by Sarah Lin
It was rather nice, but he barely bothered to look at it, more curious about what this was about. Aside from trying to sneak in, Raggest had seemed relaxed, so it was likely nothing urgent. Still, his curiosity was on high alert.
Raggest loitered on the street outside, little worse for the wear despite running straight into the barrier. He saw Rick and smiled broadly. "Hey! It looked like you were doing your usual training, just like me. What do you say we cut out and do something fun instead?"
"Something fun?" Rick glanced around, as if H or Alger were going to swoop down to forbid them. But they were adults and there was nothing stopping them from using their time how they wanted. "I guess you might have been here before, so you know the city?"
"Nah, they all blur together for me. I just remember which Godweight we're officially under, which right now is everybody or the World Sculptor." Raggest hit him on the shoulder and gestured down the street. "Come on, let's go! I heard an amazing rumor I want to check out, and everybody else is too boring to go with me."
After a pause, Rick decided to go and they began walking down the street at a brisk pace. "Who is the 'everybody else' who wouldn't come?"
"All the junior competitors who are participating in this Showdown, of course. Looks like your mentor is putting in some extra money to get you up to speed, but they don't spend that much every time. Usually the host city puts us all up in the same hotel. It's pretty cool, just most of them want to hang around and do boring things."
"Yeah, I can imagine. I didn't realize there were so many sports-like events, and no offense to them, but that's not as interesting to me."
"Oh, full offense to them! Play fighting like that is just pointless."
"Your event was cool, though," Rick said. He'd intended to get closer to Raggest to learn more about Alger, but it was actually proving easy to talk to the guy. "I don't think I'm up for it yet, but I could see myself participating later."
"You saw? Yeah, that was awesome! I thought he had me at the end there, but..." Raggest eagerly began talking about the exact details of the event, occasionally pumping a fist in the air.
That proved much easier conversation, because whatever else was different between them, they could easily talk about lucrim. It was interesting to get Raggest's view on the matches from the previous night. His view of fighting was extremely straightforward, but that didn't mean it was inaccurate. There were actually a few nuances to the fight that Rick had completely missed while watching.
As they continued talking, Rick enjoyed finally getting a street-level view of the city. He'd read that most of South Africa's cities had been built in several steps during different eras, with major economic divides between them. Their current neighborhood was extremely upscale and could have been almost any city except for slightly different clothing and appearances.
But when he looked closer, he noticed signs of the nation's past. When they began passing residences, he saw that the gates around them were not merely for privacy: they were reinforced by lucrim and designed to endure a heavy assault. Some of them even had active aura barriers, which must have been incredibly expensive to maintain at all times.
Realizing that he was getting lost in his own thoughts, Rick decided to bring Raggest into them. "I've only been doing a little research on South Africa, so I'm still figuring things out. I've read that some people think the old government is still essentially unchanged, despite the changes to the legislature... what do they call it? Well, the law-making group."
"What?" Raggest stared at him as if he was speaking a different language.
"You know, the South African civil war?" Rick felt as though he was making some sort of massive political blunder and hastened on. "I mean, I don't know very much about it. But there was a big conflict between natives, colonists, and Nokans..."
He trailed off as he saw that Raggest was giving him an utterly blank look. Suddenly the other man shook his head sharply. "Look, I really don't get into politics. It bores the hell out of me."
"Ah. That's fair." In the awkward lull that followed, Rick sought for something else. "I've actually been wanting to go out myself, but I read that I'd get cheated if I tried to pay in lucrim. But if I want to turn dollars into... they're called rand, right? Do you know how to get a good exchange rate?"
"Exchange what?"
As he received another blank look, Rick felt an uneasy realization beginning to dawn on him. He played it off with a smile, but instead of simply enjoying the conversation, he began to feel out the younger man. Like it was a verbal battle, though he told himself that Raggest wasn't his opponent.
Not only did Raggest not care about the exchange rate, he claimed to be unaware of the concept of currencies aside from lucrim or dollars. Rick started to think that he was being mocked, yet the blank looks from the other man seemed so sincere. As Rick turned the conversation in different directions, he began to believe it.
When the subject was training or fighting, Raggest could speak at great length. Other entire disciplines seemed to be entirely empty for him, boring and irrelevant. It turned out that Raggest didn't listen to music and had never read a book that wasn't a training manual. He did watch movies, but only martial arts flicks with a heavy focus on lucrim. Rick thought that surely he must have other hobbies or interests, yet came up empty time and time again.
He knew that some people like that were mocked as lucrim-heads, but he found his attention turning inward. That word had been thrown at him back in school, and it was true to a degree. Before a few months ago, he'd had no idea that the five Peerless were still a relevant part of global politics. Though it was slightly disconcerting to talk to someone like Raggest, he wondered how many people felt that way about him.
Abruptly Raggest's face lit up with anticipation and he swiveled to the side. Rick had been paying less attention to their surroundings, but now saw that there was a park within the city. It was filled with squat trees he thought were called baobabs, but it was still obviously a park, with a few benches and trails near the street and denser areas within. Raggest marched straight into it.
"We're almost here, Rick! I heard that every day at dusk there's an old woman who offers a lucrim challenge to anyone tough enough to endure it!"
"Wait a minute." Rick jogged to catch up with him as they plunged into the mostly empty park. "So when you said we should take a break from normal training, you meant to do other training?"
"I mean, obviously. What else would be worth our time?" Before there was any chance to answer, Raggest hit him on the shoulder and thrust a hand forward. "There she is! Don't screw this up!"
Ahead of them, seated under a particularly thick baobab, was an old woman. For a horrible split second Rick thought it was Granny Whitney, then realized that it was patently obviously not. The woman was dark-skinned and wearing a colorful robe and sash, so clearly it was just past traumas flashing back. In front of her sat a table with a covered dark pot in the center, and little else.
"You two young men look like you're here for the challenge." She had a low voice with an accent Rick could only assume was local. Though she didn't rise when they approached, she smiled up at both of them. "But I will warn you, most fail immediately. Some even risk death."
"We're not afraid!" Raggest reached down to jab at the pot. "What's this challenge?"
"A rite of passage from a certain tribe that shall remain nameless. Through this challenge, young fighters prove themselves to be true warriors... if they can endure the wrath of nature." The old woman uncovered the pot and Rick immediately looked in, only to recoil: the interior was swarming with blue-colored ants. Raggest bent down to peer at them, much closer than Rick wanted to get.
"What are these?"
"Plasma ants, one of the few insects that can use lucrim. Instead of generating aura, they naturally create an ether venom within them. Humans are too large for it to kill... but their venom produces a pain that has reduced many a grown warrior to sobbing."
With deft finge
rs, the woman slid a stick into the edge, somehow retrieving only a single one of the ants. It ran along the length of her stick, snapping its mandibles as if enraged, but she calmly shifted the stick so that it never reached her fingers.
"For a fee of a mere 100 lucrim, you can test yourself against them. But it would be irresponsible of me to let you try without understanding the pain of their poison. First try a single bite... I must warn you that 90% of all who try give up after one bite. So I insist on receiving payment first."
"Sure, whatever. I've gotta try this!" Raggest pulled a marble from his pocket and dropped it on the table. It looked large enough to hold more than 100 lucrim and the woman snatched it up quickly. But before Raggest could reach out to the branch, Rick stepped in.
"You're really going to just do this?"
"Why not?" Raggest grinned at him. "Don't tell me you're scared of a few ants, are you? This might be our only chance to experience something like this!"
"But you know nothing about her. Just where did you hear this rumor? If someone wanted to assassinate you, do you know how easy it would be for them to set up something like this?"
"They'd be an idiot to assassinate me like this. I'll fight anyone who wants it!" Raggest again tried to reach for the stick, but Rick grabbed his arm. The old woman simply watched them in amusement, happy now that she had received her payment. Rick didn't think it was really an assassination, just that the whole thing might be some sort of scam.
Still, it was obvious that Raggest was going to do it no matter what. Rick decided that it would be safer for him to try first, since his defensive core had adapted to a few venomous snakes in the Refuge. He reached out to take the branch and braced his arm as the ant ran toward his fingers.
As soon as it reached his hand, the ant bit down hard. To his surprise, its tiny mandibles managed to poke through his defensive core, then he felt a stinging flame rush through his entire hand. His arm convulsed on instinct, sending the branch tumbling to the ground. For a moment, Rick's entire world was consumed with the white hot flame of pain coursing up his arm.
When he became aware again, his teeth were grinding against each other painfully. His hand still burned, but less so. He noticed that the old woman had caught the branch before it fell, and that Raggest was looking at him with a smile.
"So you wanted it for yourself, huh? That's the spirit the others are missing! I knew I liked you. Do the ants have enough poison for both of us?"
"Venom," the old woman said. When Raggest stared at her blankly, she sighed and flicked the ant back into the pot. "Plasma ants can bite a great many times. The challenge, of course, is not to be bitten a single time, but to stick your hand into the pot. Once you do, you can shake off the ants. But anyone who cries out from the pain or kills any of the ants is known to be weak."
"That's so badass." Raggest looked like he wanted to plunge his hand into the pot right then, but restrained himself. "You going to do this, Rick?"
Stupid as it seemed, Rick thought that he was. Now that he had experienced the pain, he was fairly confident that it couldn't be fatal. An untrained person might die from the shock of the pain, but though it was a worse sort of burning than he'd felt before, he knew pain. And this might be his only chance to receive the attack of a rare creature like the plasma ants.
So in the end, Rick plunged his hand into the pot. Instantly it was swarmed by ants, viciously biting him from all sides. The pain was nearly as bad as before, but this time he could concentrate through the pain. He let the Dark Blood Kettle rise along with his defensive core, trying to absorb the ether being injected into him. Though it wasn't easy, the ants obligingly helped by injecting yet more.
Rick grimaced, barely avoiding a cry of pain. His defenses had blunted it at first, but now the burning was beginning to penetrate. Dimly he realized that he was supposed to withdraw his hand, but he was so focused on trying to overcome the countless tiny attacks that he kept his hand inside. It was getting worse, and he didn't know how long he could last...
Suddenly his hand was wrenched from the pot, aura sliding down his arm. Rick was nearly blind from the pain, but he realized that there had been a tickling sensation running up his arm as the ants climbed higher. Not wanting to lose her precious insects, the old woman had removed his hand and swept the ants back into the pot.
Staggering away, Rick looked over his now clean hand. It was actually bleeding from some of the bites and his skin was flushed an unhealthy blue. The ache following the burning pain was growing, and he had a feeling that he'd be paying for that decision for a while... but it might have been worth it. His defensive core had very successfully absorbed the venom, so given enough time, he'd be able to defend against any similar attacks.
The woman was giving him a disapproving look, while Raggest whooped. Rick was too delirious to focus much, but he saw that Raggest tried next, practically punching his fist into the jar. He grimaced and growled as if he could intimidate the ants, finally pulling out his arm and shaking them back into the jar.
"The two of you..." She had been calm up to that moment, but now the old woman stared at them with something strange in her eyes. Like shock, but there was something else there. "You're strange foreigners, I can see that. I haven't seen something like that in years... you deserve something special."
"What's that?" Raggest asked. Rick was still busy massaging his hand and didn't really register.
"Just a little gift, something that was once given to the most promising warriors." The woman unrolled part of her sash and unveiled a pair of thin clay vials. "I don't suggest you take these now, not after enduring the plasma ants. But I think the two of you just might be able to make better use of them than this old woman."
With that, she gave them both an odd bow. Then she covered her pot, lifted her table, and began to hobble away, disappearing further into the park. Rick stared after her in disbelief, then realized that Raggest was already unstoppering his vial to drink.
"Raggest! She said not to do that!"
"Yeah, but the ants weren't so bad," he said, though he reluctantly closed the vial. "I suppose it's good to follow the procedures when it comes to training. This is yours, by the way."
Rick automatically took the vial he was handed but didn't let it distract him. "You were really going to just drink something you were given by a complete stranger?"
"Come on, Rick, live a little! Things will work out in the end. If those ants were any indication, I think this will definitely make us stronger."
Though Rick was skeptical, he had to admit that his defensive core had benefited from enduring the plasma ants. Raggest turned around and left the park, the entire trip having been for that sole purpose. Rick followed, marshaling his thoughts before he spoke again.
"At least talk to someone about this," Rick advised. "The potion she gave us could be addictive, or it could cause some illness only she can cure, or a lot of other things. At least figure out what a mysterious liquid is before drinking it."
"You really think a nice old lady like that was evil? Come on, Rick, don't be dumb."
"If you knew... no, that doesn't matter. Do you really make decisions like this all the time? How has that not backfired yet?"
Raggest looked back at him and shook his head. "You might not be a coward, Rick, but you need to be bolder about these things. If you're open to them, good things in life will come to you. If we'd listened to you, we'd never have experienced a great challenge! And even if she had been trying something against us, we'd have found some way to win. If you stay focused on your goal, you'll definitely make it."
Everything Rick had experienced suggested that the exact opposite was true. The world was cruel and unfair, without the slightest sense of justice in how it treated anyone. Yet Raggest was almost his age and somehow had never gotten a bitter lesson in that. Maybe he actually led a blessed life.
Or maybe Rick was just cursed.
"Since we're walking all the way back..." Rick had been planning to
wait, but based on that experience, decided to go for it now. "How long have you been working with Alger?"
"Oh, like ten years. He scouted me when I was a teenager, but he didn't accept me right away. No, he made me prove myself first, because he cares whether or not people have the spark. But I beat every challenge he put in my way and exceeded his expectations, so now he's become my mentor."
"Your mentor? You didn't live anywhere near Branton, did you?"
"Admittedly, he wasn't there all that often, but he's given me some great gifts. And he always has the best ideas for training. My main offensive Lucore was designed by him: he said that he'd been waiting for the right person to give it to."
"Huh." Rick stared at the other man, searching for some hint to something he couldn't even name. "Does Alger ever... seem weird to you? Like he has some other motive?"
Raggest looked like the idea had never occurred to him. "What do you mean? He just wants to raise a generation of warriors with more fighting spirit! I mean, if you listened to him, he's clear about that. Do you have something against him? Alger told me that you weren't very cooperative, but he said you had a warrior's spirit. Actually, that's part of why I wanted to become friends."
Alger had practically sent Raggest to become friends? For a moment Rick was the one to stare blankly, trying to figure out what any of this could mean. Logically, Alger might be trying to lure him back under his control indirectly, since his direct requests had been rebuffed. Yet Rick couldn't help but think that he was missing something.
All too soon, they were in front of his hotel again. Raggest flipped his clay vial into the air and cheerfully caught it with one hand. "This was a cool evening, Rick! Man, I want to fight you, but I guess it wouldn't be a good fight yet."
