"Oh shit!"
The pegasus was starting to roll into a dive. The knight riding it was reaching out to try and grab him. The universe expanded once again as Grayson's neural network re-engaged and his slow brain caught up to what his body had been doing. The answer turned out to be nothing because when Grayson redesigned his brain, he forgot to connect his secondary computing network into his nervous system. That swiftly remedied by having his secondary computing directly control his nervous system through his nanomachines, Grayson considered his situation.
Without some kind of intervention, the pegasus wouldn't catch him. He used the perception from his nanomachines to look down. He'd definitely survive the fall, but this was hardly the impression he wanted to leave on people. It was also likely to scare the shit out of Fera. Hell, if she could see him, she'd already be terrified. He checked on her quickly, finding the glow of the second pegasus above him and seeing Fera's faintly golden glow.
She wasn't looking in his direction yet, so he had two options. He could either shout something out to reassure her, or learn how to use magic in the next few seconds. He'd used his neural network to rebuild his brain specifically to let it conduct the magic energy. The network itself would be useless until he was able to replace every nanomachine in his body with one designed to use magic. Until then, he'd have to manually control the nanomachines to speed synaptic transference if he wanted to go that route. Or he could try something else...
[Uhh. Hello?]
YOU'RE BACK! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?
[Rewiring. I wanted to figure out what I was seeing, but that triggered some kind of cascade. Thanks for helping to deal with that by the way. I needed to make some adjustments and decided to spend the time getting my brain primed to conduct that energy.]
WHAT? YOU FUCKING DIED!
[Wait, what? No I didn't. My secondary computing kept my consciousness running until my brain was back in working order.]
AND YOUR SOUL WAS IN THE LAP OF NERIM!
[Oh...oh fuck! That is not a revelation I was ready for.]
And you think ANYONE could be ready for what you just did?
[But you can see my thoughts right? And my brain? Why didn't you know?]
THAT IS AN EXTREMELY GOOD QUESTION AND I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE AN ANSWER FROM YOU!
[Can it wait until I'm not falling from the sky? I'm not in any real danger, but It'll scare Fera.]
PERHAPS YOU SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE YOU KILLED YOURSELF!
[I PANICKED!]
There was an impression of a deep, exasperated sigh.
Well, what do you want then?
[Getting back on the pegasus would be great. Failing that, a quick lesson on how to do some kind of magic to get me back on the pegasus.]
Grayson disappeared, then reappeared back on the pegasus behind the knight, his eyes glowing. The knight looked back and forth in shock between where Grayson had been falling and where Grayson had returned. The pegasus continued rolling into a dive for a few more seconds before the knight belatedly pulled on the reigns and righted the pegasus. They returned back to the level flight at the same altitude as before.
Jirad looked back at Grayson, his entire body trembling in fury. Wavec brought his own pegasus closer, having noticed Grayson start to fall. Fera looked confused, but otherwise unconcerned.
[Thank you.]
Come to my temple when you arrive. We will talk about this.
[Yes, Ma'am.]
"What the hell just happened, Grayson?" Jirad hissed. The glow in Grayson's eyes faded and he slumped a little.
"Something happened and I lost consciousness. According to Perimis, you are not prepared for any kind of explanation that I could give." Grayson said as smoothly as he could. The non-answer hardly mollified the man at all, but he turned back forwards and didn't say anything else.
"It won't happen again," Said Grayson, slightly embarrassed.
"It had better not," Jirad muttered.
The rest of the ride finished in silence. Grayson spent the time exploring the bounds of his new perception, working on manipulating the energy he'd noticed. Simultaneously he started working on replacing the rest of his neurons. This time he had a backup control option. He used the nanomachines throughout his body to directly stimulate muscles, letting him keep his position even as he rebuilt his nervous system.
Grayson decided not to work on replacing anything else until he was in a bed. If he fell off the pegasus again, he doubted Perimis would save him again.
I would not.
Grayson instead ran his experiments, taking energy and moving it through his body. He circulated it throughout his rebuilt nervous system where it flowed freely and smoothly. When it applied to anything else it would become slow and sluggish. It would still respond to commands, moving back and forth in his blood and through his muscles, but the effort required to shift it was far greater.
As an experiment, he tried moving the energy into his finger and out into the world. It glowed green and gave the impression of flow. That meant the energy inside of him was the energy of wind or air spells that the mages had used against him. He returned the energy into his body and continued to let it flow through him. Did the energy being green mean that he was simply using the energy in the air itself, or that he could only use that kind of energy, or even that his body converted all energy into that kind of energy? Was it even different kinds of energy?
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The pegasus started descending towards a compound deep within the city. Grayson could see knights in armor standing on the walls as well as a vast stable complex. There were several training fields where even late at night, men and women trained both with and without armor. Some fields were dimly lit and others left completely dark, forcing the people training to use either glowing stones or other items to let them see. Taking up an entire side of the compound was an airstrip that wouldn't have looked out of place on ancient Earth despite it's incredibly short length.
The pegasi dropped towards the airstrip, going from a steady glide to full gallop in a second. The pegasi slowed down, then trotted from the strip over to the stable. Jarid and Wavec slid off the pegasi. Wavec reached out a hand to help Fera off.
"Get off," Jarid said flatly. "You should be good at that. You got enough practice on the way here."
Grayson slid off the back of the pegasus. He bowed to Jarid and turned to Fera. She still looked confused, but was happy enough to let him carry her saddlebags. Wavec escorted them through the compound with Grayson supporting a very tired Fera. He led them to the front gate, then turned to Grayson.
"I don't know what happened between you and Jarid, but you should come back tomorrow. Unless you intend to leave the region, you'll probably be working closely with us as the best form of transportation. Having something like this going on could get people killed if it slows down our response. Get it sorted as soon as possible, okay?" Grayson nodded, then let Fera guide him to the temple of Perimis.
The temples of the twelve gods were kept near the knight's compound. It allowed for close cooperation between Crusaders and the Imperial Knights. The temple of Perimis was particularly close in cities along the Northern Imperial border like Gravistone where Knights frequently had to search for and destroy slavers. Grayson was grateful for this for Fera's sake. The woman was practically asleep on her feet.
Grayson half carried Fera up to the temple gates. They opened for them with a golden glow, revealing a pair of surprised looking armed men standing in front of a beautiful statue. They looked into Fera's tired, golden eyes, then into Grayson's. Both men recognized the golden spark in each other's eyes. The guarding Crusader saluted in the same way as the knights had, making a fist with his left hand and crossing it over his chest. Grayson saluted in return and the man nodded.
The uniforms of the Crusaders were white tabbards with the icon of a bandaged heart over a mace embroidered in gold on the center of their chests. They both had maces in loops at their waists and had kite shields resting with their lower tips on the ground. Neither Crusader commented on Grayson's lack of such uniform. One turned and called into the temple for an acolyte. A young man arrived shortly after and escorted Grayson and Fera to a corridor of individual rooms. He showed them two empty rooms and inquired if they needed anything else.
When Grayson told him they were satisfied, the acolyte left and Grayson opened the first room. It was bare with an empty wardrobe, a chair at a writing desk, and a bed. Grayson let Fera collapse onto the bed and put her saddlebags on the chair. He knelt beside the bed and whispered to her.
"Do you need me to stay?" he asked.
"I don't know..." Fera trailed off, then yawned. "I might be tired enough, but..."
"I'll stay. I'll give you some privacy to change, but I'll be back." Grayson started to turn away, but Fera grabbed his arm.
"Don't bother. I'm way too tired for that. Someone will see to laundering these clothes tomorrow anyway." Fera said tiredly before rolling on to her side, still on top of the sheets. Grayson sighed.
"Well, lets at least get your jacket off," he said. Fera pushed herself up slowly and took off her jacket, throwing it at the chair before flopping back down.
"Alright, now lift your legs so I can get the sheets out. We may as well be comfortable." Grayson sighed, pulling the sheets out from under Fera, then rolling into the bed and pulling the sheets up to cover them. "I'm going to have one hell of a busy day tomorrow."
Fera rolled in to him and tucked herself in to his arms. It took her no time at all to fall asleep. Grayson lay awake just looking at her, then triggered the process of replacing every cell in his body with cells more conducive to working with magic. There was another angry message from Perimis about him being an impatient idiot who really should figure out what he's doing before he starts doing it, but Grayson mollified her by cataloguing the discoveries made from the portions of his psyche that were run in crystal and printing them into the organic components of his brain. She was still pissed off, but didn't try to stop him.
Grayson drifted off to sleep as an extremely strange feeling of change drifted through his body. This feeling only got stranger as the nanomachines changed his bones... and the quantum supercomputing crystals within them. Unknown to the sleeping Grayson, all twelve gods stared at him as he slept.
"So what is he?"
"Human according to him."
"Not like any human I've ever seen. Who can just rebuild their entire body like that?"
"Nanomachines. A strange word. It means a device of constant process at a size below the cellular level."
"Humans don't have these... nanomachines. At least most don't."
"Most do where he comes from, it seems."
"Interdimensional travel. Not planes, but something else."
"He was surprised by the existence of his own soul."
"It felt like a human soul when I held it in my lap."
"Human or not, the man's a fool. Who just destroys their own brain?"
"He did the rest of his nerves the same way while still on the back of the pegasus."
"He learned though. He did something to keep himself from falling off."
"And we can't see it. He's doing something now and we can't see it. His mind says he's sleeping, but still something is happening that has to be driven."
"What about those nanomachines? Could they be like golem? Give them a task and they continue it?"
"That seems the most likely case."
"Perimis, will you monopolize him? Even without our blessings or magic, his capabilities are extraordinary."
"I noticed him because of his sense of Justice and his desire to save the innocent and punish those who would harm them. He's seen the worst that men can do to each other. A place called 'Auschwitz' is notable among many others."
"That's another thing. Did you see the wars in this man's memory?"
"I did Mareshi. You'll want him for those memories I suppose."
"Such wonders! Such stories! Thermopylae! Gallipoli! Verdun! The Berian Gap! The Fall of Sprrzk! Brian's Rest! Such marvels. There are songs sung of each of them in his world. And a thousand more!"
"For now, he is mine. I will invite him to visit your temples, but until he decides otherwise, my voice will walk beside him."
"It is agreed then. While Grayson is free to all he approaches, the voice of Perimis will stand with him as long as he chooses."
"One final stipulation. Have him visit my temple, Perimis. He needs to learn to control his new body, lest the power he channels causes him to explode."
"Agreed. That would be the most incredible waste."
"He won't have time. You have a priest who trains my Crusaders on the third and fourth days. Have him visit the temple."