Dario scratched his head, nodding.
“Yep, we’re in a pickle alright.”
There was a long moment of silence as both of them watched how the bubbles stopped rising from the underwater beetle, too lost in thought to even comment on it.
“Actually,” Dario said, looking at her, “couldn’t you just weaken it first, and then we push through with a single blow? Once it becomes brittle, we could take it apart with more stealth in any case.”
“Weaken the stone? How would I do that?”
He picked up a stone from the ground and held it up into the light cast by Nika’s artefact.
“Well, the way it works for light Ki is that by controlling the aspect of luminosity, I can make things brighter,” he said, the stone lighting up briefly, “or darker,” he continued, the stone slowly losing its brightness before going entirely dark, as if veiled by shadow.
“You use something like stone Ki, right? Which I’m guessing includes the aspect of hardness, seeing how tough you can make your skin.”
Nika nodded hesitantly.
“So yeah, same thing. Instead of making something tougher, you just make it weaker?”
She coughed into her fist, seeming slightly uncomfortable for some reason.
“I’m afraid that your own skill with Ki control has given you some unrealistic expectations. What you propose might be possible, in theory, but to put something like that into practice… Well, it might take someone months, if not years of training.”
Dario had been grinning at the compliment, until the realization sank in. “Months?” he exclaimed, eyes widening a fraction. “No, we don’t have that kind of time.” He began to pace, stomach tightening as he thought of not making it back in time. Knowing his mother, she’d probably assume the worst, thinking him dead. There would be more than a few tears.
No, even though this place had all the promise of awesome treasure, it would have to be a short adventure. Another four days, perhaps five at the most. That didn’t mean it couldn’t be fun, they just really needed to get a move on.
“Look, you already have control over the aspect, that’s the hard part,” he said, speaking quickly as he continued to pace. “You’re already able to soften or harden your own skin, even. All you need to do is do the same thing to the wall. I’m sure you’ll crack it in no time. We can work on it together.”
He stopped pacing to look at Nika, who was watching him with folded arms and a raised eyebrow.
“We can give it a try, right? If it doesn’t work, we’ll just do it the hard way.”
“I would contend that squashing a handful of oversized beetles is easier than learning aspect abjuration in a short amount of time.”
“Huh. You didn’t strike me as someone who would back down from a challenge,” Dario said with a smirk.
She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, then let out a long sigh.
“Fine. Though it may be futile, it would be considerably safer, and it shouldn’t cost me more than a headache. I’ll agree to give it a serious attempt.”
During the next hours, spent in narrow corridors of jagged black stone with little light, it became clear to Dario that Nika did not use the word ‘serious’ lightly. She spent every second staring at the wall in the maze in deep concentration, pausing only to ask a question of how it felt when he executed the withdrawal of light.
To keep from fidgeting, he focused inward, trying to get a better feel for his new plant Ki. Around his eyes, his seams ran deep and wide, colored a light yellow to his inner sense from having been soaked in light Ki for years. Down through his shoulders and into his fingertips, they narrowed a bit, but still they were strong and clearly attuned to light.
Through the years, he hadn’t often needed to bring his Ki much lower than that. Where they snaked down from his chest, twisting around his organs, his seams were thinner and more neutral. Below his navel, a sprout of green Ki lingered, slowly wriggling through the narrow seams there.
Whereas light Ki was forever moving and bouncing around through his channels, this new green vine seemed content to send out only a few gently exploring tendrils. It did move, around, but only slowly and purposefully. It reminded him of the roots of a plant, always digging deeper in search of nutrients.
Even how it responded to his prodding was different. Light felt eager to move, to rush out and expend its energy. The plant Ki was not just slower to respond, but it felt almost thoughtful in the way it preferred to keep to known paths. Trying to push it through his light-soaked seams hadn’t worked so far, the green energy shrinking away into nothing.
That left him with the only option of bringing the plant Ki out through his navel. A small tendril of light guided the green Ki into a cutting of the vine he’d recovered from the collapsed tower. Already, it was starting to grow again, enough so that soon he could harvest more plant Ki from it.
Hana had revealed a happy surprise to him: plant Ki could be used as a kind of shortcut for expanding his seams. The method was slow but simple: push as much of the green Ki into his legs as he could, right up until the spot where his seams got too thin to support it. From there, he should just let it kind of… do its thing. According to Hana, it was one of the best Ki types for widening closed seams - it was in its nature to keep digging, after all. It would be uncomfortable and he’d need to keep his attention on pressing it down, but he’d learn to live with it. However bad it got, it wasn’t likely to be worse than that horrible hammering method JeeJee had taught him.
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Time passed as he lost himself in cycles of pushing the Ki back out to the vine, growing it, then taking an increased amount of green aura back in as it shriveled slightly. Apparently, the green energy took something from his body, just as it did from the plant as he drew it out, which is what kept it growing. After a few cycles, he’d start to feel hungry and tired.
A frustrated growl from Nika finally shook him out of his trance.
“This is a waste of time. It’s simply not possible to control the Ki of minerals in the same way as light.”
“Can you walk me through it?” Dario said quietly, shuffling over to sit next to her.
“There is nothing to walk through. I am staring at a wall and failing to affect it in any way. Trying to ‘draw out the hardness’, as you said, is simply not working.”
Dario nodded slowly, thinking back to his emanation training. He’d started by controlling the light on his fingertips, then always pushed it a tiny bit further each day. That had basically been his very first Ki puzzle: a simple corridor where he had to bring a trickle of light to the other end.
“What is your maximum range for emanation?”
“I don’t have one. Mineral Ki is solid and heavy - it resists movement of any kind. Even after chipping away at the aura so that it can be harvested and molded into Ki, it remains forever reluctant to move.”
“Right… Okay. So what about Fortification then?”
Nika held up her hand and channeled her Ki, pushing a dark-grey shroud out from her skin. It covered her whole hand and formed into a wedge shape near her fingertips.
“This is it, I suppose. No more than a few centimeters from the skin.”
Dario scratched his head. This would be like him putting a layer of light Ki over his hand. It wasn’t exactly the effect they needed.
“Can you harden your skin, without pushing the Ki out as a layer?”
Nika frowned, pursing her lips. “I haven’t had much cause to use a technique like that. But I believe it should work…” She stared intently at her hand, the Ki withdrawing. After a few minutes of silence, a drop of sweat rolling down her temple, her eyes widened a fraction.
“There,” she said proudly, indicating her index finger. Dario flicked a nail against it, finding it hard as rock.
“Perfect,” he said, nodding excitedly. “Now, very slowly make it go soft again, and remember that feeling.”
Nika nodded, focusing once more.
“This should be the same thing, only without the distance. Through training, you could probably eventually increase the distance bit by bit. But for now, maybe-” He broke off as Nika nodded, understanding what he was getting at.
She went up and put her palm to the wall, closing her eyes in focus. The silence stretched on for a long time, long enough that Dario returned to his own work, even taking a small nap. When he woke up, Nika was still standing in the same position, focusing intently.
As he turned back to his vine cutting, he noticed a flicker from his pack, coming from his tablet.
Give me an update! Did the vine grow? How big did you get it!?
What’s going on there?
Hellooo? Are you still alive? Is this thing still even working?
“Oops,” he whispered. He had kind of forgotten about the tablet.
I am still alive and well. Currently in a dark cave, trying to break free. But, guess what? I have a big reveal that’s going to blow your mind.
Wait, you still didn’t get out?
So we did build a grand tower and I’m proud to report that I grew an awesome vine on top to climb out of the cave! But then, right when we are about to climb out, we found out that… drumroll… It was a hidden floor all along!
Whaaat!?
Dario went on to explain what had happened, which, to his surprise, Hana accepted without really doubting him. Most people would probably just call him crazy.
Hmm, you know what, there’s an old man around here that I talk to sometimes. Like, really old. If anyone might know something about it, it would be him. I’ll try to ask him and will let you know.
Thanks! So, I’ve been building my reserves of plant Ki, but all I can really do with it is make the vine grow bigger. I would need some cool new techniques.
Of course you do. Well, from now on, things are going to get even harder. Depending on which plant you pull it from, the aura and therefore also the Ki will be different. The next step would be to learn to separate the aspects. From a vine, growth will be dominant, but you should also find the aspect of pliancy, this ‘tough yet flexible’ element that the stem has, which can be useful.
And then how do I use those in techniques?
Not so fast, mister. We had agreed on your stories and secrets in exchange for mine and you owe a debt already. First you have to tell me more about yourself.
Dario was considering what to share, when a whisper from Nika caught his attention.
Hold that thought, adventure calls.
“I did it,” Nika breathed, rubbing a finger against the wall. Where her finger passed, a thin sliver of the wall came off, crumbling into fine grains.
“Yes!” Dario hissed, trying to keep his voice down as he grinned at her. There was a moment where he thought she looked different in the sparse light, but then he realized it was because she was smiling from ear to ear with an enthusiasm that added a twinkle to her eyes.
It was only a brief moment before she smoothed her face, returning to a satisfied, yet reserved expression. She cleared her throat quietly.
Would you be so kind as to move behind the corner? I intend to increase the area of effect.”
Dario frowned. “What do you mean?”
“It will go faster if I weaken a larger area at a time, using not only the palm of my hand.”
“Yeah, great idea,” he nodded, still not understanding why he had to leave. She stared at him.
“...I don’t believe the effect will work through my clothes.”
“Oh?” he said, still frowning, but then his brows lifted with realization. “Oh! Alright, just, uh, call me if you need me.” He hurried behind the corner, waiting until he heard the faint rustling of sand dropping to the ground, followed by quiet footsteps and a gasp.
Already before he turned the corner, the increased inflow light was obvious. He sped up, then sucked in a breath as he came to a stop.
Ochre light flooded in through a Nika-sized hole in the wall. The noblewoman had already gone through to the other side and, luckily, she’d put her tunic back on. Dario took a slow, shaky breath as he ran his hand over the soft and strangely smooth edges of the stone, feeling as if it had formed this way over ages.
Then, he stepped out through the hole and into the light.