Storn’s primal wailing echoed hauntingly up from the bowels of Cole’s nightmares. Cole swallowed back the revulsion, and the bile.
“What is the second option?” Cole asked, his vigor returning somewhat.
Chiron raised his chin, appraising him. “In the markets there is a shop called the Cordial Compendium. Do you know it?”
“Yes,” Cole replied. Storn had taken him there on his first day at The Sill.
“On the top shelf of the Passion section lies a cypher labeled dreamsource. Take it into yourself and you will never sleep again. Being top-shelf it is among the most expensive cyphers, and rightly so. It will affect you for the rest of your life. I do not expect you to make the choice lightly, but I must now ask you to leave here and make that choice. I will await your return, whether it be in an hour or a day.”
Cole’s heartbeat thumped into his ears. He was sorely tempted to simply fall from the tree and let his dreams take him before he hit the ground. He wasn’t even sure if he could make it to the markets.
Chiron gave his shoulder a gentle shake and grin. “Now would be a perfect time to ask your Rage for assistance.”
Cole nodded drunkenly, turning and stepping to the edge of the deck. To his surprise, the house was no longer above the patterned grid of trees. It was now above the necropolis. Too tired to ask questions, Cole bared his teeth and called upon his Rage. The magic was there, but invoking it was as hard as asking fire of wet wood. He could feel his fingertips sharpening, but he needed another good push to really get the Rage burning. Casting aside his caution, Cole stepped off the deck into open air.
His Rage lashed out from its cage, enveloping his entire body in the ebony shroud before crashing into the ankle-deep water of the necropolis. Cole’s Rage purred at how powerful and jarring the impact was, daring him to try again so he might plough right through the planet.
Cole allowed his Rage another moment of indulgence before releasing a portion of it. He only needed enough of it to keep him awake for a bit longer. Looking up he could see Chiron’s house was already moving on, wandering over the treetops like a passing cloud.
Smelling something sweet, Cole raised his hand curiously. The blackstout was mashed in between the knives of his munisica. Careful not to cut his naked tongue, he ate what he could. The fruit itself was tasteless and unsatisfying with the sticky consistency of peanut butter. The effect of the fruit was immediate however, giving Cole the sensation of swallowing a lead brick. His whining stomach ceased all protest, as if it couldn’t recall how to be hungry. It was not a satisfying meal, but he knew he wouldn’t need to eat again in the foreseeable future.
Blazing his way into the markets, Cole gazed up at the network of ramps and walkways. He couldn’t remember exactly where the Cordial Compendium was, and the excitement of his Rage didn’t help matters. It wasn’t until now, however, that he thought on the repercussions of never sleeping again.
He turned off the main thoroughfare and found a bench facing a darkened shop window displaying an array of crystals. Cole slid into the bench, ignoring a passing woman who gave his munisica a wary look.
Why should he give up sleep? He would have more time in his day of course, but his body must have needed sleep for good reasons. Sleep was essential for repair and recovery, but Passion could do that even better. There surely were some mental benefits of a good night’s sleep, but they were unknown to him. The thought of losing part of his life was unnerving. Sleeping was something he enjoyed and indulged in, something he would never be able to look forward to again. He loathed to have it taken from him, just as he would loathe losing the ability to see color.
A bubble of sorrow rose from him, bringing a cold fact to the surface; if he never slept again, then he would never see his family.
His dreams were the only place where he could hold his mom and tell her he’s coming back. Only in his dreams was Nana Beth still alive, imparting her sagely advice and strength onto him. His dreams still had Joshy, whole and untouched, giggling up at him from the couch where he watched the Spanish channel on mute. His dreams were his last anchor to his life on Earth. Without them, part of him would cease to be.
Cole sighed, losing himself in his half-reflection in the shop mirror. His hair was wild, though not unkempt. The skin on his face was tanned and tight. His shoulders were wide, each larger than his head with matching thick arms. He decided he liked his eyes most of all. They dropped with lethargy, but they were also dangerous.
Checking to make sure no one was looking, he twisted and flexed his arms, appraising himself in the window. His chest, once narrow and shapeless was broad, tapering down to a slim waist. It seemed like just yesterday he was the chubby, pale child, fumbling to keep up with giants.
Lights flicked on inside the shop, revealing a magenta-robed man who had apparently been enjoying Cole’s posing routine. Cole adjusted himself awkwardly, trying to play it off as if he were only just trying to scratch his back with both hands. The shopkeeper laughed, shaking his head. He flicked on another light and disappeared into a back room.
Flushing, Cole stood to leave. Something in the shop window caught his eye, however. A jagged pair of olive crystals danced for him in the window, clinking shrilly off their glass container. A skinny brass label on the shelf read FOCUSING SHARDS.
Cole pressed his forehead against the window. On his first trip into the markets Storn had purchased all of his cyphers for him, and Cole had promised Storn a set of focusing shards in return. Un-sticking his forehead from the window, Cole wheeled around and entered the shop. He pocketed the focusing shards and made for the door.
“Hey! You have to pay for those!” the shopkeeper hollered, stumbling out of the back room with a stack of boxes. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are but those shards are worth more than…”
The shopkeeper’s voice trailed off as Cole slid his hand from an omnistone set on a pedestal near the door. The stone blazed lavender and emitted a powerful humming sound that rattled a nearby shelf full of jars. Cole wiped his eyes and left the shop before the shopkeeper could thank him.
Cole’s mind was set. He would take the dreamsource into himself and sleep no more. He would spend every moment he had working against The Three. Anything less than everything he had wasn’t acceptable. Storn deserved it.
After only getting lost twice, Cole found the Cordial Compendium tucked away in an obscure corner of an upper causeway. The cyphers appeared untouched, though someone had replaced the ones he took months ago. Having just spent a good portion of his Passion on the focusing shards, Cole slapped both hands on the red gratia stone. His Rage was fuzzy and tired, but it was still there. He just hoped it would be enough. Cracking open his reserves, Cole’s body hardened as the shroud snapped over every inch of him, sharpening him into a living weapon. The gratia seemed to suck his munisica in, taking all of the red magic from him. Cole could feel the shroud receding, and fought back against it, but to no avail. The more he gave, the more the stone took.
He watched from the corner of his eye as the invisible barriers shimmered along the shelves. The bottom and middle shelves were already unlocked and the upper shelves were currently opening. The very top shelf maintained its shimmering veil, however. Cole knew he had the Rage to unlock it, but it would leave him utterly drained and defenseless. Groaning, he heaved the last dregs of the red magic into the stone.
Cole fell to the floor, weak and feeble. Both his Passion and Rage were spent. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so weak. Without his Rage to stay his drowsiness, he relied upon sheer, mundane human will to resist the urge to shut his eyes. Moaning, he pulled himself to his feet and dragged his eyes over the top shelf of the Passion section. It was there waiting for him, perched in a cutout behind a brass label that read dreamsource. As Cole plucked the cypher from its nest, the magical shields flashed on every other shelf, locking the displays. The cypher was immensely heavy for being no larger than an egg. Within its confines, white smoke chased itself in litt
le tornadoes, emitting shocking pink sparks like little fireworks.
Cole grasped the cypher and shut his eyes. His family waited for him behind his eyelids, tempting him into dozing for one last goodbye. He lifted the cypher to his mouth and kissed his fingers. A tear leaped from his cheek, crashing over the cloudy orb.
“Goodbye,” he whispered.
Chapter 18
Strength and Humility
The passing weeks inched by with all the speed of a creeping glacier. True to its description, the dreamsource cypher relieved Cole of his need for sleep. The effect was not immediate or all that noticeable. He expected some sort of buzzing stimulant, as if drinking an entire pool of black coffee. His lethargy clung to him for days with sleep eluding him all the while. When he tried dozing, it felt like trying to walk up a hill of smooth ice. He would take a few steps towards sleep, only to have his feet yanked out from under him as he slid rapidly back to the waking world. After he’d spent a week as a walking zombie, his drowsiness left him entirely. Cole had to rely upon his ever-fading memories to visit his family back on Earth.
Without him taking breaks for food or sleep, Chiron’s lessons drove on without interruption. Cole learned something new every hour, but to his silent annoyance the lessons never covered any practical use of magic. He and Chiron spent a great deal of time in the library combing through sections Cole had never been to. Chiron lectured him the lore of each of the local planets, as well as how Aeneria had influenced them by preventing wars, harvesting endangered species, and nudging technology along. Though the Wisdom Walkers agreed to guide the local planets with subtle hands, many couldn’t resist interacting with their charges. The Wisdom Walkers were exalted as gods among ancient civilizations, unintentionally shaping legends and widespread religions that lasted to this day. Cole took great interest in Aeneria’s recordings of Terra. The meddling of the Wisdom Walkers coincided with the epics and deities that wove the tales of Earth’s religions.
Another topic covered at length was anatomy. Cole learned that the Aenerians were made of nearly all the same parts as humans, though there were slight differences that required drawn-out explanations. The anatomy lessons were tedious and never-ending; however, Cole took deeper interest when Chiron mentioned that the knowledge was necessary for certain aspects of Passion to work properly. He couldn’t quite grasp it yet, but it sounded as if a mastery of Passion would allow him to modify any part of not only his own body, but those of plants and other animals as well. He couldn’t wait to try out a few of these tricks.
A portion of every day was spent going over the vast number of governments and tribes on Aeneria, to include their economies, relationships, magical dispositions, and locations. It was interesting enough, but the subject only added to Cole’s growing annoyance that they had yet to learn anything to help fight The Three.
One night while the rest of The Sill was asleep, Chiron brought Cole into a cave at the edge of the lagoon. The wall of the cave was lined with an ore comprised of rare metals that would illustrate a chemical reaction they had just covered in an earlier lesson.
“We have chemistry classes back on Terra you know,” Cole said, fumbling through the shallow water of the cave. “I didn’t learn much then either. I don’t see how learning about atoms and bonds is going to help me. Maybe I could bore my enemies to death with lectures and quizzes.”
“You’ve all the tact and creativity of a bog angel,” Chiron replied, walking on top of the water. His cape trailed behind him as a blanket of algae-covered pebbles. “Chemistry may very well be the most useful thing you’ll learn. Surely you can think of at least few reasons as to why the subject is important.”
Cole swore after wrenching a toe on a slimy rock. “It’s for Wisdom right? If I understand the true nature of something I can change the rules. There’s just so much of it to learn, and who knows what elements make up everything here.”
Chiron slowed, waiting for Cole to navigate a particularly tricky cluster of rocks beneath the water. He wasn’t allowed to use any magic outside of Wisdom for this lesson, and the lack of munisica slowed him considerably. He waited for Cole to catch up before replying, “The chemistry of Aeneria is quite the same as your Terra. In fact, every local planet is made of the same basic elements, which follow the same rules for how they interact. The subject is an immense one. You will likely never know every nuance of every combination of atoms, but the more you know, the more tools you will have at your disposal.”
“It makes sense,” Cole said in a hollow voice. “I just hope I do better this time around. I nearly failed out of my last chemistry class. Master, can I put on a light? I can’t see a thing and these rocks are tearing me up.”
Chiron considered him for a second. “Use whatever Wisdom you have at your disposal.”
Cole swung his arm up, pointing two fingers to a spot just above his head. A tiny bead of white light popped into existence. His eyes were already magically augmented for night vision, so he kept the light as dim as possible. The spell was simple, but it still drained his focus, making mundane tasks like walking and talking just a little harder.
Chiron raised an eyebrow. “Tell me how you just cast that spell.”
“I just messed with the air a bit.” Cole rubbed his chin. “I don’t know exactly how it works. Lileth taught me a while back, but I didn’t understand the finer details.”
“I thought as much,” Chiron said, stopping them. “Effective, but inefficient. Do you know what light is?”
Cole dug through his memories of every science class he’d ever had, but nothing came up. He hoped he hadn’t dumped that memory into a Wisdom stone at some point.
“I’ve no idea,” Cole admitted.
“Light is nothing more than the emission of photons, which occurs when there is an interference in the path of an atom’s electron. When you ‘mess’ with the air, you are altering the orbits of the electrons in a given space, causing photons to release themselves.” Chiron grasped his hands behind his pebbly cape. “Would you like me to repeat that?”
Cole felt a sudden shift in his magic. It was as if his spell itched, and Chiron’s explanation gently scratched it. “Say it again, slower this time.”
Chiron gave a knowing smile and repeated himself three times. With each passing, Cole’s understanding bent and widened, allowing new concepts to form. The weight of the spell lessened considerably, taking only a sliver of Cole’s focus to maintain. It was as easy as snapping his fingers.
“That was incredible!” Cole blurted, marveling at his pin-prick of light. “I think I can change the color too!”
With a twist of thought, the little star drooped to a more comfortable cherry-red. Cole’s laugh echoed throughout the dripping cave.
“Chemistry,” Chiron stated, urging Cole deeper into the cave.
With his mind less occupied, Cole wove another spell to lighten himself, allowing for a pain-free stroll over the rocks. He thirsted for more tricks to make his Wisdom more effective, wondering how Chiron made the water strong enough to walk on. More questions sprouted in his mind, though he decided to save them for the walk back. Chiron didn’t like it when he asked too many questions before a lesson.
A hail of clicking joined the chorus of dripping water echoing off the cave walls. Cole jumped as a crab ran over his foot, scuttling over shiny rocks into a deeper pool. Chiron stopped, guiding him onto a dry slab as the tunnel opened to a wide chamber. Oberon’s light poured through cracks in the ceiling, creating shafts of rainbow in a pond that filled up the entire chamber. Cole dismissed his marble of cherry light as his eyes drank in Oberon’s familiar glow. He retreated into his center, releasing every thought and emotion that clouded him. He was ready to learn.
The start of Chiron’s lessons was always silent, allowing Cole time to attune his mind and make observations on their surroundings. Having cleared his mind, he opened himself to his environment, casting quiet spells to sharpen his senses. He had to dial back his sense of smell, as a s
light odor of rotten eggs became a rancid hurricane. Something in the room stunk terribly.
Shifting his focus to his sight and hearing, he noticed hundreds of crabs nestled into every crack and crevice of the walls and ceiling. For the most part they looked like normal crabs back on Earth, though each sported a horn longer than their bodies. Squinting, Cole zoomed in on a fat purple-tinged one, watching as its blunt claws scraped and chewed on an edge of a boulder. That explained the clicking. His sharpened hearing also revealed clouds of insects swirling about on unseen currents of ocean air.
After a quarter of an hour of Cole listening and watching, the chamber revealed nothing else to him. He opened his mouth to mention this to Chiron, but a raised hand from the elder hushed him.
Chiron spoke in a captivating whisper: “Just a moment longer, the tides are about to shift. Then the lesson will begin.”
The previous day Cole had learned that Aeneria’s tides were not caused by Oberon, as the moon did not orbit, but by shifting currents in the molten metal of the planet’s core. The predictable seasons of the core’s magnetic field affected the ocean water, which was heavy with its own metals and caused the tides.
The concept of magnetism tickled Cole with more questions regarding Wisdom, though he pocketed them with his other curiosities. He didn’t want to miss a thing. A minute later, something chilly tickled against Cole’s toes. He glanced down to find there was a lot less of the slab for them to stand on. The tide was indeed coming in.
The briny water rose up his ankles and shins, continuing up past his navel. A moment later Chiron laid himself onto the surface, looking as though he lounged upon a comfy leather sofa. Cole resigned himself to treading chilly water.
As the water slowed its ascent, the crabs clicked and scuttled their way up along the ceiling, converging in throngs around the rainbow shafts of light. A powerful stench of spoiled eggs rushed into Cole’s nose and stung his eyes. Through his blurred vision something along the ceiling caught his attention. Pale violet sparks began crackling from the horns of the crabs, creating an illuminating drizzle bright enough to compete with Oberon’s beaming waterfalls.
Saving The Dark Side Book 2: The Harbingers Page 38
