by Frank Morin
Connor paced the low obsidian island, leaning down to wave a hand through the dark mists coiling so close to the edge. The mists were cool and dry, but he sensed nothing extraordinary about them. For a moment, he wondered what would happen if he simply stepped off the edge and plunged down into the abyss they covered. Would he learn all of Jean’s deepest secrets, get ejected from her mind, or keep falling forever?
He decided not to find out.
Connor paused on the side closest to the nearby sandstone island, considering their next move. Jean joined him and asked, “Do you really think we should try a secondary affinity so soon?”
He hesitated. Usually a Petralist needed time before attempting to establish new affinities, but he found himself eager to proceed anyway. Jean wanted that healing affinity so badly, he doubted she’d let anything stop her. Besides, they were far too short on time to hesitate.
The final piece that convinced him was the shape of the island itself. He pointed to it and said, “I think we should go for it. There are risks, but you’ve already given sandstone a unique shape. Images in the mind are powerful, and I’m optimistic you’re ready for it.”
Jean took a deep breath, then flashed her brilliant smile. “I agree!”
They again assembled a pile of medicines. Jean agonized for a moment, then smiled, coming to a decision, and began passing components to Connor without hesitation. He pressed them into position. Again, complex trusses began to form, and a new scent grew, one that felt stronger, more urgent.
“What recipe are you using?” he asked.
“It’s a very complex blend I developed this winter to fight infection. It’s the most advanced healing mix I ever created, but it’s as clear as day to me now.”
“Great idea. Keep it up.”
After a few more minutes of steady work, they completed the bridge. It looked solid and radiated a sense of health that reinforced its connection. Connor doubted anything could ever sunder that bridge, and wondered again about Nicklaus’ broken bridges.
Jean pulled him out of his reverie by grabbing his hand and dragging him across the bridge at a run. She leaped onto the healthbed-shaped island and threw her arms into the air, laughing with victory.
“I can feel it already. This is amazing!”
When Connor joined her, she hugged him fiercely and exclaimed, “Thank you, Connor!”
“I can’t wait to see what you’ll be able to accomplish.”
Connor was so thrilled. Too bad only he and Queen Dreokt could create such links for others. Jean would use her gift to heal thousands. She would be the true hero.
Jean’s smile seemed to light up the entire affinityscape. “Let’s test them out!”
17
Pastries, the Building Blocks of Great Things
When they awakened, Jean instantly absorbed a little obsidian, and Verena passed her a piece of sandstone. Verena was not carrying her ever-present satchel for once, but her gown incorporated a number of deep pockets. Connor would’ve been disappointed in her if it hadn’t.
Jean turned to Hamish and placed a hand on his head, concentrating and holding the sandstone in her other hand. “If only you had an injury I could diagnose.”
“I could throw him out a window for you,” Verena said innocently.
“He’s not wearing his suit,” Connor pointed out.
Hamish grinned. “Think you could toss me all the way to the first banquet table?”
“Jean does want you injured,” Verena said, glancing toward the window.
“I was joking,” Hamish said, watching her suspiciously. “I do have a bit of a stomachache.”
Connor laughed. “Isn’t that your normal state? You ate enough for breakfast that anyone else would have popped.”
“We’re dealing with the fate of the world here, Connor. One needs to take risks to obtain the right level of clarity to figure out solutions.”
He had a good point, and Connor had honestly eaten almost as much. He had made it a habit to instantly transform his food into energy, and had done so that morning without even thinking about it. He probably should have done the same for Hamish, but he didn’t want to encourage Hamish to abandon all restraint. Merkland only had enough food for fifty thousand people, after all.
Jean whistled softly, her hand still touching his head. “I can see so much. In all my years healing, I was always an outsider, but now I can get inside the injury and see exactly what needs to be done.”
She stood. “I need to get to the hospital. I’m sure a lot of people are getting injured tonight. Rory and Anika tend to inspire a reckless level of bash fighting, even among people who are not bash fighters.”
Connor grinned as did Verena, but Hamish said, “Aren’t you going to wait until I get obsidian first?”
Jean nodded, clearly torn between supporting Hamish in his glorious moment of discovery and leaping full tilt into a healing frenzy that might never end.
Hamish swapped places with her to sit in front of Connor and gestured. “Come on. Let’s see what we can do.”
So Connor connected and plunged into Hamish’s mind. The affinityscape formed, and he laughed. It was perfect.
Part enormous bakery and part insane Builder workshop, it was far larger than the huge workrooms in the original Builder compound. Fireplaces, ovens, and racks of still-warm sweetbread vied for space everywhere. Built among those more mundane cooking implements were dozens of smashpackers running non-stop, being fed sumptuous meals by conveyor belts that seemed to carry an inexhaustible supply of Hamish’s favorite meals.
Other mechanicals were built over, under, around, and among the dozens of fireplaces and heatstone ovens. One entire area was dedicated to a long, complex mechanical that looked like the one Hamish had described building in his early days at the Builder compound.
The space overhead was crowded with conveyor belts, little flying platforms overflowing with ingredients, and even catapult-like mechanicals that flung pastries and jelly desserts at seemingly random intervals and in seemingly random directions. More mechanicals were built into the ceiling, but somehow ingredients didn’t fall.
The scents assaulting Connor’s nose made him wish he never had to stop inhaling. Sweetbreads, roasting meat, and hundreds of other mouthwatering smells tugged at his nostrils.
It was the most perfect representation of Hamish’s mind that Connor could have imagined.
Hamish appeared beside Connor, wearing his battle suit. He looked around and laughed. “I see this place in my dreams. It’s my ultimate vision of the workroom I want to build some day. This is incredible!”
He rushed into the maze, sampling dishes, touching mechanicals, laughing with joy. He even climbed into one of the catapult mechanicals, plopping down right onto a huge chocolate jelly just before it was flung high into the air. Hamish swallowed several bites of the dessert before activating thrusters and soaring around the room for several minutes, inspecting everything and exclaiming in delight.
Connor laughed, and could have easily watched for an hour since he found a nearby rack full of all of his favorite desserts, still warm from the oven. In the mental space there was no limit to what one could eat, so he happily consumed the entire tray.
Hamish eventually descended, grinning as happily as the day Jean first kissed him. “If this is what you get to experience all the time, I’m surprised you don’t find more excuses to get into people’s heads.”
“Not everyone’s mind is as fun as yours.”
“So let’s build bridges,” Hamish said enthusiastically.
As they moved through the huge, chaotic workroom toward an outer door, they stumbled upon the first well of Hamish’s Builder affinities. It was built into the shape of an oven, with cream-filled pastries floating up out of the depths in a never-ending stream.
Connor snatched one of the pastries. It was perfectly flavored, but still somehow conveyed the taste of basalt.
Now that he knew what to look for, Connor easily spotted the ot
her affinity wells. Hamish looked ready to get distracted again by tasting them all, and maybe even jumping down inside one, but Connor drew him toward the exit. “You can explore here anytime. It’s your mind after all. Let’s see if we can get you an affinity.”
The enormous workroom bakery filled almost the entirety of Hamish’s mental mainland. Connor was happy to see the abyss filled with billowing mist, but in Hamish’s mind the mists reminded him of whipped cream spraying into the air. The floating affinity islands looked pretty standard except for the distant quartzite island which was constructed like a giant replica of Hamish’s battle suit.
When Hamish spotted it, he gasped and pointed. “Can we get there?”
Connor had no doubt that eventually they could, but not in one attempt. They’d pushed the limits for Jean, but he sensed acquiring a primary, secondary, and tertiary in one day might overload Hamish’s mind. “Let’s get you to obsidian first. We can explore getting additional affinities later.”
Hamish did not seem to mind. “How can we can build this thing?”
“With Jean, we learned that the best bridges come from materials that represent your strongest passions.” Connor nodded back toward the workroom and Hamish understood instantly.
They said in unison, “Pastries!”
They ended up using every type of pastry and quite a few smashpacked meals. Those little cubes expanded into building-block-sized meals, and Connor ended up using them to form the trusses. The other pastries and desserts expanded into solid, if slightly squishy, planks that linked the trusses. For the railing, he ended up with rails that looked like long crackers, with supports that looked like tall blocks of half-melted chocolate. The entire process felt like it took about an hour, although in the real world only seconds had probably passed.
Hamish marched across, making sure to touch every plank. He took his time, enjoying the process far more than he ever did eating. Connor appreciated that. Touching the planks seemed to help reinforce the link in Hamish’s mind.
When he reached the obsidian island, Hamish took a deep breath, hands extended wide, head back, an exultant look on his face. With eyes closed he said softly, “It’s part of me now, Connor, even deeper than when you loaned it to me. There’s so much to think about!”
Connor chuckled. Hamish surprised even him sometimes with his brilliance. His love of food and joking around often concealed it, but he was one of the top Builders for lots of good reasons. Connor felt a deep sense of contentment. All three of his best friends now enjoyed new affinities! If they could do that, they could figure out a battle plan to finally defeat the dread queen.
Of course, as soon as they awakened and Hamish confirmed their success, Jean wanted to rush off to the hospital. Together they managed to convince her it was okay to celebrate a little first.
Hamish finally won her over by saying, “You don’t want to offend Rory and Anika by leaving their party too soon, do you?”
Jean raised an eyebrow, clearly not fooled. “Fine. Let’s party, but then we head to the hospital.”
Connor said, “If we party long enough, I bet at least one of us might need to go to the hospital.”
Verena slipped her warm hand into his. “I plan to have too much fun to wreck it with an injury. Let’s go!”
Flying definitely had its perks. Instead of wasting time rushing down the long staircases, they floated down toward the huge square together, standing on an invisible platform of air.
Fifty feet up, Verena jumped off, whooping and max-tapping granite. Luckily the square was not nearly as packed with people since the party had already spread farther out into the city. Pedestrians scattered as Verena plunged to the pavement and landed in a crouch, the impact cracking like thunder.
When the rest of them touched down, Verena hugged Connor again. “That’s so much fun! Let’s do it again.”
“You’ll ruin your gown,” Jean pointed out.
Hamish laughed. “Bash fighters tend to squeeze all their brains out of their heads with all those muscles. It’s good to see you’re trying to make up for lost time.”
Verena slugged him, but forgot to untap granite. Connor instinctively tapped basalt and shot across the distance before she accidentally crushed Hamish’s shoulder, pulling his friend aside just far enough for her fist to slip past.
Hamish jumped back, holding up his hands in surrender. “Hey, don’t kill me. It was a joke.”
“I’m so sorry!” Verena exclaimed, one hand going to her mouth, her eyes wide with horror at what she almost did.
“I figured you were trying to give Jean someone to practice on,” Connor said.
“I’m not used to this strength,” Verena said, looking aghast. She was always the one with perfect control over her Builder powers, but getting used to granite strength was different.
“No harm done,” Hamish said, then grinned. “You moved so fast, Connor. That was amazing. I’m glad you were tapping basalt.”
“Actually, it’s difficult not to,” Connor admitted. “I’m connected to all of my affinities all the time, unless I really focus on turning them off.”
“Is that a good thing?” Verena asked.
He wasn’t sure. He didn’t like dwelling on how similar he was to Queen Dreokt. It would be far too easy to adopt her same arrogance. He wasn’t limited like everyone else, but that fact terrified him, and he tried very hard to pretend he was still just Connor.
So he said, “It was just now.”
Verena didn’t look convinced, but Hamish interrupted. “Hey, you can make it up to me by sharing your dessert.”
“You can eat as many desserts as you want tonight,” Jean protested.
Hamish shrugged. “Eating hers doesn’t count against my allotment, does it?”
Connor was glad no one got hurt, but Verena still looked shaken. He took her hand and said, “I think I know where we need to start.”
“At the feasting tables, of course,” Hamish said as Jean linked an arm with him and the four of them headed across the square. Feasting tables had already been set up around the perimeter and were swarmed by partygoers.
“Just the first round. Then we’re heading for the Boulder dance toss,” Connor said.
“Excellent!” Hamish said, taking the lead toward the tables to find out what kind of food they could get.
That turned out to be just about anything they wanted. Tables were set up in every square across the city, and more lined the roads outside the gates. The tables in the main square groaned under the weight of so many dishes. Thin-sliced ham and turkey were piled high next to giant bowls of chopped fruit. Potatoes cooked in eighteen different ways filled two entire tables, while vegetable platters and roasted duck were laid out in floral patterns. Connor followed Hamish’s gaze to the desserts. Sweetbreads, pastries, cakes, and cookies were stacked everywhere, filling the air with the heavenly aroma of warm, sugared perfection.
Everything was cut into bite-sized chunks so no one had to worry about forks or finding tables to dine. Connor wondered if that was just good planning, or if Rory had ordered it to salute Tomas and Cameron, who had never trusted forks.
Servers handed out small bowls and dished generous portions into them. Hamish stopped in front of a giant Althin chocolate cake. It towered nearly three feet tall, fashioned into the shape of a great pedra, wings furled along its side, serpentine neck wrapping around the cake to cleverly place the blocky, ugly head atop the main body. The black frosting glistened with a sheen of honey, and Hamish eagerly ordered slices for all of them. He looked like he wanted to hug it.
Jean drifted to the side, staring at another tall cake with brown frosting, the front cut open to reveal an interior designed like a floor-to-ceiling library, complete with little tomes lining the shelves. She breathed, “Oh, my. This is wonderful.”
“We’ll take some of that one too,” Hamish told the nearest server, who obliged by piling pieces atop the chocolate ones already in their bowls. As they stepped back from the table
to let more people order, Hamish raised his bowl in salute. “If we’re only going to stop for one course, might as well start with the best.”
Jean reached over and deftly snatched part of his chocolate cake, popping it into her mouth. A look of rapture crossed her face and she mumbled, “So good.”
Hamish gaped at her. “The woman of my dreams ate the cake of my dreams. I’m so confused.”
Connor laughed. “What’s confusing? Now she’s sweeter than ever.”
“Good one,” Verena said, careful to guard her own bowl in case one of them decided to try the same trick.
Hamish leaned in and kissed Jean’s chocolaty lips then grinned. “Sweeter than ever!”
18
Just Dance!
In great spirits, Hamish and the others headed for the square beside the wrecked shell of the military command building. Hamish felt like he was floating on air, even though he wasn’t wearing his battle suit. His new obsidian affinity thrummed inside of him like a living thing, and he kept a constant low tap rate. He wanted to laugh with every graceful step. Suddenly walking was more like dancing, his movements graceful and balanced.
He couldn’t wait for his next sword practice. He found time most days to practice some, but as a Blade, he’d improve a hundredfold. Connor had told him that while practicing with obsidian, he’d learned concepts faster and retained that knowledge better. Good thing because they didn’t have much time. Battle was coming. How many of them would survive?
He forced down the dark thoughts. Tonight was a night of celebration.
He got an amazing idea and turned to Jean, who was walking beside him, a delighted smile on her face. “Do you think obsidian will help us eat more?”
She laughed. “I can honestly say I had never considered the question.”
Connor glanced back from where he walked just in front of them with Verena. “I don’t know if it’ll increase your capacity, but I’ve proven I can eat faster with obsidian.”
