by Jez Cajiao
Between the stabbings, the fireballs, the loss of my lower arm, the various people and creatures that had managed to bleed on me, and the filth I’d ended up being dragged through several times over, I was essentially wearing rags. Filthy ones, at that.
I looked at Oracle and sighed in resignation at the look on her face, as I made sure the door was closed before stripping off entirely, and not for fun.
It was a struggle at times, but once I was fully naked, and my gear was stacked out of the way, I summoned a fountain of clean, crisp, and oh-so-cold water, and began scrubbing myself.
It was difficult, not least because, with only one arm, cleaning my right-hand side was awkward, and also because I had a Wisp that had grown to full size, who was perched naked on the wall, somehow managing to make it look totally natural while she sat on thin air, and made constant comments and lewd suggestions about what we were going to do once all the potions were made.
The combination of icy cold water and a ridiculously hot wisp meant that I was distracted as all hell, and therefore missed the knock on the door.
If there ever was one.
Instead, Grizz simply walked in, followed by Lydia and the rest of the squad, just as I looked to be doing a naked squat over a jet of ice water, and was in mid-swing of the willy-copter at Oracle.
Grizz burst out laughing. Lydia about-turned and covered Merin’s eyes, marching her backwards. Yen froze, unsure as to where to look, and Jian sighed and followed Merin back out. Tang just shook his head and wandered over to lean against the wall, and Bane threw a cloth at me.
“Honestly, can’t you just be normal for five minutes?” Bane questioned me, looking, and sounding for all the world like I was some sort of degenerate.
“I was having a wash!” I retorted, catching the cloth, and cutting the fountain out, as I tried to cover myself up.
“Yeah. Looked like it,” Bane replied dryly, shaking his head as though ashamed to know me.
“Looks like I know why the researchers in the room below you were getting soaked, though!” Jian called from outside the door. “Are you decent yet, or should we take Merin somewhere else?”
“Hey, if she’s too young to see this, then it doesn’t say much for you, mate!” I called out to him, before sighing and moving to my bags.
I rummaged around, ignoring the comments on what a pretty behind I had, and quickly pulled some pants on, before sighing and looking around the room.
“So, anyone want to tell me why you decided to join me in here?” I asked, and Lydia coughed, still trying not to look at me.
“Soween told us that this room had been cleared for use as a general sleeping room, and seeing as it’s the early hours…” Lydia explained.
“You’ve got to be kidding me? Soween?” I asked Oracle, and she shrugged.
“Either she decided it’d be funny, got confused, or wanted to make sure you didn’t relax too much,” Oracle guessed.
“Soween, confused?” I pondered, before shaking my head. “Nope, don’t see that one. She’s insanely focused.”
“Then I’m betting she thought it’d be funny; remember, she spends all of her time with Mal, so she’s got to be twisted in some way.” Oracle pointed out, and I sighed.
“Okay, look guys.” I called out, making sure those in the corridor could hear me as well. “I was actually having a wash, that’s all, and the reason this room is so clean is because I needed it like that for Alchemy. If you all want to sleep in here, that’s fine. It’s a bit cramped for us all, but we’ve all slept in worse places. Be warned, though; I’m going to be doing a few hours of potion making, so there are going to be some noxious smells, okay?”
“More so than normal, you mean?” Tang quipped, and I glared at him.
“That’s it. No moustache rides for you!”
“Promises, promises…” Tang sighed, before shooting me a grin. “Okay everyone, let’s check the next room out, see if its clean. If it is, we can bunk in there. If not, we get to share with Stinky, there.”
“Hey, I had a wash, remember?” I growled, but inside, I felt immense relief at having the team back together and winding each other up. I missed Stephanos, but… it is what it is, I reflected.
“Yeah, and believe me, we’re all thankful you did. Not so much on the dancing, but you know…” retorted Bane as he waved people out of the room. “I’ll watch over him for now, make sure he doesn’t get into any more trouble,” Bane told Grizz and Tang, and they nodded, going with the others into the next cabin, where we could hear the sounds of the group setting out their bedrolls and making a meal.
“It’s still dirty in here, but at least you’ve not been naked in it and contaminated it!” Tang yelled to me, and I facepalmed, knowing full well that if I could hear him that well, the damn researchers and Hannimish would be able to as well.
“Close the door please, Bane…” I asked, shaking my head. “You know you need some sleep, right? You’ve had your body pushed to the damn limit with that healing.”
“I’ve had two potions of ‘Legionnaires Might,’ and I’ve been unconscious all day. Believe me, after Grizz forced that shit down my throat, I might never sleep again…” Bane muttered, and I nodded, grimacing at the remembered taste.
“Fair enough, but at least lay your bedroll out. There’s no way anyone can get to us here,” I advised, and he snorted.
“And that’s why I need to watch over you. If I was going to try to kill someone, I’d be looking to strike exactly where nobody believes it’s possible,” He retorted, but he did lay his bedroll out against the door, after checking that the porthole was too small to let anyone in and sealed up tighter than a duck’s arse.
I shrugged and left him to it, sitting down cross-legged on the damp floor and looking at Oracle as she stepped down lightly from the wall and inspected my arm determinedly.
“Okay, this is going to hurt, but it’s the only way, as near as I can see, unless you want to wait until we reach Nerin or Hellenica?”
“No, let’s just go for it,” I sighed.
“Okay, we’ll start with the new spell, ‘Surgeon’s Scalpel,’ and we’ll use the Genetic Drift Examination first as well; it means the spell is going to take time. Worst case scenario, it’ll be costing us two hundred mana a second, and it’ll only at the absolute best do two percent in changes, but your arm is what, less than ten percent of your body mass? That gives us five seconds of work… I think… once we’ve used the genetic spell to look you over…” She pondered, rubbing her chin as she worked it out.
“Okay, we’ve got a manapool of five hundred and twenty, so that’s two seconds at a time, say, with a regen of six point four five; that works out as eighty minutes… add in the meditation… that’s anywhere from forty to ten minutes, maybe, to regenerate it?” I guessed.
“Yeah; it’s weird that some of the abilities you gained, like that ‘Peace’ meditation, only give ‘a boost’ and no specifics…”
“Tell me about it,” I grumbled and Oracle laughed, shrugging.
“Honestly, Jax, the capability to use the genetics and abilities of some of these creatures is amazing, I’m not surprised it’s vague; it’s part of a different creature you’re suffusing yourself with, after all.”
“Yeah, I know, and some of it is amazing, it really is. And some of the other changes are, as well, like doing that math there was so easy. That hardly required a thought, and the fact that I’m now even more of a goddamn sexual Tyrannosaurus than I was before, but still, there’s times I’d love to be back in my old life, you know?” I grumbled, looking down at my stump and thinking back to lazy afternoons in Jesmond Dene, drinking beer and eating a burger, talking shit with Tommy. Our only concern had been who could seduce the hottest girl in the group that day.
“I know,” Oracle comforted me, reaching out to lay her hand on my stump, even as I looked up to her smiling face. “But would you really want to go back?” she asked, and I shook my head immediately.
“No,”
I contradicted myself quickly. “I love the idea of it, you know; the lack of giant monsters trying to eat my face, and weirdos like Bane staring at my arse and trying to watch me naked, but…”
“Believe me, the sights I’ve seen already haunt my nightmares…” Bane cut in, and I grinned involuntarily.
“You love it, really,” I retorted. “Anyway… no, I was just grumbling.” I clarified, and Oracle smiled again.
“I thought so. After all, I couldn’t survive in your world…” she said sadly, and I stiffened.
“Then I’ll never return regardless,” I said adamantly.
“You sure? I mean…?” Oracle started to question, and I held my stump up, cutting her off.
“Let’s get this fixed, then get the potions done. Then we kick that pervert out, and I’ll show you exactly how unwilling I am to go anywhere without you,” I offered, and Oracle laughed, even as Bane put his hands over his head.
“Who do I have to pray to that you’ll get a soundproofed room soon?” he muttered, and both Oracle and I laughed at him.
“Okay, let’s do this, then,” Oracle said, and I laid back slowly, stretching out and closing my eyes, feeling the link with Oracle that she’d extended to me when we had worked together to heal Bane, ready and waiting.
I slipped into it and focused, feeling her all around me as she built the spell. I saw the world through her eyes, and felt the additional senses she possessed but I had no context for.
I felt her structuring the spell, and instantly, I knew why she was so much better at building spells from scratch than I was. Mana was an almost physical construct to her, and when we spoke of ‘weaves’ and so on, she literally saw them that way. I was imagining it as a tapestry that formed a spell, but for her, it was a layered, infinitely complex, yet visually understandable thing. I gazed in awe at the spell as she seemed to pull it into being, speaking the words and altering the flow, making my own spell casting look like a chimpanzee hammering on a start button by comparison.
I resolved that I was going to goddamn well learn more about magic.
And Alchemy.
And the Realm.
Dammit, might as well chuck in the exact air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow while I’m at it, seeing as I was probably going to end up as a king, or emperor, by the end of all this.
I stiffened, and not in a fun way, as the spell was guided down into me, and I felt the improvements that the Greater Examination had wrought on our spells alone as I watched Oracle guiding the spell down to a macro level, seeing a blueprint of my form being constructed in the air before us.
It took less than a second, but as I gazed at the outline and detail of my body as it was hidden in my every cell, I winced.
I was hugely messed up.
The potential that I saw here would take literal months to bring out; even working on a cell-by-cell basis, it would take forever practically, but thankfully, once the overall examination was done, we could easily assign the spell a priority now.
As the last of the mana drained from me, our twin gazes lost in the examination of the details, I winced, the spell failing and a migraine flaring to life.
“God dammit!” I moaned, throwing my uninjured arm across my eyes as I tried to ignore the pain. The failure of the spell was made worse by the utter loss of all mana, and I turned on my side, groaning.
I was useless after that for almost an hour. My mana channels felt red-raw and like they’d been scrubbed with a pipe-cleaner, not to mention the god damn migraine, but eventually, when I could see again, I relaxed.
“I’m so sorry, Jax…” Oracle whispered to me, and I winced, as even that low volume felt like she was screaming in my ear.
“It… it’s… okay…” I ground out, forcing myself to breathe through it. It was a weird sensation, having a spell fail. Not only were you useless for casting for a good long while afterwards, but your mana system also seemed to be actually damaged by it, as was your physical form.
“Just meditate if you can…” she whispered again, and I bit down on another groan before sitting up and choking down the vomit that tried to escape as the room spun.
Another half an hour, and I was at last able to lose myself in my meditation.
An hour later, and I felt Oracle start to cast, a soothing sensation building and sweeping through me, as I tried determinedly to build a third layer of compression.
I felt the weave flow through me, tightening in my truncated left arm, and a slow itch began to build. I doubled down, trying frantically to ignore it, but the longer I did that, the more the compression failed.
Soon, my second box collapsed, followed by my first, and the soothing, cooling breeze that surrounded me from my ‘Peace’ ability died away, as I opened my eyes and grabbed at my left arm, scratching at the newly formed skin.
My arm was growing before my eyes. Inch by inch, it stretched, the flesh bubbling out as the hand grew inside. It was freaky as all hell to watch, and I had to stop and meditate three times, but eventually, I was whole again, and I looked at my left arm in wonder.
I flicked the fingers, rolling them and twisting my wrist, feeling the smoothness of the motion, and comparing it to the way my right worked, as I realized that this rebuild had been done to a higher standard than the original growth was.
“Is this…?” I asked slowly and Oracle nodded.
“It’s brought you closer to your genetic ideal by seven percent. The nerves are stronger, the bones purer; even the hairs have less contaminants in them,” she said slowly. “But… we were wrong. This is your left arm closer to ideal by seven percent, not your overall body. So yeah, it’d take about a week of constant work to have your arm alone perfect…”
“Fuck,” I grumbled, thinking about just how difficult this path would be. “I thought Nerin could do this?” I asked, and she nodded.
“She can, but in a different way, and at a far higher cost. Her version of improvement removes the impurities; it doesn’t rebuild to the maximum efficiency.”
“Damn,” I muttered. “At least I’ve got my arm back, though…” I said slowly, my stomach rumbling. I looked around and saw that Bane’s bedroll was gone, and instead, Tang sat with his back against the door, watching me, the pair having swapped over at some point while I was distracted.
“Don’t even think about testing out the ‘feeling’ of that new arm while I’m here.” Tang warned, and I laughed, getting a smile from him and Oracle.
“Ah, you wish… admit it, that’s why you swapped with Bane, in the hope of a show!” I threw back to him and he laughed. I grinned and shook my head as I turned back to Oracle.
“Right, then; I’m getting dressed, and then we’re getting the goddamn potions done,” I said, even as Tang got some more food out.
“I’d suggest you eat before you work with the potions. You know, in case you end up snacking and poisoning yourself,” he suggested, and I grimaced but took the hint.
Ten minutes later, I was spreading the various herbs and ingredients out around myself, looking them over and trying to decide where to start.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The next ten minutes was spent reviewing all I knew about the herbs, and more specifically, about Alchemy itself.
There was something missing here. I could literally feel that I didn’t understand this in the right way, like I was using a car to drive forwards and backwards, only clutching the steering wheel to make sure it stayed straight, yet never really understanding that the car could actually turn corners.
I looked at the ingredients from every conceivable angle, using my Greater Examination on them again and again. I got extra information, telling me what three, and sometimes four, of the uses of the ingredients were, but somehow, something was still missing.
I tried to shake the feeling off, forcing myself to go ahead, mixing up a basic batch of mana regeneration potions, then pouring them into smaller vials, and staring in dissatisfaction at the finished, weak product.
I
knew I was doing something wrong; I just couldn’t figure out what.
I tucked the vials away, then summoned another fountain of cool, clear water, washing out the collection of old vials I’d accumulated. I felt ready for another attempt, when I paused, looking at the way the water flowed down between the floorboards and seeped into the lower levels of the ship.
I ignored the muffled, shouted complaints of the researcher who had apparently chosen to remain in the room directly below me, and I concentrated, feeling the idea, a breakthrough just out of reach.
Water…
Flowing down, seeping into the cracks, and passing through…
Not water… MANA!
My eyes flared open as I suddenly realized what I was missing. These potions almost all did ‘magical’ things; they healed us, they altered us; hell, the goddamn potion I’d poured onto the Lich had literally summoned an Earth Golem. These weren’t effects a go damn cocktail should have; they were spells in liquid form!
A damn mojito shouldn’t make your wounds close, after all!
I grabbed a mana potion and glared at it, feeling Oracle moving closer. She knew I was on the verge of something and remained silent, but the reassurance I felt from her was enough to guide me. I reached out, focusing, and attempting to build a spell the way I’d seen her do it earlier.
I used ‘Greater Examination’ as the base, then took other sections from my knowledge, ‘guidance’ and ‘aiming’ portions from the ‘Magic Missiles’, the ‘testing’ and ‘identification’ from Cleansing Fire, and I layered them atop each other. Oracle reached out and ‘smoothed’ the edges, pushing the spell around until the sections seemed to lock together, almost like a jigsaw.
Congratulations!
You have created a new spell: ‘Organic Examination.’
The world around you is filled with information. The plants, animals, and the very elements interact with each other, and for the first time, you can see this too, even if only at a very basic level.
Cost: 10 mana per second active.