I sleep like the dead, and it seems I needed it. After forcing myself to eat before bed, I felt pretty nauseous for a while, but once the feeling settled down, I fell asleep pretty quickly. No dreams, gratefully, but when Ayre wakes me up I feel perfectly well rested.

  “Lost track of time. You’ve got a shorter turn than I meant.” She says with an awkward chuckle, “I’m gonna turn in. Forest has been silent all night and there’s been no signs of anything in the area as near as I can tell.”

  “I’ll be extra careful. Do you want to take Lilly with you? She’s still out cold, and she’d probably prefer being around you, I imagine.”

  “Yeah, that’s a good idea.” She smiles and rolls her eyes a little as she turns and scoops up the princess on her throne before carefully sidling into her tent, feet first and on her stomach. I stare for a moment, having not really considered how awkward it might be to sleep on the ground with wings, but she doesn’t seem to mind much. She tucks Lilly in under one of her arms as she pulls a pillow under her head, and then drapes her wings over both of them like a leathery blanket.

  I pull my eyes away and decide to walk around the clearing to keep my mind focused on the task at hand. At this hour, we’re in the darkest bit of the night, with neither of the moons in the sky, leaving everything beyond the firelight as dark as the void. Without the ability to see in the dark like Ayre or Lilly, I’m at a bit of a disadvantage, but if anything wants to bother us, it’ll have to come close to the fire—and I fight with my hands and body anyways, so if it wants to come to me, that’s fine by me. Whatever ‘it’ is. If there even is an ‘it’ in the forest.

  Regardless, I go to the edge of the firelight and gather some more deadfall to bolster the fire to warm myself. Another disadvantage. Neither of them seems to get cold. I’m beginning to feel like not having access to magic as readily as everyone else is an actual disability. If either of them gets uncomfortable, they use their essence to shift their body temperature.

  I’m a bit hardier than the average person, according to Ayre, but she’s met maybe a dozen people and spoke a sentence or two to each of them. Lilly says she’s never talked to a human before me, so she has no idea what normal is. I sigh and toss wood on the fire, inadvertently causing a series of as the wood collides and collapses from the neat stack Ayre had it in. I glance over, but neither of them so much as flinch, gratefully. I’ll be more gentle from now on.

  Spending the next few hours alternating between sitting and walking around the perimeter, I listen to the forest, trying to get a good idea of what “normal” should sound like in this area. By and large, it’s very quiet, but with the occasional semimetallic groan of the ironbough’s creaking or their leaves making a cascade of noise like sheets of metallic beads. I hear nothing living for the entire time, which is a fact that sets me on edge to begin with. The area around Ayre’s cabin was always rife with life. Most monsters seemed to give her clearing a wide berth, but beasts and animals wandered through readily and often. Here, though, it’s like something has scared everything off. Or that the forest knows something I don’t and is holding its breath with anticipation.

  As the time goes by, the first signs of the sun come peeking out, opposite the distant mountain range that so thoroughly dominates one horizon from this perspective. Ayre calls it The Ironreach, and says it’s directly responsible for the wealth of Mineralis essence in the region. Something to do with leylines, the natural floes of essence, and prevailing currents.

  Ayre’s essence theory talk goes over my head ninety percent of the time, but as I try to remember the specifics, I hear a crack of something snapping. Within probably fifty yards of the camp site, directly out and away from the “entrance” to this little copse. But in the pre-dawn twilight, I can't see anything beyond maybe five yards outside the firelight.

  I wrack my brain, remembering things I’ve absorbed recently before I decided to stop for the duration of this journey as much as possible.

  Kuprograss

  A tall, reddish-green grass that is highly conductive and often found clustered around deposits of metal essence. Its essence grants an enhanced connection to metal, making the user more adept at sensing and locating metal in the environment.

  One in particular comes to mind, so I try to remember it. Waving in the gentle wind, but with most of the taller pieces bent in half like a fallen-over copper foil. It reacted to me at the time, pulling in my general direction because of the Mineralis essence I was suffused with for all of my time absorbing things in the forest. As I neared it, several pieces pulled with enough force to straighten themselves out again, which caught my interest. I wandered back and forth, watching the grass wave along with me for a few minutes.

  It floods into my mind. Information about how they work, from a biological sense to an aetheric one. Their construction, the way their magical biology allows them to detect metal essence…

  I lock onto that information and focus. My body shudders as I pay whatever physical cost it takes from me for using magic without having absorbed anything recently. It leaves me feeling suddenly more rigid, but the feeling passes quickly as the plant's native ability floods into my mind.

  It affects my perception in an interesting way. I can see concentrations of metals in the nearby trees, grass, and myriad other plants. It’s like standing in a nearly featureless expanse with red pillars scattered about randomly over a field of rough, red, spines. I spend a couple of moments trying to adjust to this new sight overlaying with my own normal vision. It’s disorienting in the extreme, but as I slowly scan for the source of the noise, I find I’m able to reconcile more and more detail between the two overlapping images.

  I spot it a moment later when it moves. Unfortunately, that movement is towards me, so I get a clear look at it.

  It’s perhaps six feet tall, and hunched forward with a powerful bipedal bulk—looking like a mountain in miniature given the ability to move. The body is composed of obsidian glass with veins of a gray stone interspersed throughout with rainbow-like shimmers across its sharp and jagged skin. Its steps are ponderous, requiring it to turn a fair bit to take each step, moving almost with a waddle. Atop its shoulders sit two structures that look like smashed open geodes full of gemstones, and as I get a glance at its back, I see it dragging a clublike tail extending from its back. Blue and black crystalline spines extend menacingly from its back and appear to be growing as I watch, pulling Mineralis essence out of nearby sources to power its growth. All sitting atop legs built like tree trunks.

  The creature lumbers into motion with speed belying its bulk, powering through the underbrush unhindered. As it closes the distance, I feel a keening whine emitting from it in waves just at the edge of my range of hearing that makes my teeth hurt. The awful noise washes off of it in regular waves of dense essence pushed along by the sound.

  “Ayre! Lilly!” I shout, but when I turn over my shoulder, I see no signs of them rousing. Out cold. I try to think, I need to move out to keep it away from them, but also wake them… I decide, picking up a piece of deadfall and flinging it with all of my might at the tent poles, and then turn to run at the thing. They’ll have to figure out what’s going on, I can’t afford it to get close when they’re not ready.

  Its lambent red eyes lock onto my movement as I track off to its right, keeping my cursed arm on the side closest to the thing—it’s proven far more durable than any other part of my body. It comes to a stop, slowly turning in place to watch me, and as I get closer the keening noise gets worse; loud to the point that I can’t hear much of anything else. I chance a glance back at the camp and see my gambit worked…mostly. Ayre’s tent collapsed atop her, but seems to have gotten tangled up in her spiny wings and tail. It will take her a little bit to get out of that, but at least she’s awake, no sign of Lilly though, so she’s probably still beneath the pile.

  In the moment of distraction, the thing makes its move, coiling its powerful legs and jumping at me to close the distance far faster than I would have ever expected it to move. I have to throw myself to the side as it lands and swings its tail directly at my torso with a spin, bringing its spine covered back around to point at me.

  I land clumsily on my knees, but as I turn back to look at the thing while I scrabble to my feet, I see Mineralis essence surging around its body and to its back, causing those blue-black glass spines to vibrate threateningly.

  Maybe it’s a premonition, maybe it’s borrowed knowledge, maybe I just have good survival instincts from whatever I did before this curse fell on me—irrespective of that, though, I dive behind a nearby thick tree and tuck myself in behind it tightly as the keening whine builds to greater heights only to abruptly be cut off as a blast of fragments erupt from the creatures back and at the tree in a sustained barrage for a couple of seconds. The thuds come so quickly that it’s one continuous sound rather than a series of staccato impacts, and I see the trees and plant life around me get shredded by the attack.

  I am, however, quite surprised when darts start making it through the tree I’m hiding behind, but only as the attack subsides. Unfortunately, several actually manage to penetrate and stick into my back. The pain is blinding from three distinct points on my back, so I reach back and try to pluck them out, managing to get two before I see a swing coming in from the side, heralded by a bow wave of Mineralis essence. Again, I dive forward and fall flat as the tail crushes through the severely weakened tree, which begins its slow fall over to end with a creaking boom.

  Scrambling forward, I surge at the creature while it recovers from its tail swing, acting mostly on instinct as I recall one of the other abilities I’ve absorbed recently. I need something to make hitting this thing even worthwhile. I’m strong, sure, but I can’t break rocks with my bare hands. But before that, I need to not die.

  Ironhide

  The user’s body rapidly grows more durable, bolstering not just one’s hide, but also empowering their muscles to move with the greatly increased weight. The longer the ability is active, the more pronounced the effects become—but at cost of movement growing more and more difficult.

  I flinch at a sharp pain that almost knocks me off my stride and leaves my head swimming. The arm exacting its toll on my body for not feeding it, I suppose. I don’t break my forward momentum though as it tries to swing its tail at me again in a low sweep. Reacting as quickly as I can, I hop just a hair off the ground, something that is rapidly becoming impossible as Mineralis essence floods my body, rendering me much heavier.

  Landing from the jump, I decide to test a swing on the creature with my dominant arm. I ball my crystalline fist and throw a punch as hard as I can at the thing's head, and I feel a resounding crack as it lands. Its head snaps to the side, trying to keep me in its line of sight but failing because of the force of the blow. Striking it and seeing a meaningful impact revitalizes me a bit, giving me a bit of confidence to push on.

  In a burst of motion, it twists its body, swinging its tail at my midsection. There’s no way I can dodge the attack at this range, so I hedge my bets and try to rely on my enhanced durability and weight to catch the blow. I manage to plant myself and dig my heels in just in time to catch the tail.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Mistake. I should have at least tried to get out of the way. I was overconfident and underestimated it, having not noticed it conjure crystalline spines on its tail while I focused on my attack. And when I try to grab the tail, I feel several, foot-long, shards find new homes in and through my arms. It’s a small grace, but I do manage to stop it from swinging farther and gutting me. The pain is awful, I feel things twisted out of place, and see blood starting to pour down the spines.

  Holding its tail, though, and with clarity gained from pain, I see there is a weaker section of the tail—a spot that the Mineralis essence isn’t nearly concentrated enough to be remotely durable. With my left arm impaled on spikes and needing to maintain grip on its tail, I bring my right palm down on the weak section of the tail. The moment I make contact, something I hadn’t really thought about happens.

  Information about the thing floods into my mind, temporarily separating my consciousness from the present as I try to process the information meaningfully.

  Macauhkoatl “Obsidian Crystal Lizard”

  Mineralis, Lux, Monstrum

  A looming chimera of Mineralis essence and whatever stone it is borne of. Not terribly intelligent, it hunts prey with overwhelming force and a nigh-indestructible hide. It can move shockingly fast in small bursts. Beware its back. Its main weapons are projecting spines and mighty tail swings.

  Essential Bane: Fulmina

  The information abruptly cuts out as the weaker section of the tail gives way, returning me jarringly to my current state. Blinding pain. Now no longer supported by its body, the tail lodged in my arm falls, nearly dragging me with it until the spines slide free of my arm with a veritable shower of blood. A very alarming amount of blood.

  The thing's eyes snap to me and I feel hatred in its gaze as the keening whine returns, adding another source of pain to what has become a steady background noise. This time, though, I see light building in the geodes on its shoulder—fast, too. Trying to stop whatever that is, I take a step and realize I’ve become monstrously heavy and have an idea.

  With another stride, I crouch low to lower my center of gravity and grab it around its midsection from the front. As I grip my arms around it, I feel the fringes of information start to flow, but force it aside -- no distractions. I heave with everything I have -- all of my enhanced strength and pain-fueled frustration -- and haul the creature over my shoulder. The impact shakes the nearby trees and sends a cascade of sharpened metal leaves raining down as we both land hard. I’m left sprawling in an imprint of myself in the dirt, almost unable to move because of all of my accumulated weight. But when it hits the ground, its countless spines dig in, pinning it to the ground.

  I dreaded this moment, but can’t afford to stay grounded while I have this advantage. I dismiss the Ironhide and feel all of the essence be drawn back into my arm, feeling like ice crystals running through my veins and shredding everything. Silver essence leaks out alongside blood from the holes in my arms, and the memories evaporate, leaving me momentarily dazed.

  I shake it off and recall what I learned—its elemental bane is Fulmina, which is lightning, I think Ayre said? I don’t know what a bane is, but it sounds bad for it. There’s something I absorbed the other day that could work for that, maybe.

  Cobaltfern

  A fern with deep blue, metallic fronds that releases a faint electrical charge when touched. Gaining its essence provides a limited ability to generate and control electric currents, useful for powering devices or disabling opponents.

  It jumps to mind as the creature struggles to get off its back and the energy keeps building. It’s reached the point that I can sense it in the air, and I feel it must be building up to something bad, so I call on the memory of the small arcing and sparking bush waving in the wind. Energy surges through my body, and I feel momentarily jittery and unstable. But, it’s now or never, so I dive forward, trying to concentrate the power in my left hand and grab the side of the creature's head and discharge it alongside the memories of the ability.

  I see the bones in my arm through my own discharge and am temporarily blinded as a thunderclap rolls through me and into the nearby area. When I can see again, the creature’s own power seems to have been disrupted, and it’s convulsing on the ground as I watch blue sparks running through it with a vague sense of confusion about how, exactly, I did it.

  But…It’s disabled and as each memory is wrenched from my mind alongside the abilities, I feel a hunger, a need. Using those abilities without something to draw on hurt. It was exhausting and unnatural… I reach forward with my right hand before I can really process it and grab the other side of its head with my left, bracing myself for what will come. The thing's keening whine silences almost immediately as its entire being is evaporated and absorbed into the arm over a dozen or so seconds. A sense of intense gratification rolls over me with the waves of vital essence, the monster's equivalent to the life force of beasts and mortals. It feels fundamentally different from the….first thing I absorbed. At least, I think it does. A different taste? Is it flavor?

  Macauhkoatl “Obsidian Crystal Lizard”

  Mineralis, Lux, Monstrum

  A looming chimera of Mineralis essence and whatever stone it is borne of. Not terribly intelligent, it hunts prey with overwhelming force and a nigh-indestructible hide. It can move shockingly fast in small bursts. Beware its back. Its main weapons are projecting spines and mighty tail swings.

  Essential Bane: Fulmina

  Shardstorm — The user will project a cascade of sharpened shards after a period of channeling. The number and power of the shards grows with increased power and time spent.

  Discordant Resonance — The user will passively emit a high-frequency noise that is debilitating to the senses. After prolonged exposure, it begins to cause white noise across all senses. It may be concentrated and released in a burst of damaging sound.

  The surface information comes readily to mind, but its memories are…wrong. I struggle to parse anything out of them. Each continued moment of exposure, though, brings more of them into clarity as the thing starts to collapse in on itself at the edge of my vision.

  Its memories are disjointed. As though I’m only understanding a tiny fraction of them. I see repeated hunts of beasts, monsters, and mortals. Many failed attempts to kill me—it. Each one that failed made me stronger. Made it stronger. Absorbing something fundamental from each thing I kill. It feels good. But a nagging thought keeps at the back of my mind.

  I refocus on the now total dissolution of me…the creature…and my extended arms. I see that the punched holes in my left arm have started to heal, but they still leak blood like a faucet left open. Realizing that fact makes me feel dizzy, dispelling some confusion from the monster's memories overlaying my own.

  That dizziness continues as I stagger to my feet and start shuffling through the dust towards the camp. The clearing feels more like home as I approach it. The dissociation I feel is different from what I’ve been trying to avoid since waking up. It’s not the arm. It’s…me. The monster’s memories and its knowledge and its intent and its desires. I try to sift through each memory, and doing so helps me answer one mystery. The memory from the other day I mentioned to Ayre. The monster that killed…me…in the memory looked like a warped version of this thing. It must be a nest. I actively discard each that I decide aren’t my own that aren’t directly useful, but hold onto the information about the nest.

  I think the arm helps. It takes in those memories, breaking them apart and pulling them from my psyche one by one and rendering them into fuel until I’m nearing the camp. I hear a shout and see Ayre coming to me at a dead run. The monster’s memories tell me to fight, but I gather all of those up at once and throw them to the void, suddenly grateful for the amnesia this arm inflicts upon me.

  “Olly, you need to sit down. Now.” Ayre’s voice is strong. It’s a command, and one I follow readily, even in my unsteady state. I wander over and sit next to the fire as a barrage of questions come in from Lilly when she arrives next to me. She fusses over my arms for a while and I feel a warm presence suffuse it. It’s cathartic, dispelling the pain. The bones slightly out of place return, the channels left open where the spines had been close up rapidly and knit themselves together.

  I sit there a while, continuing to throw away memories I don’t need, piece by piece returning to “okay”. I don’t know how long it takes, but when I look up from the now smoldering fire, the morning has come fully and the sun is cresting the trees.

  Both of them are sitting nearby, at a safe distance. Seeing that hurts a little, but…it’s understandable. “You back?” Ayre asks cautiously.

  “Yeah. I think so. Sorry.”

  “What are you apologizing for? Knocking my tent down and keeping me out of a fight?” She looks at me with heavily lidded eyes. “Or was it deciding to fight a monster alone to protect us? Because I’ll accept an apology for that.” Her voice is tight, clearly angry.

  “Lay off a bit, Ayre. He still really doesn’t look great.” Lilly chimes in softly after a great yawn and stretch. After healing me, she’d grown almost worryingly lethargic.

  “No, she’s right.” I hold the sides of my head, trying to will away a painful headache. “I made a split second decision and could have died for it. I just wasn’t sure what else to do because you didn’t wake up when I called your names. I didn’t want to run to get you directly because that would have led the thing closer.” I explain my thought process, hoping it’ll dispel some of Ayre’s anger. “It wasn’t bravado, bravery, or lacking confidence in your abilities, I just…had to do something, so I did what felt right, leading it away.” I gesture over to the section of the forest that suffered the barrage of shards, glinting menacingly in the morning sun.

  Ayre sighs, a wisp of smoke and ash going with the exhalation. “Fine. I’m glad you’re okay, but next time do me a favor and hit me with the thing you throw. You won’t seriously hurt me, and I could stand up from that. I wasn’t able to get untangled until it was already over.”

  Lilly speaks up, her voice tiny. “What happened? Why were you sitting there so long, so quietly?” Her tone feels pensive, maybe scared. I am, so why shouldn’t she be?

  “It wasn’t what you’re thinking. I don’t think it’s necessarily any better, though. I killed the monster using…” I lift my right arm and wave it around a bit, ”… this. I had to burn a few abilities to fight the thing and when I absorbed it at the end, I felt a lot of its memories and…self… overwhelm parts of me. I don’t think a mortal mind is supposed to think like a monster. It was something,“ I pause, trying to find the right words. ”I think it’s incompatible. Like trying to light a fire with water.”

  I shake my head, dispelling some lingering feelings. “I think my arm helped me. I was able to pull ‘out’ the memories that weren’t mine and give them to the arm.” Lilly and Ayre both make very uncomfortable faces and Ayre starts to speak, but I hold up a hand. “I know how that sounds, but I can’t think of a better way to word it. It’s not sentient, at least no more or less than any essence is, I don’t think. But it helped return me to some degree of normal again, so I’m thinking that whatever enchantment or curse it is, doesn’t want me to… lose myself? Maybe if I do, it dies too in some way?” I offer, speculating aloud.

  Lilly chimes in, “Well, you’re definitely personifying it, and I’m all for that—it’ll make it more dramatic when it comes time for us to slay it or dispel your curse. You know, the kind of thing where you’ve started to get attached to it despite knowing it’s bad for you!” She smiles broadly, but I find it difficult to really get into it with everything going on.

  Ayre sighs, earning a scandalized glare, “Assuming it’s essence and not an elemental or something that’s been bound to you, it wouldn’t be ‘alive’ in the sense that it can die. Essence reacts to will, and you clearly didn’t want that monsters’ memories and mind. Could be that it’s reacting to that, akin to Mortalos or Cognitio…” She continues to elaborate on the possibilities as she paces around the clearing, holding one hand to her chin in thought. Even her wings manage to convey a degree of thoughtfulness as whenever she gestures, they exaggerate the motion with seeming gusto.

  Abruptly, she comes to a halt with an idea wrought on her face. “We’re heading to a huge city. I’ve never been there, but there’s got to be a library, right? Maybe even schools!” She suddenly seems very animated, in stark contrast to her previous contemplation.

  “Yeah, Ayre, they probably have schools. That’s pretty normal. Libraries, too.” Lilly responds deadpan. I look around, and the deeper twilight shadows have started to lighten as our fire burns down to its few remaining cinders.

  “So, what about a library, Ayre?” I snip, feeling somewhat sharp and impatient, but interested regardless.

  She casts a surprised look at me, but continues, “It’s a big city, we might be able to find scholars. People who study essentia for a living!” She starts to work herself back up and quickly walks over to me, taking my left hand in hers. “I don’t know much beyond the basics and a list of names and concepts associated with essentia, but if we can find someone who really, actually, knows about this stuff, this could already be a solved problem! If it’s so debilitating, what are the odds that you’re the first person to ever experience it? There’s too much magic and too many people in the world for it to be truly unique, right?” She bends over a bit, taking and squeezing my hand with a strength borne of excitement.

  Right as I’m starting to get swept up in Ayre’s enthusiasm, I hear Lilly’s voice, “Well that sounds all fine and dandy, but it would be kinda boring as far as solutions go. ‘After 3 weeks of adventuring, the hero solved all of hi-”

  “I think we should get going. The sun is up and visibility is good.” I cut Lilly off, feeling a tide of emotion rising between Ayre’s excitement and Lilly’s skepticism. I find that it’s hard to define, even approaching it objectively. Instead, I turn to start gathering my few things and breaking down the camp, without talking or listening further.