I place the bowls evenly spaced around the roughly triangular room. I then extract some more blood. I really have to do some proper research on potential cheap qi-conductive inks one of these days, using blood for all my non-permanent formations is kind of barbaric. It’s just that I haven’t found a good alternative that isn’t extremely expensive so far…
I look at the dozen bowls of fish cluttering the room around me. One big bowl is housing six fish, slowly swimming in circles. The bowls are all pretty big, more like big pots. The biggest one is nearly a bathtub, to be honest.
Semantics are less interesting than mana experiments though, so I return my focus to my work. I split the globule of blood into a dozen smaller droplets. I then use these to draw mana attraction formations again. Each small container with two fish gets a circle, each only attracting a single element of mana. I want to know what long exposure to a single negative or positive element of mana does.
The massive beast horde in the mana tornado clearing gathered there because of a higher mana density. I did some thinking and observed our mounts on the way here, and I don’t think that they were there just because of higher energy levels. I heavily suspect that animals need equal measures of positive and negative mana to properly integrate the power. Humans don’t seem to have this requirement, and I suspect that our sentience is the cause of that. Animals don’t really feel anger, fear, or joy; they have instincts.
Animals don’t start throwing tantrums when they are in pain; they become quiet and rest until the pain goes away. It never crosses their minds to be angry at the pain. Scared animals have their survival instincts kicking in with full force; happy animals are just high because their brain rewarded them with dopamine for a job well done. These are all just my observations though, so sue me if you disagree. Come up with definite proof, and I will change my mind, as usual.
Don’t even get me started on the behavioural changes between wild animals and domesticated ones. A couple of tens of thousands of years of selective breeding by sentient species tends to majorly fuck with animal behaviour routines.
Before my blue bear started forming its heartcore, it was still absorbing mana, and it did so in equal measure of positive and negative. I had to pull extra hard on the positive mana in the air to form qi when I was rebuilding my cultivation to the solid core stage. This made the mana levels a lot more equal. Instead of the usual imbalance of overflowing negative mana, the higher positive mana density caused the energies to be more in balance. This experiment will allow me to come to a conclusion about this point so I might be wrong about this all.
That gave me ideas for experiments. What happens if I drench a fish in plenty of balanced fire mana? Maybe I should snatch some fertilised fish eggs and expose them to weird mana combinations? What if I concentrate, for example, positive fire and negative nature mana?
My thoughts start spinning wildly again. Once I find an interesting research subject, I can get lost in it for years. I am not even doing something on the cellular level yet. Honestly, I am kind of proud of the fact that I’ve not even started messing with the DNA of local creatures, the stripping of my cultivation base must have taught me some restraint.
“TEACH, SHIP ON THE HORIZON!!!”
Wow, since when can Selis shout so loud? I wiggle my pinkie in my ear, no need for such volume. Although maybe she has a point to be slightly panicky, I’ve heard nothing but horror stories about ships that don’t pay the pirates and mages a lot of gold. From the conversations I’ve constantly been recording and analysing I can tell that even large bribes don’t guarantee safety, the only way to prevent a ship from being blown up or raided with any certainty is to hire a mage escort. The absurd price and high need for luxury prevent a lot of merchants from going that route though. Anyway, let’s go see what’s up.
I spot Selis high up in the mast. We created a wooden platform that can function as a crow’s nest on top of the mainmast. Selis is sitting on top of the platform, magnifying water lenses hovering in front of her single eye while occasionally petting her large black mount. Ket is behind the steering wheel, surrounded by the rest.
“I told you we should have gone the other way,” Angeta bristles with irritation.
“That would not have guaranteed anything; other ships could be that way.” Ket retorts.
“I think we can take them though…” Bord doesn’t add anything useful to the conversation.
“BLACK FLAG, THEY… Oh, hey Teach, I see a black flag with a bigger red flag, they have at least one fire mage!” Selis shouts from up high while enthusiastically waving at me.
I jump up to the platform and twist the air in front of my face. The ship’s sails are peeking over the horizon, the rest of the vessel not in view yet. I call down to Ket. “Take a hard turn to port; pretend to be fleeing for now.”
He looks confused for a second but turns the wheel anyway. I look at our lookout while giving her a thumbs up. “Good job Sel, I’ll be right back.”
I jump into Tree’s dimension while handing the necklace over to Lola. I hear her irritated squawking as she drops down to the deck, but I am in a hurry. I gather the leftover planks and rip the passive qi from the wood, turning it back into mundane boards. I jam plugs of wood through the planks at high speed, crafting a shoddily made little rowboat. Just big enough for seven people to float around in. I finish the thing in half a minute and spend ten more seconds making it look shabby and old. I finish stuffing dirt and dust in the cracks and jump back out on the deck, ignoring the irritated little furball.
“KET, retract the oars and disable the shield. Everyone gather!”
Selis begins clambering down the mast as the rest walk down the stairs to the middle of the deck. I pull the small boat from Tree and seat myself in the middle. I didn’t include any oars, not even a rudder, so we will be able to play the perfect ‘abandoned at sea’ card. My disciples all find places as I pull off my fancy silk vest, exposing the drab shirt beneath. I also rub some dirt in my face and on my clothes. I drop another handful of dirt on the boat’s floor and pass some to my disciples.
I explain once everyone is seated. “Here, make yourselves dirty. Selis, can you lower the ship?”
They all look bewildered and completely lost at my actions. Selis looks around a bit as she pours out her qi, sinking it in the water around the Ascent.
“Lower us slowly, make it look like we disappear over the horizon.”
She frowns in concentration, and I feel the water around us deform into a bowl shape. A minute later, Selis is covered in sweat while holding the massive amount of water down. I give her a nod.
“Thanks, make sure to catch this little boat.” I pat the crude railing of the rowboat we are all sitting in. I touch the Ascent’s deck while hanging over the edge and focus. I first cast a barrier around my experimentation room. That way, no qi will enter that space and my mana experiments are just halted instead of ruined. I then pull the ship inside my necklace and drop it back into the clearing. Tree deforms the ground in preparation, creating a hull-shaped indent in the grass. The animals shift around a bit, but seeing the familiar clearing once again, they don’t panic. They start breathing in qi immediately.
I focus back on the outside world once that is done and see that Selis has created a water pillar on which we now float. She slowly lets gravity equalise the sea surface, relief visible on her face as the waves start rocking the small rowboat. She slumps down and leans against Angeta as she catches her breath.
Everyone is staring at me, so I think I better explain. “We just had a mutiny; we were overpowered and dropped overboard to distract the pirates from this ship.” I pull a rough crate from my ring and fill it with some materials and food. “This is our bribe to the pirates; our previous fellow sailors weren’t cruel enough to dump us overboard without anything to our names. It won’t be enough to let us go free, but it should buy us enough time to gather sufficient information from those guys. I think they’ll just lock us up and sell us as slaves
later. I also want to observe a proper mage before we start fighting one. Those mages you guys fought in Tower City are just scrubs sent to the army, and I don’t know enough about proper powerful ones to be safe.”
Ket’s face shows understanding immediately. Angeta is grumbling and muttering to herself. “I will punch them off the boat if they dare to put a collar around my neck.”
“We’ll just play prisoner for a bit, okay? Maybe that pirate boat has some good stuff we can steal later.” Their eyes all start to sparkle as they think of that possibility. Time to deliver the finishing strike. “I’ll cook some good food once this is over, okay?”
Their half-convinced faces now turn greedy. I grin back at them.
Chapter two
Irritation
I almost forgot about Lola! I look into her eyes as she sits on my shoulder, those black orbs staring back at me unblinkingly. I’m pretty sure that this entire plan will fail the moment they see a castaway floating in a small boat with a little bunny on his shoulder, no matter the story he tells. “Lola, do this.”
I point a finger in front of her nose on which I collect some qi. ‘NOT IMPORTANT, JUST SCENERY, IGNORE ME, NOT HERE, NOT HERE, LALALALAA’
I see her eyes glide off my finger. She shakes her head and takes another look, only to stare off into the distance in a daze. I reduce the amount of qi hovering around my finger by half, and she snaps out of it. “Get it?”
I spend half an hour trying to teach her how to become practically invisible. She doesn’t seem to understand what I am doing with the qi though, and the unknown ship is now clearly visible, and it’s getting closer. Then a brilliant idea strikes me.
I pull some thick cloth from my ring. It looks like finely spun black cotton, but it’s made from Demonic Weave Spider Silk. Those freaky, creepy crawlies use the stuff to make webs that are clearly visible at day but become impossible to spot at night. It collapses on top of prey bigger than a certain size, binding them up tight. The unfortunate being then becomes a handy takeaway meal to be consumed later.
The cloth has a silky-smooth finish, and I use a qi edge on my finger to cut it into shape. I sew it together with some Heavenly Weave Spider Silk; those slightly less freaky creepy crawlies make webs that are impossible to spot at day and are completely white.
Some fine qi work later and the item is finished. I integrate a few small qi formations into the material itself. One hides the wearer, the next keeps it stuck to whatever surface it is sat on, and the last is a self-cleaning function. The last one is the most complex, funnily enough, it slowly disintegrates anything that is not the object itself, hair or a living being with a sufficient consciousness.
I plop it on top of her head, which causes Selis to rub her eyes. She was looking at the bunny with twitching fingers again, but now has trouble locating the critter. The thing I just made to hide her in plain sight is a miniature pirate hat, of course! Including a small embroidered skull. I can rotate a part of the hiding formation to break the circuit, allowing the world to gaze upon her cuteness again when we are in safer waters.
The ship is getting closer now, and I observe it carefully. It has three masts and looks like one of those fat trading vessels from the Age of Sail. People in ragged clothes are running around and climbing the ropes. Their shabby states are starkly contrasted against the expensive looking leather and light mail armour and weapons I see a small fraction of the crew wearing.
Three people stand out, clustered in a group standing on the aft section, near the steering wheel. One has a telescope and is peering at us; another is dressed in fancy red robes, seated on a fancy chair holding a fancy staff. The last one is obviously the captain, the ridiculously large hat and big beard giving him away.
The fancy guy is not paying any attention to his surroundings, fully engrossed in snacking on something while being cooled down by more people in rags. I take a good look at his face, the colours he is wearing should indicate that he is a fire mage. And indeed, I see a permanent sneer on his face while his movements come across as twitchy.
I hold my head down as I school my face in a despondent and slightly scared expression. Let’s see how this goes.
⁂
Angeta is holding herself back, big time. She has to force her nails back inside her fingers constantly, the qi inside her body now allowing her a fair bit of control of the previously stationary pointed needles of horn. Every look the crew sends her way sends shivers running across her spine, and she is having flashbacks to when she first got captured. She was very lucky that some nobles pay big time for untainted slaves, else holding herself back would have been totally impossible instead of only slightly.
Teach had spun some sob story about being abandoned by lifelong friends, just so the cowardly backstabbers could run away. He bowed and scraped while offering the pompous looking guys on the boat the contents of the chest. It contained some bars of metal, a weapon or two and some food.
It seems to have worked, to her great surprise, because a ladder was hung on the side, allowing all seven to climb onboard. Once there, they were hauled in front of the captain and the mage. The mage didn’t cast a single glance their way, too busy with taking a little nap. The captain took one look and ordered them to the brig while he was rooting through their gift chest. Then some armoured fellows bound their hands in chains and steered them down a hatch on deck, guiding them down the stairs none too gently.
Her beastkin pride is now screaming at her not to take this kind of treatment. She is pretty sure that Teach can kill everyone on board with a single wave of his hand, and she should be able to cut her way through half the crew before meeting any serious resistance. That combined with the explosively grown strength of her fellow disciples allows her to keep calm as she is being appraised like livestock.
Murmured remarks about the best ports to sell this group of newly captured slaves reach her sensitive ears constantly. Every insult she stores in her memory, along with the face that it comes from. She wrinkles her nose a bit at the smell of all these people. Washing seems optional to everyone wearing rags, and the leather-wearing soldiers don’t smell much better.
The smells below decks are even worse, hammering her olfactory nerves with a myriad of sweat, rotting food, piss, and shit smells. Even a hint of something else. She forced her fellow disciples to take a plunge in the pool near Tree when they started to stink or to scrub themselves with qi, so it has been a while since her sensitive nose was invaded by something so foul.
She thought that the ship they had been building over the last few days was cramped below decks until she saw how small the hallways in this one are. They move slowly, shuffling past obstacles in single file. That weird smell grows stronger, and Angeta now recognises it as sex.
She breathes in through her nose deeply and regrets it immediately, but it confirms the smell of human and beastkin intercourse. She has not seen a single beastkin so far, so what…?
Teach stops for a single second, looking at a door he is about to walk past. Angeta hears muffled groans coming from beyond the wooden barrier. A hard to make out expression flashes across her Teacher’s face, something she has not seen him express before. He coughs into his hand, stealthily snapping his fingers as he does so.
He continues walking as if nothing happens, but the soft grunts have stopped. Angeta reasons that the sound was too quiet for humans to hear, as nobody reacts. The soldier behind her shoves her forward, and they reach an open space, as the group of cultivators is forcefully guided through strips of fabric hanging from the ceiling in rows. They descend another set of stairs, and metal bars come into view. A fat, bald guy wearing a leather apron looks up from a desk and stands up.
“Wheyre dihd ya fine these sods? I heird naw fihtin?”
Angeta blinks as she listens to the accent. The melodic sounds of the Shi-Eit Kingdom’s language are horribly butchered by this fat person into a crude, rough sounding speech.
“Floating on the sea, dropped by a runner. We’
ll catch up to them later today, so prepare for more fodder.” The lead soldier replies with a grin, his speech the smooth and snappy sounds of city folk.
The fat guy just grunts and pulls a big ring of keys from a hook behind him. “I’ll puht them in block fouwr.” He then moves around a corner, motioning for the rest to follow. Angeta nearly loses her shit as she rounds the corner herself.
She smelled more unwashed bodies once she stepped down the last set of stairs, both human and beastkin. She tried to mentally prepare herself but did not expect to see what she sees now. Rows and rows of densely packed bodies are chained to the floor, humans are allowed to sit in cramped spaces, but beastkin are stacked two high on top of each other at the minimum.
The variety of different skin colours, furs, horns, and ears is staggering. Scaled panther-kin are stacked upon long coated sheep-kin who lie next to feathered goats while surrounding yellow and purple humans. These ethnicities rarely come into contact with each other, their castes too different, but here they are forced to use each other as beds. Half of the soldiers have now turned around and are stomping back up the stairs. Three of the leather-clad humans still follow the group, some holding their noses in disgust.
The variety of humans is also rather wide, and Angeta sees humans with coloured skins for the first time. Brown, yellow, red, even some people with a blue tint to their complexion are chained down while sitting squeezed together. The rattling of chains is overloading her sensitive ears as some of the prisoners turn to take a look at what is happening. The majority doesn’t even bother to change position, apathetic looks on their faces.
“Okay, this was a mistake. I thought I could relax and pick up some good info by…” A soldier is about to strike Teach, but he casually blocks it and punches the guy in the gut, the chains around his hand rattling to the ground, broken. He moves quicker than Angeta can follow, and a fraction of a second later both the soldiers and the fat guy are splayed out cold on the ground. “…allowing us to be taken in as guests, but I have no desire to be stowed like livestock.”
The Dao of Magic: Book II Page 2