She had a point. There had been no further attacks since we reclaimed the emergency drive room, but that was no reason to assume our sanctuary would last forever.
I remembered the three voices that had spoken to me earlier, their bloodthirsty desire for Vessa’s flesh-body driving every word, and suppressed a shudder. I will get stronger, I silently promised. And I will help those I care for to get stronger as well.
We carried Vessa back to her capsule, because she was still too weak to stand on her own power. Hopefully that would change for her soon, but in the meantime, I was determined to do all I could for her. I took comfort in the fact that she at least seemed happier and healthier, now that she had eaten more and had changed into clean clothing.
I turned to show Nova where to stand, but my childhood friend was already walking to the proper location. Hopefully she would explain to me just what Vessa had already imparted to her when they had merged. For all I knew, Nova should very well be the one showing me around now.
“Jasper,” she whispered, sounding uncertain again. “I haven’t forgotten that we still need to talk. There just hasn’t been a good time yet.”
Is it about what you told me before? I thought to myself. Your confession, the one you made because you thought you were about to die anyway?
“You’re right,” I said instead, “things have been too busy for us to have a private conversation. And I don’t know what private means anymore, frankly, because I’m still trying to work out exactly how you’re connected to Vessa.”
“Me, too,” the blonde woman admitted. “And I think the same is true for me—I mean, her,” she added in a low voice.
That was even more confusing, especially since Nova was supposedly a part of Vessa to begin with. Then again, there were parts of my body that I used all the time but didn’t fully understand either. I desperately told myself that those facts were close to the same thing.
“Why don’t we talk when we return?” I offered, figuring that my friend was about to make that exact suggestion herself. She nodded gratefully, closing the matter for now.
Nestor squeaked as he scampered up my shoulder, apparently just waking up from a nap. I looked over to Vessa and saw her yawn as well, looking far more tired than she had been a moment ago.
“Sorry,” she said as she waved a hand over her mouth. “Hope you two weren’t talking to me a minute ago. I’m going to be sleeping while you’re gone, but that won’t affect your ability to return. Just pull on your link to my ship-body and it will activate automatically, just like it always does. And Jasper?” She stopped yawning long enough to glare at me. “Don’t get injured again, and make me think you died.”
“Deal,” I said, not wanting to repeat the experience either.
“I won’t let it happen,” Nova said firmly, already gripping her war-baton.
“Good enough,” Vessa said as she pressed a button and closed her eyes. “Be safe, the both of you. And come back soon.”
With that farewell, we faded from Vessa’s world of metal and blue light, and arrived somewhere bright and warm.
CHAPTER FOUR
Sunshine spilled over me as my feet touched soft grass. Nova arrived right beside me, golden hair whipping through the air as she raised her weapon in a ready stance, but nothing attacked us as we took a moment to gain our bearings. I took a deep breath of air and surveyed our surroundings as Nestor sniffed the air for potential predators.
All-clear, the little mouse sent to my mind. We-safe.
I took my bonded companion’s word for it as I took in the waving green plains spreading out before us. Here and there, small trees jutted out from the ground, big enough to provide shade, but nowhere near the size of the giant pines growing on Lunei’s world. Patches of the red dirt clustered around their roots, giving us a reason to walk under their limbs. The air was certainly warm, but not uncomfortably so. I suspected I would have thought differently before my first Advancement, and especially in my former weakened body.
“This looks...” Nova spoke up as she took in the giant expanse of grass and sky. “Like it should be familiar.”
“That’s because places almost exactly like this used to exist back on Earth,” I answered as I walked forward, savoring the feel of the sun and wind on my skin. “The country my father came from had great plains like this in the middle of it, before it was absorbed by the Glorious State. You probably lived near one just like this, back when you were too young to remember, before the Republic began its displacement programs. A few of these plains might even still be there, just quarantined off for unknown purposes.”
“Why would they do that?” Nova said as she followed me toward the closest tree. “I understand timber has its uses, but why get rid of great plains of grass? It’s not like they were making an effort to create more housing.”
That last bit was true. For the last decade, the global government had chosen to contain its population by just stacking housing on top of housing. But I had asked my father this very question, so I gave Nova the answer he had given me.
“Certain landmasses serve as identifying features for people,” I said to her. “They remind them that they came from a certain place, have a certain history, had a culture of their very own before the time of the Global Republic. The Glorious State didn’t want any number of people to find common ground, so they just stacked us all together and put up enough surveillance to make us too afraid to talk to each other, much less be able to unite and rise up.”
Nova didn’t answer me immediately. Instead she frowned as we kept walking toward the closest tree.
“I hate that I can’t call that idea ridiculous,” she finally said, staring forward. “And I hate that I never noticed it myself. I was committed to fixing everything from the inside, thinking there was a rot I could cleanse, instead of realizing that the whole thing needed to be pulled down.”
“When we get stronger, we will do exactly that,” I promised. “All the dragons and bureaucrats combined won’t be enough to stop us then.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Nova said as we reached the shade of the small tree.
Nestor sniffed again, but nothing lurked in the tree except for a few bird-like creatures that immediately flew off. I watched them head to a new-growth forest in the distance before kneeling down and examining the dirt. It looked to be exactly the kind Vessa had asked us to collect, so I opened my pack and began scooping handfuls into a partition on the front of the satchel. I had to dig a little, but there was just enough to collect everything I needed all at once, though I had to work carefully around a patch that looked disturbingly similar to a large ant mound.
Meanwhile, my Soulscape had begun absorbing from the environment all on its own. It had already swallowed great gulps of air while I had been walking, and now that my hands were close to the ground, it started sucking up every spare particle it could. I had to rein it in the entire time I collected samples for Vessa, so when I finally let it loose, it tried to turn my palm into an angry vacuum cleaner. Twigs, dirt, and loose bark tumbled into the invisible hole in my palm even when my hand was several inches away from touching anything.
I jumped up and let out a surprised yelp when a small worm was pulled out of the ground, tumbling inside my spiritual world. I shook my hand as hard as I could to try and get the creature out, but my planet just spun happily as it absorbed its first living creature, paying no heed to the angry thoughts I directed toward it. A mere moment later, the worm shot back out of my palm, wiggling its way down into the dirt and probably frightened out of its little invertebrate mind.
But just before it vanished, I detected the tiniest trace of essence from it. Somehow, its interaction with my Soulscape had refined it slightly, putting the primitive creature on the path to becoming a full-fledged Sourcebeast.
“Sorry,” Nova said when she finally stopped giggling. “But the way you jerked around was hilarious. What exactly happened back there?”
“My Soulscape decided it wanted s
omething, and forgot that it needed to notify me before collecting it,” I grumbled, glowering at my own palm in frustration. “I don’t understand how the thing can have a mind of its own.”
“It doesn’t,” Nova answered. “Didn’t Vessa explain? Your Soulscape is part of you. It’s both a reflection of your personality and a visualization of certain ideals you hope to achieve.”
“Now you’re telling me that I secretly want to start swallowing worms,” I glared at my best friend. “Enough for it to be a key personality trait.”
“Actually, no. I haven’t said anything about worms yet,” she replied with a playful smirk. “That confession was entirely on you.”
Oh, well played, I thought irritably, and turned my focus directly onto my asinine inner orb.
To my surprise, I could now find a little worm traveling around on the surface of my planet, digging through the dirt I had absorbed earlier. The creature was translucent, like my Soulscape itself, but otherwise it was an exact copy of the poor creature my Soulscape had sucked up.
Including the trace of essence energy the creature had recently gained.
I turned my gaze from my internal planet and knelt down over the mound I had noticed earlier.
“Jasper?” Nova asked in a confused voice. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to understand more about my Soulscape,” I answered as I carefully poked at the mound, hoping its inhabitants would be different than the fire ants now commonly found throughout the Global Republic.
A tiny head poked out of the mound and waved its antennae about, trying to find the source of the disturbance to its home. It climbed the rest of the way out, looking for all the world like the ants I had come to hate on the city streets, except that it was smaller, darker in color, and had much longer antennae.
And, since it did not immediately decide to kill me and all that I loved, it was definitely not a fire ant.
“Jasper, that was just a joke,” Nova said anxiously. “I didn’t really mean you should go around collecting bugs now. That would be weird.”
“Hush, Nova,” I admonished. “Destiny calls.”
I poked the mound again, and a flurry of the tiny arthropods responded. They scrambled out of the mound to begin defending and investigating, which was just what I wanted.
My Soulscape pulsed eagerly as it activated its suction function. Ants and particles of dirt tumbled upward, disappearing upon contact. Moments later, my spinning planet spat them back out, with enhanced, essence-carrying copies now recreating their mound on my tiny world’s surface.
I stood up, pleased with my success. Each ant had less than a full mote of essence, but there had been almost a hundred of them, and their presence seemed to be improving the planet itself. The spinning world grew ever so slightly before my eyes, causing a host of tiny changes I would need more time to understand.
“Oh, right,” Nova said in relief as I rose to my feet. “You just have a collection-type Soulscape. That makes a little more sense. I think,” she added skeptically.
“It’s a grabby, greedy little thing, but Vessa said I should feed it whenever I have the opportunity,” I replied, remembering to start sending my battery ring back and forth from the world. “Speaking of which, I never found out anything about your Soulscape, or how you even learned about it.”
“I learned a lot of things when I merged with Vessa,” Nova said with a smile. “My Soulscape is probably my favorite thing, but I can’t show you here because we might draw attention. And I don’t want to tell you yet, because it would spoil the surprise.”
That was annoying, but I decided not to argue with her.
“Just promise me that you’ll tell me about it when I actually need to know,” I replied. “I don’t want to start throwing fire around and have it get sucked into a magical sword you have or something.”
“It’s not a weapon,” Nova said as she shook her head. “I’d have given the baton back to you if it was. It just helps me move and heal. And inspire,” she added with a smile. “But yeah, I’ll tell you more in a bit. Just let a girl have her secrets, okay, Jasper?”
“Fine,” I told her, turning to leave the tree’s shade. “But as punishment, you have to help me find more bugs.”
The blonde woman groaned as she walked quickly to keep up with me.
“Jasper, I really think Vessa had something more dignified in mind for your training.”
“Maybe,” I said with a shrug, before looking over at Nestor. You’ve been rather patient, little friend. Would you like to start looking around?
Yes-yes! my fluffy friend squeaked. I-scout!
I grinned as he sped off, privately impressed. ‘Scout’ seemed like it was a new word for Jasper. The little mouse’s speech was improving rapidly, and I suspected he would soon be able to talk more.
For now, though, he seemed content to exasperate Nova by pointing out the location of every ant, grasshopper, and beetle he could find, to my Soulscape’s semi-sentient delight.
“Actually, come to think of it,” I mused as I knelt over an isolated patch of grass. “I think I might even be able to...” I trailed off, holding my hand over one of the green blades.
My Soulscape seemed to hesitate for a moment, then made a decision and sucked up the entire plant, blade, roots, and soil. It spun more forcefully, as if it was struggling to digest a meal, then finally popped the plant back into the earth, leaving a spiritual version of the plant inside my inner world. My Soulscape had placed it next to the rest of the dirt and water I had absorbed before, and fortunately there was more than enough for the little plant to live off of.
The plant now generated the tiniest shred of essence, and, to my surprise, it added a small trickle of qi into my inner world. The real plant seemed to be doing the same thing.
“This is amazing,” I breathed as I tried to comprehend exactly what was happening.
“I think you need a new perspective, Jasper,” Nova said dubiously. “Because whatever you’re doing still looks weird to everyone else.”
“Good thing the only people out here are the ones that have to put up with me, then,” I grinned roguishly, moving to suck up the next patch of grass and discovering that my Soulscape and storage ability had increased in size. “Nova, the reason I’m doing this is because it’s augmenting my Soulscape. In these past few minutes, I’ve increased its total essence by almost a third, and it’s starting to generate its own qi as well.”
“Wait, what?” my friend said in surprise, eyes widening slightly. “I thought your Soulscape just stored and refined objects?”
“It does that,” I affirmed, “but now it’s started making little copies of whatever I add to it, even if it doesn’t keep the item itself. And both the living things and their copies generate Source energy after my planet refines them.”
Nova blinked at that news.
“That really is amazing,” she said. “Improving a practitioner’s Soulscape is supposed to be really difficult. It normally only happens when we Draw or Advance. It’s a shame you don’t have a combat-type Soulscape, or that would be an even bigger benefit.”
We’ll see about that, I thought to myself defiantly. I could already see that my Soulscape had a lot more combat potential than Vessa or Nova suspected, and I’d take its current form over something like an extra weapon any day of the week. In fact...
I verified that I still had spiritual copies of the two improvised daggers I had managed to store in my Soulscape just before I battled the cage drake on Earth. I had lost the originals during the fight, as well as the spear I had worked so hard to improve, but I carefully pulled on the shivs, and found that they reacted, lifting from the planet’s surface. I carefully let them go and devised a plan for them in my next combat.
I need you to find me some rocks, I sent to Nestor. They need to be bigger than the pebbles I’ve shown you before, but no bigger than half the size of my fist.
We’ll see just how useful I can be in combat, I promised myself as I ros
e and met Nova’s gaze. “Thanks for waiting. We can get going now.”
“Good.” The blue-eyed woman nodded. “No offense, Jasper, but I’m not sure we can spend all day collecting bugs and grass, even if you actually have a use for it. There’s no telling when something will go wrong and we’ll have to return to Vessa’s ship-body.”
“Good point.” I agreed. “Let’s go to the next location, then. I’ll only start collecting when we stop for Vessa’s items.”
That was not technically true, as I continued absorbing the air around us as we walked, but Nova did not seem to notice or care. She steered us to the next location Vessa had given her, which turned out to be one of the lakes Vessa had asked us to collect water from. The fields of grass eventually parted to reveal a wide basin, with the forest of young trees we had noticed earlier on the far bank. Nestor appeared at my side to hand off another rock, the fourth one he had found so far, and then shared his impulse to scout the edge of the lake and the nearby forest.
Great idea, little friend, I praised the mouse as my Soulscape absorbed the rock he gave me. Continue to be careful, and flee from any people you see.
Yes-yes, the little mouse sighed in my mind. Learned-learned.
He darted off, and I suppressed a sigh of my own. The poor little mouse’s loss of innocence had been a painful experience. I desperately hoped it would never repeat for him.
And I hoped I would one day encounter Koram again, and be strong enough to give him a proper reckoning.
Nova watched his departure for a moment before walking up to the pool and scanning its surface intently. “The water looks safe. Jasper, do you or Nestor see anything nearby?”
“Just those birds that flew away before,” I said, spotting flecks of white and gray in one of the taller trees. “And that tree at the very edge of the woods looks to have the kind of fruit that Vessa wants us to eat and collect.”
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