so they reform.”
“I think they dissolved,” Ruwen said.
“Dissolved?” Hamma asked.
“Or maybe melted. I didn’t see it happen,” Ruwen said.
Sift laughed and then immediately cried out in pain as he clutched his chest.
“That’s what you get for laughing,” Ruwen said to Sift.
Ruwen gently pulled his hand from Hamma’s grasp and stood. “I’m going to try and fix this.”
“How are you going to do that?” Hamma asked as she stood.
“I will try something I learned,” Ruwen said.
“Isn’t that how you lost your fingers?” Lylan asked from the tunnel entrance.
“Yes,” Ruwen said. “But I’m wiser now. And I won’t to do it underwater this time.”
Lylan narrowed her eyes. “You’re doing it in here?”
Ruwen shook his head. “No. I’ll head down the tunnel a bit. Just in case.”
“I should go with,” Hamma said.
“No, stay with your patients,” Ruwen said.
They had plenty of injured in their group, but Ruwen wanted to experiment on his hand instead. He wouldn’t injure his group further while he learned how to heal.
Ruwen gave Hamma what he hoped was a reassuring smile and then remembered she couldn’t see his face. So he nodded at Hamma instead, and at Lylan as he strode past her and Nak. The pain from his hand fueled the barrier in his mind, keeping his thoughts clear. As he walked down the tunnel to the mine, he prayed that the healing form worked.
Chapter 14
Ruwen stopped walking after about ten minutes. He figured that was far enough away from his friends if his testing didn’t go according to plan.
Fractal, can you be ready if things go wrong? Ruwen asked.
Fractal didn’t respond.
Fractal?
The Dungeon Keeper still didn’t respond. Ruwen remembered Fractal saying he could only speak to Ruwen when they were near each other. Maybe Ruwen had walked too far from the dungeon.
He looked at the stubs of his fingers one more time. His rings and the first knuckles were all that remained. They reminded him how dangerous experimenting with the unknown could be, but if he wanted to advance, he didn’t have a choice. Not wasting any more time, he took a few deep breaths and went through the form in his mind.
Ruwen stood up straight and crossed his palms over his heart. As if making an upside-down triangle, he moved his hands past his left ear, across his forehead, and down past his right ear to rest in front of his chest. He raised his hands to his neck and then down to his abdomen. From there, he traced the figure of an eight across his torso, ending again at the abdomen. Slowly he raised his hands to his heart, unfolded them, and with his palms faced away, pushed outward.
He avoided touching his Spirit, and instead, focused on what Meridians seemed affected by the form.
There’s a pattern, Ruwen said.
Tell me, Rami responded.
If I compare the Meridians I felt to their arrangement on that Divine Wheel, they start at one and touch every odd hour. The only exception is Life at six.
Interesting. So the Meridians you activated are Body, Order, Light, Life, Mind, Chaos, and Dark. And that makes sense. Those Meridians control the Heart, Spine, Head and Neck, Groin and Abdomen, Brain, Torso, and your Organs.
Okay, I’m going to try it again, but this time with a bit of Spirit.
Ruwen repeated the form, and this time when he pushed his hands outward, he used a mental finger to slide across the moving Spirit in his Core. His hands ignited in a white light so bright it seared his eyes, and he quickly closed them.
Turning his head, he opened his eyes a crack, but the world remained dark. Flashes of color floated erratically across his vision like he had looked at the sun too long.
Are you okay? Ruwen asked Rami.
Yes.
I think I blinded myself.
Oh no.
Ruwen hadn’t known how the Spirit would manifest itself, but it looked like it stayed in an aura around his hands. He assumed it remained there, even though he couldn’t see anymore, and brought his hands to his chest.
Energy surged through Ruwen, and his entire body convulsed. He fell to the ground, as his limbs continued to jerk and spasm. His skin flushed, and he felt like someone had dipped him in a fire. But his eyes and left hand burned with more intensity.
After a few seconds, Ruwen regained control of his body. He opened his eyes and found his sight had returned. Raising his left hand, he wiggled his fully healed fingers as he grinned.
Did that hurt you, Rami?
No, I’m fine. You look to be as well.
Yes. Now I just need to tone it down even more. And I will need hand wraps. If I make a mistake again, I don’t want to blind everyone.
Ruwen repeated the form again. This time, he briefly touched his Spirit, not moving his mental finger at all, and while he needed to squint his eyes, the light didn’t blind him. When he placed his hands against his chest, the release of healing Spirit didn’t caus
e him to convulse.
He looked at his hands and smiled. Healing would make an immense difference here. But before heading back, he wanted to try one more thing.
Ruwen kicked outward with his left foot, slammed it down, thrust his chest out, and touched his Spirit while twisting his hips and striking with his left arm.
A shaft of fire six feet long launched from his fist and streaked down the tunnel. The tunnel gradually sloped upward, and in the far distance, an explosion erupted as the blazing spear struck the floor.
Ruwen lowered his arm and stared until the distant fire went out. While he had made peace with becoming a Worker, his dreams of casting Mage spells had never gone away. Joy filled him, and he laughed.
And this just marked the beginning. Now that Ruwen knew the secrets, or at least a few, of how Spirit magic worked, he could create his own spells. The movement of his left leg activated the Fire Meridian and the chest movement his Chaos Meridian. He guessed the punch forward with the left arm utilized his Air Meridian, forcing the fire in the strike's direction.
If instead, he tapped his Spirit when stomping down, it would probably create a wall of flame. If he performed a spinning jump kick, it might create an area of fire all around him. The possibilities were endless.
Excited, Ruwen quickly repeated the form but touched his Spirit when stomping down. As expected, a fire appeared in front of him, but it stayed around his foot and remained small.
The Chaos Meridian must affect the size and intensity of the spell. Ruwen immediately repeated the movements, touching his Spirit when he thrust his chest out. A burning wall erupted that quickly struck the tunnel walls. With nowhere to go, the flames surrounded Ruwen, and he felt his skin char.
The mental barrier he’d practiced in the lake saved him. The pain of burning while awful, fed the mental wall, and kept it strong. Ruwen backed out of the flames until he could no longer feel their heat.
He repeated the healing form, and his whole body burned a second time as the Spirit healed it.
Your Wisdom drops in half whenever you get excited, Rami said. Or there’s fire involved.
I know. I’m sorry.
Some would benefit from what you’ve already learned.