by A F Kay
Lylan faced Ruwen. “I hope you thought this through.”
Hamma worked to pinch the severed skin together as Sift’s face twisted in pain.
“I actually did this time,” Ruwen whispered.
With his free hand, Sift reached for Ruwen. Ruwen leaned down and gripped Sift’s forearm.
Through clenched teeth, Sift hissed two words. “Thank you.”
Chapter 11
Ruwen stood neck-deep in the water and prepared to drown again. He wanted to practice the Refinement form Rami had taught him, and while he could do that in the cavern, it would limit what he could learn. Performing the movements while experiencing the pain of death, without dying, could only be done under the water. He might never get a chance like this again. And while it might take longer to Refine his Spirit, he would learn multiple things at once, which seemed like a great use of time.
Hamma remained in the cavern watching over the injured, and Lylan stood near Nak, guarding the tunnel to the mine. Ruwen took a deep breath to help fool his brain that everything would be okay and then continued down into the underwater tunnel.
A minute later, for the third time, Ruwen experienced the horrible sensation of drowning. His thoughts scattered once again as his mind panicked. He stood in the tunnel, screaming. Pain engulfed him, causing most of his rational brain to search desperately for air. Adrenaline surged through him, and his heart thudded so hard he could feel it move in his chest.
Surrounded by pain, he latched on to it, feeling its power. Instead of allowing the pain to shatter his focus, he used it as a mighty hammer, pounding his mind into obedience. To his surprise, it worked.
The pain still pulsed through him, but the act of shaping it and giving it purpose made it bearable. In moments, his ability to focus returned, and his mind partially worked again.
He didn’t know how long it took for rational thoughts to return, but it felt quicker than the first two times. Turning, he walked back up the tunnel toward the hidden cavern. His realization to use the pain against itself excited him, and he wanted to test it again before moving on to the Refinement form.
Thirty drownings later, Ruwen’s thoughts barely flickered as he transitioned the intense pain into a vessel that protected his mind. He marveled at how a simple reframing of the sensation allowed him to shape and control it. The more powerful the pain, the stronger his shield against it. And he would never have discovered it, let alone perfected it, had he not experienced death so many times. Deaths that never ended, giving him the time needed to understand how to make the pain work for him.
Ruwen grinned as he coughed and vomited water out of his body.
Lylan’s voice reached Ruwen. “Seriously, you two need help. You both like inflicting pain on yourselves, and it’s sick.”
Ruwen, still on his hands and knees, looked up. Hamma looked at him with a frown, and Lylan shook her head.
“It’s an opportunity for both of us,” Ruwen said between coughs.
“The chance to kill yourselves?” Hamma asked.
“Yes,” Sift said. He tried to sit up, but Hamma pushed him back down. “This is my only chance.”
Ruwen nodded. “I’m headed back down to practice a form. I’ll explain what I learned when I come back.”
Hamma’s frown deepened.
“Insane,” Lylan said and turned back to the tunnel.
“I learned something important,” Ruwen said to Hamma in a serious voice.
Hamma nodded. “Okay.”
“Worry about Sift, though. He is a sicko.”
“Hey!” Sift said, trying to sit up again.
Hamma pushed him down a second time, and Ruwen submerged himself before Sift could say anything else.
Ruwen didn’t bother waiting until he ran out of air, and inhaled the cold water. While the pain still felt intense, he immediately shaped the sensation into a shield around a small portion of his mind. Outside the sphere of protection, his thoughts were primal and chaotic. But inside the bubble he’d created, he could reason, and he smiled at his success.
Now he would push his new skill further by practicing the form while holding the mental shield. A necessary skill, because if he ever found himself in a situation like this back home, he wouldn’t have much time to react before he died. Better to work out the kinks now.
Stepping onto the lake bottom, the distant roar from the falls far above surrounded Ruwen. The water’s density made breathing difficult, the process slower than with air. He began the Refinement form he’d practiced with Rami, the slowness of his breathing matching the pace of the form well.
Ruwen stepped diagonally to the left as he raised his arms straight out from his body. He circled them clockwise in a tight circle bringing them toward his left shoulder as the rotation finished.
A small vibration rippled across Ruwen’s center, but the dense Spirit of his Core otherwise remained static. For some reason, he had expected more to happen. Refining must be more than moving properly, assuming what Rami had assembled was a Refinement form.
Hoping it would gain momentum, he continued with the form until he stopped, arms at his side, in the final movement. Other than occasional vibrations, nothing had happened.
Instead of starting the form again, Ruwen thought about what could be wrong. He knew if he asked Rami she would have ideas, but he liked to figure things out himself. At least he wanted to try. Relying too heavily on Rami could get him in trouble when they returned home since she wouldn’t be able to help as much there. He needed to balance learning everything he could from her, with the confidence and understanding he would gain by figuring things out himself. He decided if he didn’t make progress in the next hour, he would ask for help.
Ruwen pushed and pulled on his Core, but nothing happened. Deciding to try something he knew had worked before, he sat cross-legged on the lake bottom and placed his right arm over his chest, his hand touching the left shoulder. This pose strengthened the area around his Water Meridian, appropriate since water surrounded him and filled his lungs.
When he had done this in front of the dungeon, his Spirit had been a dense gas. It hadn’t been the easiest to manipulate, but he had shaped and moved it. Now, the Spirit seemed almost like a solid. His mental hand could penetrate the ring, but it took effort, and he couldn’t get any Spirit to leave the ring.
It took him ten minutes to figure out he could only affect the Spirit in a direction parallel to where he touched his Core. He immediately realized why and berated himself for being an idiot. His Core, shaped like an infinity ring, only existed in two dimensions, which meant any attempt to move Spirit up or down would fail.
He tried the Refinement form again, this time concentrating on only manipulating the Spirit in a direction parallel to the appropriate face of his twelve-sided center. The results were better, even causing his Core to deform slightly, but the Spirit remained tightly bound.
Ruwen sat again on the lake bottom, placed his hands on his knees, and cleared the small mental area protected by his shield. Between the difficult breathing caused by the water and the chaos of pain that swirled outside his mental barrier, it took him five minutes for his thoughts to calm. His Cleverness should still work in this realm since it leveraged his Knowledge and Intelligence, and it seemed to trigger better when in this calm state.
It took twenty minutes before his brain itched. He left it alone. The idea needed space to catch fire, and any focus would smother it. Ten minutes later, he could almost feel the idea. He couldn’t tell if his mind had chilled since the frigid water had sapped any warmth in his body long ago. Five minutes later, two memories formed in his head, and the pressure in his mind disappeared.
In the first memory, Ruwen opened a book in the library’s advanced math section. The book detailed the fundamental laws of motion, and the open page explained inertia.
The second memory took place just moments after meeting Sift in Blapy. Ky had thrown Io at Sift, who had hidden twenty feet up the cavern wall. Sift had cau
ght the dagger, but the momentum had ripped him from his perch, causing him to fall.
Ruwen smiled in understanding. The Spirit in his Core remained static, and trying to move it while performing the Refinement form didn’t seem possible. But if the Spirit in his Core was already moving, then it might be possible to alter the Spirit’s direction using its own momentum.
Using his mental hands, Ruwen ran them across the top of his Core, pushing with as much mental force as he could muster. Nothing happened at first, and he wondered if he’d misunderstood the memories. Had he drawn the wrong conclusion? But then the Spirit moved, and as Ruwen continued to exert pressure, it sped up.
The Spirit’s momentum continued to increase, but Ruwen stopped. His Core now flowed at what felt like blazing speed. He wanted to test his theory, not get the Core moving as fast as possible.
Standing, Ruwen took a moment to refocus on his Refinement form. Then he stepped diagonally to the left, raised his arms until they were straight out in front of him and rotated them clockwise. As he finished the circle, he tugged on his Core, careful to keep the extraction parallel to the surface.
From the circle, he slowly pointed to the left with a straight left arm, bringing the Spirit along with the movement. His right arm bent at the elbow, the hand protecting his neck. It now looked like he held a bow with an arrow knocked and ready to fire.
The shaft of Spirit that had followed Ruwen’s movement slammed into the pathway leading to his Water Meridian. The tube blazed with Spirit, but the amount he’d pulled from his Core far exceeded what his path could handle. The shaft of Spirit didn’t fall back to his center. It pressed against the pathway’s opening, the flow from his center providing constant pressure.
The pain was so intense and terrible it made drowning a pleasure. It felt like his insides had charred and then been scrubbed with salt and shattered glass. The sensation overwhelmed his mental shield so quickly he didn’t have a chance to use the pain to strengthen the barrier.
The mental shield, unfortunately, provided enough protection to keep Ruwen from blacking out. He fell to his knees and endured a level of pain he didn’t think possible.
Chapter 12
The agony faded and then disappeared. Ruwen gasped in another lungful of water, and even that didn’t hurt.
I’ve suppressed your pain, Rami said.
Ruwen’s focus quickly returned. Thank you. That really hurt.
What do you think is wrong?
Ruwen thought a moment. Either I pulled too large a Spirit thread from my Core, or the speed of the Core is too fast.
Velocity and Spirit bulk are likely inversely proportional.
Yes, that made sense. If one increased, the other needed to decrease. Ruwen decided to call the Spirit threads “Streams” and the speed of the current in his Core the “Core Velocity.” The greater the Core Velocity, the thinner the Streams of Spirit should be.
Ruwen focused on the shaft of Spirit that flowed toward his Water Meridian and used his mental hand to push the top of the Stream until it flowed back into his Core.
From the edge of the Core, Ruwen separated a portion of Spirit the width of a hair. Okay, ease me back into the pain.
Rami didn’t respond, but Ruwen’s sensations returned. He ignored the familiar pain in his lungs, and while his center ached, it remained bearable. Focusing on the sliver of Spirit, he performed the first movement again.
This time the Spirit entered the pathway without resistance, and Ruwen continued with the form. He rotated his body forty-five degrees to the right, stepped forward with his right foot, and brought his left arm back, bending the elbow until both hands were in front of his neck. Palms facing the ground, he slowly pushed his hands down to his waist.
The Stream of Spirit struck the Water Meridian and refracted into bright shards of light. As Ruwen’s hands lowered, the Spirit at the bottom of the Water Meridian condensed and entered the return path to his center.
When the Spirit reentered his center, Ruwen panicked, not sure what to do. He wanted to keep the Spirit in one place, so it made sense to put it back in his Core, which floated in the middle of his center. Using his mental hands, he directed the Stream back toward the Core.
To Ruwen’s surprise, once the returning Spirit rejoined with his Core, the momentum from the Core’s flow pulled the Spirit through the Water Meridian. He now had a tiny portion of his Spirit filtered continuously through the Water Meridian with no additional effort.
Ruwen repeated the process with the other eleven Meridians. The form allowed him to manipulate the Spirit as he removed it from his Core. When he finished the Refinement form, he had twenty-four glowing paths snaking around inside his body: twelve feeding the Meridians, and twelve returning to complete the loop.
Ruwen’s Core Velocity slowed slightly from the drag of the twelve returning flows. If he let the Core Velocity reach zero, the flow of Streams through his Meridians would stop.
This Refinement form allowed the Harvester to Refine Spirit while going about daily tasks. Even if it probably wasn’t as efficient as some of the secret forms Harvesters fought over, it required minimal effort to maintain. Ruwen could keep this going indefinitely by increasing the Core Velocity once every few hours.
In addition to the Stream size and Core Velocity, Ruwen realized he should consider a third variable while Refining: the diameter of the pathways leading to and from his Meridians. The paths connected to his Water Meridian weren’t as wide as those attached to his Light and Order Meridians, but they were far larger than those for his Dark and Chaos.
Today, he had fed every Meridian an identical Stream. But his process would work better if he matched each Stream’s thickness to the size of the pathways’ openings. He would work on that next time. For now, he sat cross-legged on the lake bottom and marveled at the stunning flow of energy coursing through his body.
After a minute, Rami spoke up. This is a great start, but we need to figure out ways to use this.
I know. Any ideas?
Advanced Harvesters don’t use forms to utilize their Spirit, and new Harvesters can’t do much. So it’s hard to find any information.
Once again, Ruwen wished he could access A Worker’s Guide to Harvesting stuck in his Void Band. That’s okay. I didn’t expect you to have anything.
I didn’t say that. I just said it was hard to find. Lucky for you, I’m an indexing genius.
Ruwen remembered Rami’s description when Blapy had given him the Bookwyrm: “Indexing is the most potent force in the universe.” With everything he’d experienced, he’d thought that statement ridiculous. But Rami had helped him multiple times by finding correlations between items in her indexes. Maybe indexing was the most potent force in the universe.
You are a genius. I’m lucky to have you, Ruwen said.
Yes, you are.
Ruwen heard the pleasure in Rami’s voice. He needed to remember that Rami had the same needs as anyone else. She might look like a tiny worm, but her intellect and capabilities made her an incredibly complex individual. She wasn’t a piece of gear.
Rami continued. Long before the Pact, everyone was a Harvester. The gods figured out a way to make super soldiers, removing the need to wait hundreds of years for their Harvesters to mature.
You mean Classes? Ruwen asked.
Yes. So I studied my oldest books, before Classes were common. While Harvesters are secretive with their own knowledge, they take copious notes of their observations of other Harvesters. I’m still analyzing, but I found three Battle forms referenced in multiple locations that I think are probably accurate.
Battle forms?
They’re like Refinement forms, but they expend Spirit instead of Harvesting or Refining it.
Ruwen thought about how much pain the Refinement form had caused him because he didn’t have clear directions on what to do. Are there any notes on what to do with the Spirit, or is it just the forms?
Just the forms.
Show me, please.
“The three forms I found are basic,” Rami said. “They are from the journal of an aspiring Harvester, Pen, who traveled with a group of other Harvesters. They revolve around mundane tasks.”
“Well, I need to start somewhere,” Ruwen said.
Rami continued. “Pen traveled with a Harvester who loved his drinks cold and would always chill his beverage. Pen observed the form on three occasions and believed it to be an ice-based Battle form.”
“Okay, ice cubes aren’t awe-inspiring, but it’s a start,” Ruwen said.
“The second form Pen observed related to a lazy Harvester. When this Harvester needed to start the nightly campfire, he would use a form to set it ablaze instead of tinder and flint.”
Visions of Fireballs lit up Ruwen’s thoughts, but he pushed down his excitement. “That seems a little more useful.”
Rami narrowed her eyes as if she could see the inferno Ruwen imagined. He forced the visions away and tried to look innocent.
Rami shook her head. “The last form Pen only saw once. Pen and two mid-level Harvesters were collecting wood when a tree limb impaled one of the mid-level Harvesters. The other mid-level Harvester, knowing his friend would die before reaching camp, healed the wound.”
“That would be great if I could make that work here.”
“I believe the movements in a Battle form are an aid in tapping the proper Meridians. So as we practice these, think about the recipe they might be creating.”
Ruwen nodded.
Rami stood up straight and then sank into a squat, but instead of keeping her back straight, she hunched forward as if she dodged a staff or sword swing. She weaved her body to the right and left and then stood up straight again.
“That is an odd form,” Ruwen said.
“Like I said, I think the forms act like mnemonic devices to help retain spell recipes.”
