Endless Online: Oblivion's Promise

by M. H. Johnson

  Val swallowed and nodded, pinned in place by Halvar's steely gaze. "Besides, our captain has found a far, far more profitable use of the treasure we found than wasting it on foolishness."

  "Fair enough," Val said. "And it wasn't actually your greatsword I wanted to learn mastery of. Rather, I wanted to practice sparring with a shorter, more nimble version of a blade you can hold in two hands, balanced almost well enough for comfortable one-handed use. We call it a longsword, back where I'm from."

  Halvar frowned thoughtfully for a moment before heading back inside, returning shortly thereafter with two blunted sparring blades that were almost exactly identical to German longswords, up to and including the shape of crossguard and pommel. Not so surprising, Val allowed, as it only made sense that effective designs were as universal in engineering as they were in evolution. There might be scores of exotic weapons here on Jordia that he had never even fathomed. And there might be any number that, much like his dwarven blade and the longsword, exactly mirrored weapons used on Earth centuries ago, so long as they had a valid role to fill.

  "This is actually a favored dueling weapon on Phoebe, and perhaps because it amuses them, the Highlords never outlawed its use. In fact, they often train in the mastery of this weapon over most others."

  Val swallowed and nodded his head, hoping his motives weren't that obvious.

  "It's more versatile than the rapier, of course. It can be used in actual combat as well as the dueling ring, and can be used when fighting even armored foes. Then it is often wielded in a half-sword grip, to crack and burst through the reflective plates. Far easier to carry for most people your size than a greatsword, it can still be used with a shield in the off-hand when charging enemy lines, though in that situation the blade we've been training with is a far better match."

  He shrugged. "This sword has versatility, grace, and was the dueling weapon my first love favored, years ago. But practically speaking; shield, blaster, and the artifact you've recovered are all you'll ever need, particularly since your own blade, much like Elise's, has the advantage of being able to cut through most things like a knife through lard, if you have the Psionicist's gift. So I have to ask, why the fascination with the longsword?"

  Val swallowed and nodded, pretending he didn't catch the message in Halvar's eyes. He answered with the truth, or at least part of it. "It's the first blade I ever trained with, back on Earth. It has more treatises written on it than any other European weapon of that era, and was regarded as a knightly weapon, a noble weapon. I fell in love with the grace and power revealed in a match between clever, skilled opponents, and I'd love to embrace those old lessons once more."

  Val grinned. "Besides, it gives us another method to perfect our tempo, distance, and timing, and you can see the style once mastered by a world you think as much dream as reality."

  Halvar gave a measured nod. "Reasonable enough, boy." He flashed an evil grin. "It will be a pleasure knocking you on your backside with your favorite toy," he chuckled, before patting Val on the back. "Come, Val. No rest for the weary or wicked, and that's both of us. Let's kit up, and you can show me what you know of Phoebe's favored blade."

  Halvar's cocky grin soon faded as Val's lightning fast Oberhau strikes and double Zwerches left him stumbling back, the satisfying sound of steel pounding into reinforced armor still ringing through the courtyard, Val's sword having whipped about, scoring strikes on both sides of Halvar's armored helm in less than a second.

  Longsword Rank 3 Successfully Quantized!

  Halvar bowed his head. "Well done," he said, before attacking in earnest.

  The courtyard rang with the sound of steel, Val catching sight of Gregor gazing at them both, jaw agape, as they danced and spun about, weaving a deadly series of feints, strikes and thrusts. Val's Absetzen maneuver should have jerked Halvar's blade completely off line as Val struck with his own thrust, but he had forgotten the man's considerable strength, Val grunting and knocked off balance as Halvar's blade clipped him at last.

  Val grinned as they stepped apart once more, both breathing heavy, both clearly enjoying the contest.

  "You're fast, kid, damn fast. And with this blade, balanced for nimble strikes, it shows."

  Val nodded. "And you're as strong as an oak. Shall we go again?"

  Halvar chuckled softly. "Let's do it, kid." As soon as the words were out, he lashed out with the perfect Oberhau strike, blade arcing down in a blow that would crack Val's skull, if he were not armored.

  Val felt a fierce rush, sensing one of those perfect moments, as idealized as any student could hope for, just like a slide from a treatise.

  And his timing had never been better.

  Sensing just the instant to pivot his hips, projecting his weight forward, posture almost like that of a dancer as his blade snapped down with the combined power of his entire body. Zornhau displaced Oberhau in a single perfect beat, his own sword effortlessly leveraging aside Halvar's, Val's blade now defending his line even as it plunged forward, blasting into Halvar's throat.

  The exhilaration Val felt roaring through him turned instantly to horror, reflexively pulling back the blade he had braced with instinctive zeal as it found its mark, suddenly terrified for his friend.

  "Halvar!"

  The larger man stumbled back a foot, coughing momentarily, Gregor now rushing up to them, fury in his eyes.

  "Bloody monster!" The shorter man screamed, even as a coughing, gasping, laughing Halvar waved him off.

  "No worries, my friend. Young Val just struck with zeal, using a technique I've never seen before. And double the fool I, for never thinking to further reinforce the armor guarding my windpipe!"

  As frightened as Val felt, the relief pouring through him was dizzying as Halvar shook off their concern, removing his helmet. There was no visible bruising, and Val knew it could have been so much worse. Halvar's nod was one of definite respect. "Well done, Val. It was foolish of me to rely on thin plates good only for warding blaster fire around my neck. I see that now, by the two plates you bent. If that had been a real blade, I would be dead as like as not, lest anyone pitied me enough to rush me to the most expensive of Vac-Wards. Now I'm going to let this busybody here share some of his less noxious potions with me, just to make sure I suffer nothing worse than a blow to my pride."

  Longsword Rank 4 Successfully achieved. - Congratulations! Not only have you fully quantized half-remembered glimmers of a life you most certainly never lived, but you've managed to incorporate all the lessons in feints, bluffs, and timing that Halvar has instilled into your head! And all it took was putting a friend you claim to care about in mortal peril. Well done!

  Val grimaced at the message but didn't begrudge it. If it was his subconscious, it was just an echo of his own guilt coming through.

  For all that Halvar assured that all was well and Gregor was glaring, Val still felt compelled to join them back at Halvar's quarters, carefully watching Gregor feed him a potion that glowed the red of shimmering rubies. Halvar sighed with relief after taking it, and for all that he had assured that he was fine, his face eased of discomfort after he drank his fill.

  "What is that exactly?" Val asked.

  Gregor frowned. "A restorative I was able to concoct on Phoebe. It only remains to be seen what wonders I can cook up here on Jordia, thanks to the alchemy tome we retrieved and various plants we thankfully have close to the compound."

  Val nodded. "Color me impressed. To see healing magic like that... I guess alchemy is a real thing in this world."

  "Of course it is!" Gregor scoffed. "With the electro-mana fields this high, there's no way arcane residuals wouldn't be harnessed and exploited by at least some of the local flora. It only remains to ascertain which plants and what ratio of organic compounds to Silbion are needed to generate efficacious potions here."

  "Alchemy meets the scientific method, I guess."

  "What was that?"

  Val shrugged. "Never mind. I know I've been training hard with Halvar, but
I'd really like to assist you in making some potions, if that's alright."

  Gregor rolled his eyes a bit too theatrically. "Fine. You can start tomorrow. Less likelihood of you causing Halvar permanent harm that way."

  Halvar scowled. "I'll be fine enough in minutes."

  "Sure. Just wear better armor next time. Now we know this kid likes to dive in for the kill."

  Halvar winked at Val as Gregor stormed off. Val grinned back, but kept an eye on his friend through the night. He knew how dangerous a swollen windpipe could be, and though he knew the basics of stabilizing a soldier on the battlefield, intubating was still something he was loath to do. Nonetheless, he stood vigilant with forcefully borrowed tubing from the alchemy set Gregor was all too protective of, the shorter man paling when Val explained exactly what it would be used for.

  "You're a butcher!" The shorter man had said.

  Val shrugged. "Do we have access to any of your famed healing tech, out here in what I know must be the middle of nowhere?"

  Gregor had just grumbled and shaken his head, saying his potion had been more than enough, and thankfully he was proven absolutely right.

  After a short nap, Gregor insisting he wouldn't let Val within ten feet of his fully reclaimed alchemy set without a clear head, Val spent the latter part of the day learning about basic alchemy as Gregor explained it from the book he was using as a reference, which mostly consisted of Val doing his best to memorize by rote the ratios and techniques Gregor used for what was apparently a fresh batch of restoration potions, as he certainly wasn't slowing down for Val's benefit.

  Val grinned at Gregor's relieved sigh when the heated potion turned the ruby hue he was obviously looking for. Though the shorter man hadn't been overly helpful, Val thought he had caught the gist of it after the first two batches had failed, if Gregor's frustrated curses were anything to go by. The third time was the charm that solidified Val's sense of the flow of arcane energies and elements going into the restoration potion, and he was almost certain he could do it himself, if given a chance.

  "Now here's to hoping," Gregor whispered as he examined his potion under the light of one of his own exotic looking microscopes. He sighed and frowned, shaking his head.

  Val grabbed his wrist before he could pour the contents out.

  "What are you doing? Let go of my hand!" snapped the clearly frustrated man.

  Val did so, but only after grabbing the flask.

  "Give that back! It's worthless!"

  Val smiled. "If it's worthless, can I keep it?"

  Gregor huffed a long-suffering sigh. "Sure, Val, if it will get you out of my hair."

  Val smiled, handing back the flask. "It's a success, Gregor. It has the exact same resonance as the potion you gave to Halvar. Only the base compounds are different."

  Gregor frowned. "What are you talking about? I've been struggling with this book since we got back! The potion I used to treat Halvar was one I had infused on Phoebe. Every potion I've tried to concoct here on Jordia, including all the formulas I've used from this tome, have been complete failures!"

  Val frowned. "Are you serious?"

  The shorter man sighed, shaking his head. "I thought, I really thought I had a knack for this, as exotic a science as it is. I didn't think alchemy would be so very different between sister planets. But every test I ran shows the same diffusion patterns that everyone knows means the potion's an utter failure."

  "Why's that?"

  Gregor frowned. "When the mana is dispersed, not inside the specific pattern or matrix you've established as the carrier vehicle in the potion, but more like a haze through the potion as a whole, then you know it's ruptured somehow, like yolk in an egg. And unless you like scrambled brains as much as scrambled eggs, you won't drink a potion that's both ruptured and active."

  Val's brows furrowed. He tilted his head in contemplation for some moments before abruptly smiling. "What's that you all say about Jordia?"

  "That it's a backwards backwater, rich in artifacts and natural resources and little else?"

  Val shook his head. "No. Or at least, that's not all. You all go on about how infused this entire realm is with magic."

  Gregor shrugged. "Yes. So alchemy should be even easier. What's your point?"

  Val blinked. It was so obvious. "So, your potions are working just as specified! All the magic you want is safely locked in those carrier matrices or whatever you want to call them. But in addition, perhaps the very air, or the electro-mana fields, if you will, is also infusing the rest of the potion with mana. So even if it's a wild success, it will seem, well, cloudy to your mind's eye. Not clear, the way it does on Phoebe."

  Gregor paled. "But... wait... no... that couldn't be. Could it?" He frowned, looking over the potion once more, his movements increasingly agitated before he took an impulsive sip, eyes blinking wildly.

  "You're right," he whispered. "I can taste it. My toothache is already fading. But that means... ancestor's mercy, I've wasted a dozen batches of potions!" The gnomelike man looked ready to burst into tears.

  Val gave him a comforting clap on the shoulder. "It's okay, Gregor. I promise not to tell everyone how much Silbion you've no doubt wasted. If, this time, you'll actually walk me through a batch or two of my own."

  And almost before Val knew it, he held a sealed flask of his very first restoration potion.

  "Well, that was pretty decent for your first try, I suppose," Gregor grumbled, stomping out of the room.

  Val grinned, gazing at his little miracle of a creation, still remembering the visceral thrill of feeling the essence and flow of wild dragonberries, purple elderoot, purified water, and the tiniest bit of Silbion all percolating in the beakers, flasks, and boilers that made up Ava's masterwork alchemy set, then sensing it all come together in the central boiling flask, almost tasting the gentle cascade of reactions that had turned his potion a delicate shade of ruby. It was pure, potent, and perfect, and even if Val couldn't read most of their books worth a damn, he felt as if each step Gregor had walked him through was now blazed in his memory. He knew he wouldn't forget the pattern and flow of actions needed to make this magic brew, and to prove it to himself, he made a second batch, utterly identical in clarity and potency to the first.

  Basic Restoration Formula Learned! - Thanks to your Greater Alchemy, Magesight, Arcane and Psionic Perception, the crafting of potions comes to you as naturally as breathing! You are far more gifted at alchemy than any Lesser Alchemist will ever be, able to see and feel the nuances of arcane interactions that others can only determine with the crudest instruments. As you continue your path towards mastery, you will eventually be able to enhance potions in ways beyond their original premise! So long as someone walks you through the crafting of any new potion, you have a very good chance of successfully mastering it! If, however, you attempt to concoct a new potion using a tome without a fully literate person to assist you, you have a significant chance of failure.

  Val nodded at the sudden insight, thinking it only made sense that his ability to feel the energies within the distillations would be a huge advantage, just as his frustrating inability to make out certain portions of the alchemical charts, those dealing with completely mundane elements, meant he'd be best off studying under others, never trying to decipher those tomes himself.

  He gazed down at both flasks he had made, closed his eyes, and successfully stored them in his pocket dimension, watching them fill two more hexes in his grid, as no batch was exactly the same as another. He checked himself, happy to see that they radiated the same potency when he removed them once more, the potions seemingly unaffected by their time in the rift.

  As eventful as the day had been so far, it was nothing compared to what happened next.

  11

  Val entered Gregor's laboratory, expecting the man to be hard at work creating yet another batch of potions as if to make up for all the successful concoctions he had inadvertently thrown away, only to see him wearing exotic crystal lenses along with sev
eral small probes of bronze and chrome that he held in his hand. He was currently inspecting one of the ancient Psiblades Val had discovered what now seemed a lifetime ago.

  Val had to admire the intensity of his focus.

  "Hey, Gregor, do you actually think you can fix them?"

  The smaller man was so startled by Val's presence that he fell out of his seat, the precious artifact sent flying. "No!" he cried, flailing desperately for the weapon and missing, though Val caught it easily enough, taking a moment to get his first really good look at the ancient artifact, more the hilt of some ancient blade than anything else at first glance.

  Then Val blinked and shivered, suddenly feeling so much more.

  "Give that back!" The shorter man said caustically, wrenching the Psiblade from Val's unresisting grip. "You don't know what you're doing! We dare not risk making things worse."

  Val nodded thoughtfully as Gregor began poking at it with his tools once more. "What exactly are you doing to fix it?"

  Gregor gave a long-suffering sigh. "I am trying to manipulate the Elementium strands to coax the Valorium back into proper alignment! Only then will it be able to harness a Psion's energies to generate a nul blade."

  Val nodded. "So your tools help you shape the Elementium?"

  "Only to a degree," Gregor reluctantly admitted. "As much as any man who is not a Guild ranked Artificer can manage, I can do."

  "Impressive. Can you teach me?"

  Gregor favored Val with a look of pure exacerbation. "Isn't it bad enough that you have free reign to muck about in the alchemy lab, using up my precious supplies?"

  Val smiled. "I'm happy to go out looking for fresh ingredients with you anytime you like."

  "That's hardly the point, Val."

  "Can I at least watch?"

  "Sure. Knock yourself out."

  And Val did, gazing politely as Gregor struggled with the Psiblade to no visible avail, his frustration growing all the greater as the day progressed.

  Yet Val was captivated. Not by Gregor so much as by the ebb and flow of energies and arcane alignments he sensed within the artifact, the Valorium itself forming a near indestructible matrix of hideous, wonderful complexity. In its own way it was almost as sophisticated a creation as the Valorium engine cores Val had been gifted with. Yet that being the case, why wasn't it working?