Prysmcat

  Okay, the thick rug under me was soft, though the floor under it was hard. The air smelled... well, it smelled warm and faintly earthy, really, but it was a comfortable sort of scent. I felt my ears twitch, seeking sounds of any kind, but there were none, just a tranquil quiet.

  Quincunx. Right.

  I opened my eyes on the rose-and-indigo room, and rolled to all fours, then got to my feet, my tail moving to counterbance and making the motion easier.

  Everything seemed intact, although that ball of light had been so hot it was a wonder it hadn’t burned the fur right off me.

  I needed to get back to Serru and Aryennos. They were waiting for me.

  I took a final look around the room. It coordinated with my clothes, that was a nice touch. I settled my too-rge backpack more comfortably, although the buttercup yellow and bright blue did the opposite and cshed with my clothes, and stepped through the flowery curtain. The rough surface of the downward slope gave plenty of purchase for my paw-pads, and I strolled down it easily; there was a comfortable amount of light to let me see on the way back to the surface world.

  The sun was high above, but I felt my eyes adjust immediately to the difference in lighting as I left the stairway and emerged into the stone-ringed clearing. The road was right there, and while the encounter on the way in had disrupted my sense of time and distance somewhat, I didn’t think it would take me all that long to get back to the ring road and find Serru.

  Possibly it took longer than I expected. This forest was full of so many fascinating distractions! Birds! Butterflies! Intriguing sounds and scents that I couldn’t identify but wished I could! Even the pnts I paused to gather smelled good, and I found myself with a whole new appreciation for textures and colours.

  This really was a gorgeous world. So what if some of aspects of it were cloned over and over? It was still all put together beautifully, overflowing with life in its own way. It had dangers, sure, otherwise there’d be no need for healers, and there were always the two looming shadows over everything, but it was also peaceful and prosperous beyond anywhere in my own world. That rabbit over there, nibbling orange clover, wasn’t scared because it didn’t need to be.

  I found Serru before I reached the sign for the shelter: she was, unsurprisingly, out gathering, within sight of the road.

  “Hi, Serru! I’m back!”

  She paused, taking stock. I’d never noticed before that she smelled nice, sort of like a very gentle mint with a touch of something else green and an even fainter lic scent. “Nathan?”

  “Of course I’m Nathan. I...” I stopped. I’d come out of the first Quincunx site feeling absolutely normal but changed.

  And this was...

  This wasn’t how I’d arrived here. This wasn’t how I’d walked out of the first Quincunx site, either.

  I was significantly less tall than Serru, and I was more slender. I really had no idea what sex I was. My body was covered in short sleek fur, which seemed to be primarily tabby but my extremities had variable amounts of white, and the bit I could see of my belly showed white there too. I ran both hands up the sides of my head, where I’d felt twitching, and found catlike ears. That matched with the long striped tail. My feet weren’t human feet, or centaur hooves, they were feline paws, with the ankle/hock joint a short distance above the ground but my knees in approximately the normal pce, letting me walk upright.

  My clothes had changed too. The top was simple enough, more or less just a cropped T-shirt of soft lightweight material. The pants were a lot more complicated. They were completely open up the outside, for one thing, other than a small neat tie at knee-level and a rger one at each hip holding them closed. The two legs appeared to be separate aside from overpping across my pelvis and sharing the same waistband, which was split at the sides; my tail fit easily through the overpped slit that ran from front to back, and I supposed I’d be able to go to the bathroom without needing to untie my pants, just by parting that slit, with any anatomy.

  I did turn my back to Serru briefly to check, and ascertained that one, I was male, and two, my penis was tucked into a furry sheath that held it close against my body, which would probably make the odd construction of my clothes more practical. It was all indigo-blue, like original denim, but it had edging and an abstract quiet pattern in rosy pink.

  There was a metal bracelet around my left wrist, rosy-pink metal with an abstract swirly design inid in indigo-blue; two rings matched, on my index and ring fingers. Linking them all was a triangur web in leafy green, supporting a pink flower, each of the five petals shaped like a heart, with a second yer of petals behind them and offset halfway in indigo.

  “Nathan? Are you all right?”

  “I’m a cat.”

  “A felid. Yes. Do you have new skills as well?”

  “I... good question.” I brought up my interface.

  Instead of golden-yellow or greyish-white, it was a warm deep rose. Otherwise, it looked much the same. I spun the central dial, read the description above it, and spun it again, then, incredulously, a third time.

  “I can... make potions? I can see lists of ingredients that I need for each and a diagram of how to y them out on...” I abandoned the interface in favour of checking my backpack.

  There were new items in it, and I pulled them out to look at them: a round tray of polished ceramic with the faintest tint of pink and painted with intricate designs, a mortar and pestle made of pale marble with pink veining, a cutting board of pale wood, a new knife with a white-and-pink marble handle.

  “If your centaur self is a healer, it would appear that your felid self is an alchemist,” Serru said. “That expins the ring-bracelet’s design. And that is another very useful skill, one that complements the first.”

  “It does,” I said faintly, shoving everything back into my bag with less care than it probably deserved. “I don’t... I feel...” I leaned against the nearest tree and closed my eyes, trying to concentrate on breathing. My earlier rather exuberant high spirits vanished like ghosts at dawn.

  Serru came closer and id a hand lightly on my shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

  “I can’t be three different people! Which one is me?” It came out sounding more pintive than I intended. “If the next three sites all do the same kind of thing, by the time I can get home I’m not even going to remember who I am!”

  “You will.” She shifted her grip to both of my shoulders. “Listen to me. You are yourself, always. You are my friend Nathan who came here from another world, and who has spent a lifetime devoting everything to helping other people who are in urgent need. You are the sibling of your sister and the child of your parents. Nothing can change who you are. Looking different and acquiring new skills does not change what lies inside.”

  Her tone and her presence helped as much as her words did.

  I took one more deep breath, opened my eyes, and nodded. “Sorry.”

  She just smiled and wrapped both arms around me. That was extremely pleasant, although it underscored the fact that she was most of a head taller. “It’s understandable. I’m not sure I can imagine what all this feels like for you.”

  “Overwhelming? Thank you.”

  “You’re very welcome.”

  “Where’s Aryennos?” I pulled away only with some reluctance.

  “Back at our campsite. He apparently managed to buy a notebook and pen while we were in Iguana Meadows. He has been spending his time writing down everything he can think of about where you come from and what has happened since you arrived here.”

  “Oh dear. Well, at least that should have kept him quiet.”

  “You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Between the questions and the requests that I listen to passages and comment on both the accuracy and the style, not so much.”

  “Oh, man.”

  “I have, I admit, been out gathering much more frequently than I otherwise might, even though little will grow back that quickly.”

  “I’m sorry. Maybe we shouldn’t have brought him along.”

  She sighed. “All the arguments he offered for why he would be useful are still valid. I would just prefer... a little less chatter. But it is the same disagreement I have with my brother and two of my sisters and several cousins, who are all entirely too outgoing for my comfort, and I tolerate it from them, so I will tolerate Aryennos for however long it is beneficial to this quest.”

  The shelter was in a clearing... sort of.

  I saw the same sort of little garden I’d seen near the Grassnds Quincunx and at simpler campsites since, a fountain and benches and a picnic table, all surrounded by food-and-tea vegetation that included red berries.

  I saw a smaller wooden building, and now I recognized the signs that meant it housed a bank and a post office, the small unstaffed kind.

  And I saw the shelter itself, which appeared to be made of actual living trees pnted so that they grew together, although the dense vines that climbed and enwrapped them made it impossible to see if there were any gaps aside from the ones that allowed access to the interior.

  “Holy crap. Is that seriously alive?”

  “Mostly. A living roof is, apparently, quite difficult, so it was built and then fastened to the trees so that they would absorb the corners and edges of it. It would be drafty during a storm in the Shallows or the Highnds, but for the rain and limited wind that happens in the Forest, it’s a very comfortable shelter.”

  “Wow. Aryennos isn’t outside writing?”

  “I made him go inside when I’m not here. He gets so intent on his work that he pays no attention to his surroundings. I can come right up behind him and y a hand on his shoulder. If I were a mossling or zombie...” She trailed off. “I have been told that they cannot go into an occupied shelter any more than they can go into a house, but I’m unsure if it’s true. At least he is less visible inside and there is a better chance he will notice someone coming inside before they get into contact range.”

  “That makes sense. I’m sorry it’s so much extra work for you.”

  She shrugged. “It is, at moments, not unlike a camping trip with my youngest siblings, or my oldest sibling’s children.”

  The inside of the shelter was much like I’d seen elsewhere: secure stone firepit in the centre with a metal grating over it, little half-bath with toilet and sink tucked into one corner but instead of a door it just had a sort of living baffle wall of vegetation, metal rings sunk into the trees which I thought were probably for tying horses, a wooden trough. The bunks were wooden-framed with thick leather surfaces. Light trickled in between the tree-trunks, tinted green by the leaves of the vines, but it was nonetheless secure and comfortable.

  The roof had wooden framing but a lot of gss, which let natural light in, but it too reached us through foliage, in this case the canopy leaves of the trees that comprised the walls.

  I liked the effect.

  Aryennos was sitting near the firepit, scribbling in a book. He looked up, and his eyes widened.

  “Still Nathan,” Serru said, before he could say anything. “With a new form and new skills. And no, he won’t be able to tell you what happened any more than he can about the first one.”

  “That’s... wow,” Aryennos said. “I was trying not to expect anything, since we’re dealing with the most powerful magic in the world. I think my ck of expectation wasn’t strong enough.”

  “It was startling the first time, as well,” Serru said.

  “It’s a tad bit mindblowing from here too,” I said drily. “Y’know, two extra forms that are species that don’t even exist in my world and they come with extra abilities that are sort of but not really like what I’m used to doing. But I really need to do something right now. It’s really important.”

  “Oh? What?” Aryennos asked.

  “I really, really need to check out my new skills.” I unloaded my new tools out of my backpack onto one of the leather bunks to use as a table, then perched on the edge. “Okay, what would be fun to try?”

  My friends both looked startled, but honestly, with a cool new set of abilities, how could I not test them immediately?

  I reached out to spin the wheel slowly so I could see what the possibilities were. “Most of these are useful but boring. All the usual: Quickheal, Cleanser, Ointment, Antidote, Panacea, Anodyne... By the way, what happens if you take an Anodyne potion and you aren’t in pain?”

  “Nothing at all,” Aryennos said. “Obviously. There’s nothing for it to act on.”

  “That is much better and safer than in my world. I’m not going to depress you by getting into that. Or depress me, for that matter. Lulbye makes you sleep, maybe I should try that when my dreams are bad. Refresh gives you energy and alertness like you just woke up... couldn’t that get kind of addictive?”

  “The effects grow weaker with each use,” Serru said. “Whether it’s the raw yellow berries or the prepared potion, after a few uses it will have little or no effect, and it will take an extended period of avoiding it before it can be used again. It can be helpful in an emergency situation when there is no time to sleep, but you couldn’t use it long enough to grow dependent on it. Also, you will eventually need the same amount of sleep. You’re only deying it.”

  “We’re ruling out multiple dangers from my world in a hurry, here. Soce. I keep meaning to ask about that. You guys don’t have mental health issues, why do you need psychoactive meds?”

  “Again,” Serru said patiently, “as with Lulbye and Refresh, the effects decrease over time. Everyone has the occasional day when absolutely everything goes wrong. There was a request for specific ingredients that are hard to find and you have them but you arrive to find that the merchant buying them just left town an hour ago, the local general store is currently out of tents to buy, the innkeeper is having an argument with her husband and is borderline rude, a startled goose runs right into and over you and leaves you with minor injuries and serious damage to your favourite clothes, the person you were looking forward to meeting up with and spending some time with arrives only long enough to say that they have changed their mind... Individually, unpleasant but not catastrophic, but the cumutive effect is draining and it can be difficult to stop thinking about it.”

  “Soce just helps you rex for a few hours and not feel so angry or frustrated or sad,” Aryennos said. “So your mind isn’t going in circles and making it worse. It isn’t going to do much if something really terrible is going on, but for everyday stress, it helps. As long as you don’t use them too often.”

  “Wow,” I said. “No side effects? No impairment?”

  “No. Not many potions do.”

  “I can think of days I could have really used something like that. That sounds fun, let’s make one of those. I have extra sand... raindrop bluebells times two... sweet orange clover times two... I think I have rosemint, just one of that... Serru? What’s pearlhorn? This calls for one.”

  “I have some,” she said, rummaging in her satchel. She passed me a handful of rosemint, which had leaves with a bumpy texture and rounded frilly edges that shaded into rose-red and a minty scent with a hint of sweetness, and kept looking.

  “I don’t remember the name. Have we come across it?”

  “I gathered it before I met you. I didn’t sell it in Quailbrook because it grows in that area and the resident alchemist can acquire it easily, and it’s of no use to anyone but an alchemist. The price will be better in Coppersands, and much better if I wait until Whalesong Landing.” She presented me with a horn-shaped spike of white flowers that shimmered faintly in the sunlight.

  “You don’t mind?”

  “Of course not. I’d like to see you test your new skills.”

  “Besides,” Aryennos added, “potions and all sell for much higher prices than the individual ingredients separately.”

  “That makes sense,” I reflected.

  “That is not why,” Serru said. “We will have no difficulty with supplies, or with buying Nathan a change of clothes, three times over, in Coppersands, or even with enjoying the city a little before we travel on. I know the city well—there are only a handful of settlements I’m as familiar with.”

  “I’m costing you a lot,” I said. “If I can help pay for myself, I will. And this sounds like a really fun and effective way. Okay... strip all the flowers off the pearlhorn and the bluebells so I’m using just the flowers, not the stems... slice up the rosemint as fine as I can with the knife... and just use the clover as-is, that’s easy.”

  Serru handed Aryennos one of the metal cups from her satchel. “Start on the pearlhorn, please, I’ll do the bluebells.”