by Gage Lee
The soulforged offered me a shallow bow, and I returned it. He shuffled off, and Biz squeezed my hand.
“Let’s head to the garden,” she said. “I bet the air’s even cleaner there now. We’ll get this thing done in no time, bro. That robot doesn’t know who he’s talking to.”
For just a moment I caught a glimpse of the strange, feral creature that lived inside my sister. She was confident, brazen, and utterly without fear. I was proud of the changes Biz had gone through, but I was also wary of where they were taking her. Reckless fighter Biz was hard enough for me to accept on the splinter where she had the ghostlight powers to back up her attitude. I didn’t know if I’d be able to tolerate it when we got home. Even worse, I didn’t think Biz would, either.
Especially if the sickness came back, and she lost her glowy magic hands.
I shook my head. We were a long way from going home now that the Fell Lord was on the move. I could worry about what might happen later. No sense in borrowing trouble when I had plenty breathing down my neck.
Biz and I reached the garden and sat down on the edge of the stone platform. The fuzzball jumped off her shoulder to investigate the area.
The running generator really was cleaning up the place. The air was cleaner, purer. The black weeds were entirely gone, though the trees hadn’t regrown and the bushes were still hopelessly tangled and stunted by years of neglect. I wondered if I’d be able to gather enough ghostlight to restore the garden before I left. It would be nice to see it in all its glory.
>>Secondary task “Glorious Rebirth” available.
Restore the Garden of Meditation to receive three Akashik network upgrade credits.
There is no time limit.
There is no penalty for failure.<<<
Well, that was interesting. I accepted the task and made a silent promise to myself to complete it before we left. First, though, we had to get through this advancement.
“All right,” I said, “I’m going in.”
“Right behind you, bro,” Biz said with a grin. “In and out. Easy as riding a bike.”
We both chuckled at the irony of that. My sister hadn’t learned to ride a bike before the illness set in and my mother wouldn’t let her after. If mom could see us now, she’d flip out over Biz duking it out with a bunch of monsters.
I closed my eyes and focused on my advancement. It was hard to put away all the distractions that plagued my thoughts. Worries over whether we’d get the school repaired in time to repel an invasion. Concerns about the students getting up to speed quickly enough to be of any use mining or fighting. Aggravation that the Tribunal seemed so useless. I had no idea who’d left them in charge, but when I found out, they’d better start running.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
A few dozen breaths later, I’d pushed all those irritating distractions out of my mind. None of that was important. All that mattered was advancing. I needed to be stronger to face Inphyr.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
If Biz needed to add shells to her core to advance, then maybe I just had to add the reference points to mine. I concentrated on that, putting all my attention on the problem.
>>>Ten reference points available. Do you wish to begin daemon construction?<<<
Well, that was different. The advancement status told me I was in the right ballpark, even if I didn’t recognize the teams that were playing. I willed the interface to tell me what a daemon was, and what it could do.
>>>Daemons are subsentient constructs attached to your core. There are three types: augmentation, cultivation, and controller.
Augmentation daemons provide a one-time, permanent increase in your core’s ghostlight storage capacity. They cannot be advanced.
Cultivation daemons enhance your natural ability to harvest ghostlight. While they do not add to your core’s capacity, cultivation daemons do increase the rate at which you regenerate blades. Cultivation types do not expire as your core advances, but provide less benefit as your core becomes more powerful.
Controller types tie constructs to your core through the Akashik network. Controller types do not expire when your core advances, but remain at the same level at which they were activated. Advancing a controller is possible and requires the expenditure of ghostlight blades.
It is possible to add cultivation and controller daemons to your core without advancing, but doing so requires significantly more blades than advancement upgrades.<<<
I considered the cultivation and controller daemons but discarded them quickly. Raw power would be a lot more reliable in the coming battle than new gimmicks I didn’t fully understand. I told the interface to begin constructing an augmentation daemon.
An image swam into focus behind my closed eyes. A golden sphere floated in the darkness with ten white circles spinning around it like Saturn’s rings on fast-forward.
>>>Constellation orientation beginning. Align focus rings to continue.<<<
I recognized the golden sphere as my core. The white circles must be the focus rings that I had to align. There were ten of them, one for each of the reference points I’d invested in this process. I wasn’t sure how to proceed, and trying to force the interface to tell me something resulted in a replay of the previous message. Fine. If this was one of the challenges to engineer advancement, I’d beat it into submission through sheer force of will.
My circulating breath anchored me. I willed its rhythm onto the rings, forcing them into a regular pattern around the core. Nothing happened for a few moments.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
I bore down on the rings with all the willpower I could muster. A headache bloomed in my thoughts, a distant thunderhead approaching on a chill wind. The hairs on the back of my neck rose in warning. I ignored the premonition of dread. I’d deal with whatever problems got in my way.
One ring locked into place, then another. A third fell into its proper position a split second later. The more rings I locked down, the easier it became to get the next one.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Rings four, five, and six stopped moving so suddenly they vibrated like tuning forks.
With only four rings to go, my concentration became harder to control. Rogue thoughts about my mother tried to slip in around the cracks of my willpower. The urge to rush through the rest of the process before I lost focus was nearly overwhelming.
Instead, I maintained my steady breathing and waited for the rest of the rings to fall in line.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Ring seven slowed to a gentle stop.
An image of my mother’s frantic face forced itself into my thoughts. A pang of guilt and sorrow rushed through me like a cyclone.
The seventh ring wavered.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Ring seven trembled, then went still.
Eight, nine, and ten all slowed, then stopped to complete the circular cage around my core. Pure white light poured out of them and into the golden sphere at their center.
>>>Phase one of your advancement is complete.
Blade organization commencing.
Phase two begins in...
Three...
Two...
One...<<<
My core vanished and took the garden with it. I was no longer sitting next to Biz. I stood on an empty gray plane, light shining down on me from a white sun lost in the clouds above my head. I held onto the rhythm of my circulation breathing like a lifeline. This was no time to lose focus.
Monitor had told Biz that the next step after she’d integrated the shells into her core was to meditate on the weakness that held her back. The thought of my sister made me wonder how she was doing. A sudden urge to bail out of the advancement to check on her clawed at my thoughts. I wanted to protect Biz and help her get through the advancement. I’d always been there for her and didn’t know how she’d handle being on her own. If she failed, she could be hurt.
Maybe killed...
I couldn’t let that happen. I cou
ldn’t fail my sister again.
There’d been a time when I thought my sister was annoying, especially when I had to stop whatever I was doing to help my mom keep an eye on her. Like the day at the lake. I’d wanted to swim and play Marco Polo with the other kids my age. But my mom was working at that party and didn’t want her kids out of sight. So we sat on rickety nylon-strap loungers in swimsuits faded by age and chlorine. I was supposed to keep an eye on my sister. I could still remember Biz’s face that day: freckles on her cheeks, her dark hair threaded with platinum sun streaks. She was playing dolls with the other kids. And then I got distracted by the kids farther out on the water.
The memory of my hunger stung my thoughts. I’d wanted to be like them. Carefree, nothing holding them back, able to play whenever they wanted to, with whoever they wanted to. That impossible, selfish dream pulled my attention away from my sister.
That was the weakness that had haunted me my whole life. When my baby sister had needed me most, I’d failed her. When I finally noticed what was happening, her rosy lips had gone a hypothermic shade of blue. She’d gotten in the water. I had no idea how long she’d been in there. I watched, frozen for an eternal moment as her gasping mouth burst from the surface, then vanished as my sister slipped below the water.
>>>Phase three begins in...
Three...
Two...
One...<<<
I hit the water hard, a belly flop from what felt like three stories up. It stung my skin and eyes; the stink of lake water burned my nose. I couldn’t breathe, I could barely see. The water wasn’t clear like it had been on that August day. It was black as ink, its surface a rippled mirror that reflected nothing but my own face. My sister was here. She had to be. But I couldn’t see her.
That was the enemy within. I had to find her.
But, if I couldn’t, I might never get out of this tar-black lake.
I dove beneath the water, kicking and clawing through the seething darkness. It was so cold beneath the surface. My muscles shivered and cramped, and I didn’t care. I had to find my sister. She was here, somewhere. I wouldn’t fail again. I couldn’t.
It would kill me.
My body gave up on me and forced me back to the surface. My head broke through the black waves, and I gulped air that felt like frost in my lungs. It was getting harder to tread water, harder to breathe. I pushed back against the discomfort. This was all in my head. It was my subconscious mind doing this to me. I could control it.
And then I knew how to find her. I activated the Gaze of Discernment discipline.
For a moment, nothing happened. I looked everywhere—above me, all around, and finally, down at the water itself. A red mark was just visible thousands of feet below me.
“Yes,” I gasped. Maybe it was cheating, but I didn’t care. The discipline had showed me the location of my weakness. All I had to do was swim down there and face it.
That knowledge filled me with new strength. I took a deep breath, jackknifed, and kicked my legs to propel myself deeper and deeper into the water. There was no light down here, no sound except the beating of my own heart.
And then I found the marker.
But not my sister.
The red circle rested on the unyielding stone bottom of the inky pool. I pushed against it with my fingers, to no avail. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. The only way through this was to smash that stone apart. And the only tools I had were my fists.
That was all right. I used blades of ghostlight from my core to strengthen my arms and hands. None of this was real, anyway. It was just a waking dream, a test put in my way to keep me from my goal. And, like every other test that got in my way, I’d knock it down.
My hands rose and fell in a steady, mesmerizing rhythm that mimicked the circulation technique I’d performed on the surface. My knuckles crashed into the stone, again and again, jolts of pain jumping up my wrists and vibrating my arms clear to their shoulders. My joints ached and my lungs screamed for air.
I ignored them. This wasn’t real; I had to keep reminding myself of that.
My hands were numb lumps of bruised meat and unfeeling bone by the time the first cracks appeared in the stone. Gleaming golden light shone through velvet darkness and spurred me on. I’d found my weakness, and I was so close to defeating it. Not even my burning, screaming lungs could stop me. I clung to consciousness and hammered away at the problem.
>>>Akashik network anomaly detected.
Phase three failed.
Recalibrating...<<<
The stone I’d been pounding on crumbled away. The smooth, glossy black shards tumbled down onto a golden sphere the size of my fist. I don’t know why the interface had told me I’d failed. Clearly, I’d gotten through my weakness; now all that remained was to collect my core. I reached down, the light showing me my swollen hands, knuckles split open, streaks of blood covering my fingers. I was okay. I’d gotten through the weak point. I’d claim the core and everything would be okay.
My aching fingers closed around the orb. It was the size of a grapefruit and heavier than a bowling ball. I eased it out of its resting place and pulled it close to me. That was what came next, I remembered. The core would become part of me.
And it did.
The orb sank into my flesh and pushed my old core out of me. The dull, lifeless sphere vanished into the black waters. What did it matter? I was stronger now, more powerful. I didn’t need that stupid old thing.
>>>Akashik network initiating final advancement phase.
Crucible ignited.
Containment failing...
Incomplete integration.<<<
The light from my new core wasn’t soothing. It wasn’t warm. It burned. My guts felt like I’d swallowed a hot coal.
Something was wrong. This was the final phase. The core should have strengthened my body enough to withstand its power.
But it hadn’t.
And this new power was killing me.
Chapter Seventeen
THE PAIN OF MY OVERLOADED core was unimaginable.
The panic was worse.
Fear made it nearly impossible to think. If I wanted to survive, my first priority had to be controlling my emotions.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
The panic receded, one breath at a time, even as the pain increased. Clearing my thoughts had cost me seconds. It had also saved my life.
I hoped.
>>>Moderate physical damaged sustained. Ghostlight corrosion active. Critical physical damage will be sustained in the next thirty seconds.
There are currently ten blades of ghostlight in your core reserves.<<<
The first part of the status report sounded absolutely terrifying. If this was moderate physical damage, I didn’t want to feel anything more dangerous.
The ten blades sitting in my core gave me an idea. I’d used the strange energy to strengthen my arms and legs far beyond my normal abilities. Maybe there was a way to use that same energy to strengthen my body against the damage coming from the rogue core. It was time to fight ghostlight with ghostlight.
I imagined my body getting hardier, more resilient. I concentrated on that one thought until a blade of ghostlight eased out of my core and into the bright central meridian that ran along my spine. When the golden light transferred into the long channel, I felt instant relief. The pain was still there, but it was nowhere near as severe as it had been. I hadn’t entirely solved my problem, but at least I’d bought myself some time. Unfortunately, the protection I’d paid for with the blade wouldn’t last forever. I needed something more permanent if I was going to get out of this in one piece.
My thoughts turned to the interface. I willed it to tell me what to do next, but it remained mute. Like the Tribunal, it knew enough to be helpful, but it wasn’t all that useful when the chips were down.
I focused on my meditation and let my thoughts drift in search of an answer from my subconscious.
A strange murmuring teased the edges of my thoughts. I
strained to hear it. There was definitely a voice—no, multiple voices, whispering so quietly they were almost inaudible. The low hissing was nearly impossible to understand. I focused all my attention on it, ignoring the pain until, finally, I caught broken snatches of sentences, wisps of concepts. Jigsaw images spun through my consciousness. I struggled to piece them together until, suddenly, they snapped into place.
The single phrase was an echo of something Baylo had said after I nearly blew my hands apart.
>>>Invest in yourself.<<<
Someone, or something, had just offered me a way out of this.
After a deep, cleansing breath, I willed the interface to invest blades of ghostlight into my spinal meridian.
>>>Basic investment requires three blades of ghostlight. Do you wish to begin the investment procedure?<<<
“Yes,” I murmured.
>>>Warning: This procedure is permanent and will reduce your ghostlight reserves by three blades.
Warning: Akashik symbiotes detected.
Warning: Dangerous physical damage sustained.
Please confirm that you wish to proceed with the investment procedure.<<<
“Just do it,” I said through gritted teeth. The pain was breaking through the barriers I’d erected around it with circulating breaths, and it was bringing the panic back with it.
>>>Ghostlight investment has been confirmed.
Three blades will be invested in your spinal meridian.
Benefits include moderate damage resistance, increased healing rate, and greater overall physical strength.<<<
A bolt of lightning blasted from the base of my skull down through my spine and into my legs. My muscles stiffened, contracting around the pain. I’d thought the investment process was supposed to make this easier, not make me want to die.
>>>Critical physical damage sustained.
Investment procedure completes in...
Three...<<<
More strange voices bubbled in my head. They whispered names I didn’t recognize, filled my thoughts with fragments of lives I’d never lived.
>>>Two...<<<
The pain had taken on an entirely new dimension. I was being torn apart, inch by inch, and I clenched my eyes tight so I wouldn’t have to see it. Cool wind blew across exposed muscle, and the slick knobs of my spinal cord laid bare felt stiff and frozen as icicles. I wanted to cry out for my sister, to let her know that I’d tried so hard to be there for her.
