They sat in clusters and talked softly, sharing food and comfort. A few of them were lying back, trying to nap. She made note of a couple who were staring off into space and resolved to talk to them, or ask Anais to.
The older woman was circulating among the refugees, checking on them and making sure everyone had something to eat. Char was glad for her steady presence.
Declan had taken up a watch at the back door of the building, and Leigh was sitting against the wall next to him, listening as he told her a story with exaggerated hand movements. The girl still didn’t speak, but she was smiling. A good sign.
There was a trail of sticky red mud across the bare concrete slab leading in from the desert beyond. The rain had turned the hard clay of the desert floor into a slick, sticky mess that sucked at feet as they walked and clung to shoes, weighing them down and slowing their progress. It made every step take three times the energy it should.
Water sat on top of the hard ground, a thin layer of wetness that made the desert look more like a lake of blood. Whatever it was that was holding back the storm was still hanging on, but only just. She could see the thinning, frayed edges of the magic as the dark clouds battered against the barrier.
They couldn’t stay here long. She wanted to give them all time to rest. The climb down the tower had been nerve-wracking, and the desert had become a slog, but that storm was going to wash over them at any time. She could feel it pressing against her skin like electrified velvet.
Lulu pressed her head into Char’s hand, looking for scritches. Char turned and put her back against the doorframe, sinking down to sit across the doorway. She reached up with both hands to rub Lulu’s silky ears, enjoying the heat. Lulu’s new fiery aspect came with a bonus: she could heat herself up enough that the rain evaporated before it could soak into her fur. No wet dog smell. In fact, she smelled more like a barbecue grill, with hints of charcoal, hot metal, and wood smoke.
That heat was tamped down now. Char pressed her forehead to Lulu’s and ruffled her fur. “I’m lucky to have you, sweet girl.”
Lulu chuffed and wagged her tail, sending Char a feeling of concern through their Companion Bond.
Char shook her head. “I’m fine, just worried. We’re moving slower than I counted on, and we’ve still got two stops to make before we can get away from this boundary. Too many things could go wrong.”
Lulu yawned and shook herself, sending Char feelings of reassurance as she made a tight circle, then stretched out next to Char’s legs. She put her head on Char’s knee and looked out the door.
Idly stroking Lulu, Char turned her attention to the notifications that she’d been ignoring since the fight at the Mercado. She skimmed past the kill notifications, not wanting to read the reminders. Killing Voss and his cronies had been necessary, but it wasn’t something she wanted to dwell on. The fight with the wolves had been enough to tip her over into level 27, and that notification was followed by a pleasant surprise.
Congratulations! You have gained a level.
You are level 27.
You have gained 5 free stat points.
You have gained +1 Strength, +2 Speed,
+1 Dexterity, +3 Endurance, +4 Intelligence
+1 Willpower, +3 Spirit
———————————————————————————
Threshold reached:
Your Endurance has reached an effective score of 100.
You have taken another step toward D rank.
You have gained a Feat:
Second Wind - Just when you think you’ve run out of fuel, you have a chance to
Find more in the tank.
The description of her new feat was less than helpful, but she supposed she’d find out what it meant when she hit that wall. The inconsistencies in the System still bugged her, but they made more sense after her talk with Zell in the Dreamscape.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
It had been programmed by slaves scrambling to make sense of an alien culture. When she looked at it that way, she had to admit that she’d seen worse from human game developers. She couldn’t help the snort of amusement as she whispered, “All your base are belong to us.”
It was encouraging to see her progress, though. She pulled up her sheet to see how far she’d come.
Charlotte (Char) Adair
Level 27
Echoform Core - Legendary - Tier 1
Stat Base (Bonus) Effective
Body (E)
Strength 48 (38%) 66
Speed 59 (58%) 93
Dexterity 49 (13%) 55
Endurance 71 (41%) 100
Mind (E)
Intelligence 60 (28%) 77
Willpower 82 (33%) 109
Perception 53 (26%) 67
Soul (E)
Recovery 50 (33%) 67
Resilience 55 (21%) 67
Spirit 74 (18%) 87
Free points: 10
Domains:
Flesh - Rank 1 (56%)
Lightning - Rank 1 (68%)
Rune - Rank 1 (21%)
Bloodlines:
Nahual (11%) - Primal Grace
Thunderbird (23%) - Child of the Storm
Seidrsidhe (24%) - Wyrdsight
Feats:
Iron Will
Second Wind
Titles:
Jack-of-All-Trades, Potential, Quick Draw, Big Game Hunter, Precocious, Soul Savant, Early Adopter, Improv, Hail Mary, David vs Goliath, Delver 1, Dungeon Trailblazer, Second Dungeoneer, Limit Breaker, Arcane Advancement
She mentally translated the word ‘Bonus’ to ‘Compression’ as she remembered Zell’s advice. Her titles had given her a pretty big advantage starting off, but now she knew they might end up handicapping her in the long run. Her Speed stat was already over 50% compressed, and Zell had warned her that the more compressed they got, the harder it was to learn to do it herself.
His warnings had only served to let her know how little she truly understood about how the universe really worked. There were ancient forces spread across the galaxy fighting over the remains of an even more ancient empire, and thinking about the enormity of it all made her feel very small. She felt like an ant trying to figure out how to move a bowling ball.
With a sigh of frustration, she pushed those concerns away. There was no point worrying about galactic war when she had more immediate concerns like survival to focus on. With an effort, she turned her attention back to her status screen.
She had ten points to spend from her last two levels. Her Dexterity was falling behind her other stats. With her high Speed and the smooth flow of Primal Grace, she’d be foolish not to capitalize on the stacking boost she would get from having better proprioception and fine motor control. This time, though, she wanted to pay attention to what happened to her body when she assigned them.
Zell said that the Aethernites in her system handled the distribution of Aetheris to improve her, and figuring out what it was they were doing seemed like the best place to start unraveling the puzzle of how to compress that Aetheris. Her Dexterity stat also had the lowest bonus, so it would be the easiest to learn on.
Instead of dumping all ten points into her Dexterity at once, she allocated them one at a time. The first point made her muscles tingle, but that was all she could feel. The icy-hot rush and flow of power she’d been expecting was absent, and that confused her. She bit her lip as she reconsidered what she knew about mana and Aetheris.
Slowing her breathing, she dipped into a light meditative trance, not going all the way to her inner sanctuary, but letting the distractions of the outside world fade away. She focused on the flow of mana within herself as she allocated the second point.
This time, she felt something moving through her, but it was hard to grasp what it was. She couldn’t pinpoint it exactly, but she could feel how it disrupted the normally smooth flow of mana through her channels.
It was similar to mana, but slower and more… She struggled to find the right word to describe the sensation. Ponderous, maybe? Stately? Like whatever it was that was being moved had an immense weight to it, rather than the light, easy flow of mana. If mana was a dragonfly, then this was a hippopotamus.
Zell had described Aetheris as condensed mana, so that had to be what she was sensing. But she could barely sense it. It was more solid than mana. It didn’t react as much with the world around it, making its passage harder to spot. She tried again, this time allocating two points in an attempt to make it easier to see the effect.
Now that she knew what to look for, it was easier to trace the flow. The Aetheris was being pulled from a thick layer around her core and moved outward to her muscles and nerves. She followed the path of one clump as it left the area around her core and traveled to the tendons at the inside of her right elbow. She felt it sink into her flesh, but then it vanished.
She allocated the rest of her points two at a time, and each time she was able to sense more of the process. She followed the Aetheris as it was sent to her muscles, tendons, and nerves, but once it arrived, the process became opaque. She could feel the tingles and twitches of her body changing, but she couldn’t sense the Aetheris that had already been allocated. How was she supposed to compress something she could barely tell was there?
She had a starting point, though, and that was something at least. This was going to take a lot more work to figure out. She still needed to explore her inner sanctuary, learn more about her bloodlines, and try to figure out more spells. How was she supposed to find the time for all of that when just surviving was such a struggle?
With a deep breath, she resolved to take it one moment at a time. If she thought about everything left to do, the weight of it all would crush her.
Again, she pushed those concerns away, staying in her trance a while longer. She examined her body, taking the time to explore the feel of it, the way mana flowed through it. The better she knew herself, the easier it would be to recognize the changes.
Eventually, she was forced to open her eyes and face the real world as a cold gust of air from outside raised goosebumps along her arms. The storm wasn’t going to wait for her to figure out the metaphysical realities of the universe, and they’d been sitting here long enough. It was time to get moving again.