The Beginning After The End 08

by Turtle Me

  It better be worth it.

  285

  One Step Forward

  ARTHUR LEYWIN

  A sea of purple washed over me, and immediately I sensed my aether core slowly draining. Unsure what else to do, I pushed deeper into the cube. The further in I traveled—it felt like something between flying and swimming, though I knew I wasn’t truly moving at all—the more difficult it became. As I wafted through the viscous purple space, it thickened until eventually it felt like I was pushing against a brick wall.

  Despite being disconnected from my body, I could feel my breath coming up short and ragged, as if I was breathing through a wet cloth. Straining to push through this wall, I pumped more aether out of my core, pushing and pushing until, suddenly, I shifted through to… someplace else.

  To describe the experience of my mind touching the surface of the cuboid relic into words would be an exercise in futility; I couldn’t begin to explain the sheer complexity of the sensation. The closest comparison to come into my mind was once when, as King Grey, a traveling dignitary insisted on drinking together. The drink was a sort of tea made from the small, disc-like fruit of his homeland, and drinking it caused me to go into a fit of hallucinations. The aching sensation of my mind opening to stimuli it couldn’t comprehend was very similar to the effect of being within the cube, but the aetherial world that I entered through the relic was far stranger.

  Geometric shapes in seemingly random patterns floated around me in unnatural, contradictory rotations. I couldn’t see an end to how far these polyhedrons went, but I could sense that there was a boundary within the chaos.

  As more aether flowed out from my core and into this realm within the relic, the polyhedrons began to change. I was no longer just observing but actually affecting these geometric shapes, as if my aether was resonating with them, whatever they were.

  I found myself lost in a trance as I tried to make heads or tails out of the patterns, movements, shapes, and sizes of all of these polyhedrons. Using the aether within me as metaphorical limbs, I combined, sorted, and categorized the polyhedrons in an effort to understand what the djinn’s guidebook was trying to tell me.

  Finally, when my aether reserves fell to around a tenth of my capacity, I was pulled out of the realm. As my consciousness returned, I found myself still seated on the couch, in the same position I had assumed when I started. The first thing I noticed was that the room—once brightly lit by the afternoon sun—was now almost completely dark.

  Beside me, Regis lifted up his head. “You’re finally done?”

  I stared at the crescent moon. “How long have I been out?”

  “About five or six hours, maybe. I… fell asleep.”

  “You need sleep?” I asked, surprised.

  Regis’s jaws stretched into a wide yawn before answering. “It’s like a battery-saver mode. I consume less aether when I’m asleep so I can accumulate more ambient aether.”

  “What a peculiar dog you are.”

  “Shove it,” he groused before hopping off the couch. “So did you learn anything from the cube?”

  “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be learning.” I sunk back into the couch and rubbed my face. “And the worst part is that I use up aether while trying to study this piece of rock, which is really going to limit the amount of time I can study it.”

  “Damn, and I thought learning this life-changing, reality-bending ability was going to be easy,” Regis said sarcastically as he walked away.

  I kicked him below the tail, getting a sharp yelp out of him.

  “Never thought I’d miss the days when I was incorporeal,” he grumbled. “So what’s the plan now?”

  I paused, thinking for a moment. “We have a few days to kill anyway, so we might as well learn a bit more about the locals. The bestowment event is tomorrow, and I wouldn’t mind checking out the schools as well.”

  Regis looked at me silently, a slightly stunned expression on his wolfish face.

  I frowned. “What is it?”

  “Nothing. It’s just that, I thought you’d be scratching off your skin trying to find some way to get to the next Relictombs or something,” he muttered.

  Sitting back up, I scratched my cheek and looked out the window, away from Regis. “I have been pretty edgy lately, haven’t I?”

  Regis shrugged, his mane of purple fire fluttering. “It’s understandable. I don’t have a family aside from you, but I’d be pretty nervous if I didn’t know what was going on to the ones I cared about.”

  I glanced from the window to Regis, somewhat taken aback by his nonchalant mention of me as his family. It hadn’t occurred to me that he didn’t have anyone else except me. Even now that he had a more relatable physical form, did I still see Regis as nothing more than a weapon?

  Regis’s eyes narrowed. “What? Why are you staring at me like that?”

  “Nothing, what are you staring at?” I got up from my seat and headed toward the door.

  “Where are we going?” he asked, trotting along behind me.

  “Didn’t you hear what Loreni said earlier? There are a ton of mana beasts just outside the town.” I shot my companion a smirk. “I haven’t had the chance to really practice the limits of God Step.”

  “We get to stretch our legs a bit and earn some money.” Regis mirrored my smirk. “Sounds good.”

  Regis and I breathed in the crisp night air, our feet crunching against the foliage as the two of us rushed through the woods. We had wanted to get farther away from the town in case someone spotted us using aether, but that hadn’t stopped us from killing a few rocavids on the way. The rocavids were massive, deer-like mana beasts that had antlers not only on their heads, but down their spines and thick tails, which they used as deadly clubs.

  Deadly for normal mages, anyway. The mana beasts never even had time to react as I sunk my dagger between their eyes. This kept the hides intact, which were the parts we wanted to sell.

  Regis had a harder time keeping his kills clean, but between the two of us, it took less than an hour to hunt down half a dozen of the rocavids roaming around the dead of night. The only reason we stopped was because we ran out of space in my dimension rune.

  “I thought the talking crystal said you can’t put organic things into the rune on your arm,” Regis commented as we neared a small clearing that led to the base of the hill.

  “It seems like I can only put it in once it’s dead,” I answered, my eyes spotting a large boulder in the center of the clearing.

  The boulder was a couple feet taller than me. Someone had painted a warning across it with ominous plashed of dried blood. The warning said: “Danger! High-level mana beasts ahead!”

  We crossed over to the other side of the clearing, and the ground began to gradually slope up as we trekked up the hill. While my vision had been enhanced by my new physique, being unable to sense mana now made finding mana beasts a much more challenging task.

  While I was able to augment my senses using aether, I’d been unable to find a way to utilize aether to sense non-aetheric beings and objects. On the other hand, not having any sort of mana signature coming from me or Regis meant that the stronger and more predatory wildlife here saw us as an easy meal, which brought them right to us.

  The first mana beast that came after us was one I hadn’t seen before in Dicathen. It reminded me of my sister’s bond, Boo, if only he had four arms and a crocodile-like jaw with three rows of serrated teeth.

  “This one’s mine,” I said, grinning at Regis.

  With a gruesome snarl, the bear got charged at me, its six limbs pushing it forward with surprising speed. Putting away my dagger, I faced it head on.

  While my aether reserves hadn’t been fully restored, tonight’s goal was merely to test out my new godrune. I didn’t know what tier this mana beast would be classified under, but it would serve as a good guinea pig.

  Aether surged out of my core, clinging to my skin. As the famili
ar warmth of the rune spread from my lower back, I focused on the location I would try to land.

  The experience of initiating the aether art felt completely different from when I had first used it. My perception of the world around me changed, as if everything had been stretched in all directions. Particles of ambient aether joined together, creating intertwining streams of purple coursing in the air, fluid pathways that interconnected and branched off.

  Taking a “step,” I felt like my body was being carried by a jet stream as I rode the currents of aether. The problem was that there was no direct route to the location I had determined; I had to ride these currents of aether that branched off and connected to every inch of space that surrounded me. These streams didn’t extend infinitely though. I could only see them in a radius of ten yards, which I assumed was how far I could currently use God Step.

  Despite my current limits, the result was astounding. Although I didn’t land quite as accurately as I would’ve liked, I had traveled ten yards in a blink of an eye.

  The biggest difference between God Step and Burst Step, however, was the control of momentum. Since I was no longer bound by inertia upon reaching my destination, it really felt like I was on the cusp of accomplishing true teleportation.

  Tendrils of violet lightning coiled around me as I appeared just beside the charging bear-like mana beast. It skidded to a stop, but by the time it turned around, my aether-clad fist had already sunk into its side.

  The beast’s giant body tumbled across the ground, crashing through several trees in its path.

  Due to its thick, mana-coated fur, the bear survived the blow, but instead of charging again, it attempted to scuttle away, issuing a series of out low, pitiful whimpers. I focused, seeing the pathways again, feeling them like a vibration in the aether, and took another step. This time, I landed directly in front of the bearish mana-beast and delivered the killing blow before it could even widen its eyes in surprise.

  I put my hands on my knees and took a moment to catch my breath. Using God Step drained both my aether and stamina, it seemed. I could only assume it would get easier the stronger my core became and the more I used it. The biggest limiter besides aether consumption was how long it took me to find the correct path within the branching network of aetheric connections.

  ‘Tuckered out already, princess?’ Regis asked, cutting across my thoughts on God Step.

  We’re just getting started. I just hope you can keep up, pup.

  The forest was thick with predatory mana beasts, allowing me plenty of practice for God Step as I hunted creature after creature. Assuming the powerful mana beasts’ hides, claws, and organs would fetch a better price than the rocavid leather, I left the rocavid corpses behind, knowing they wouldn’t go to waste.

  Regis hunted as well, which allowed me to see what level he was at. Though he could now be much farther away and his capacity to hold aether had grown, his overall power level wasn’t increasing quickly enough for him to keep up with me. He needed to consume more aether, but the problem was, so did I.

  Apart from collecting the relics, both in the Relictombs and out here in Alacrya, I needed to build on my aether reserves until they were large enough to awaken Sylvie from her comatose state.

  “You okay?” Regis asked. We were heading back to our cottage, and were just approaching the base of the hill. “You’re rubbing your left arm again.”

  “I’m fine,” I said, sticking my hands in my pockets.

  When we were close enough to town that running into someone seemed like a real possibility, Regis retreated back into my body, and I found myself enjoying the quiet night. There was a cool breeze moving across the low hills, and the braying of rocavids could be heard in the distance. It was for this reason that I failed to notice the little figure sooner.

  I only stopped when I heard a small hiss just ahead of me. A small figure was leaning over the corpse of a rocavid and pointing a jagged little knife at me.

  The small boy, who couldn’t have been older than ten, leapt to his feet, cutting the air with his knife. His sunken cheeks and tattered clothes spoke volumes of his social standing, but it was his eyes that made me pause. His eyes were filled with desperation and fear as he stood between me and the rocavid corpse, but at the same time, I could see the determination within them.

  His gaze reminded me of… me. Not Arthur Leywin the Lance, but Grey, the orphan boy. It was the same gaze that I had when I first met Headmaster Wilbeck when she first found me on the streets.

  “Boy,” I said firmly, eliciting a startled step back from the little kid so that he nearly tumbled over the corpse. “Do you plan on using that skinning knife on me?”

  The kid slowly lowered his knife, wavering, then lifted it back up and stepped toward me. “Th-this rocavid is mine.”

  I tilted my head. “Did you kill it?”

  He paused, lowering his head. “No…”

  I stepped toward him. “Then why is it yours?”

  “I f-found it first. I hid and waited, but there wasn’t anybody to claim it,” the boy said, his tenor voice haggard but strong.

  “What do you plan on doing with it?”

  The boy held his ground as I took a step toward him, holding his trembling knife aloft. “My family needs it. If I can sell the hide, we can eat.”

  I frowned at him. “Wouldn’t it be simpler to just eat the rocavid’s meat?”

  His shoulders slumped. “I… can’t carry it.”

  I walked toward the boy without responding, startling him. Instead of backing away, however, he charged toward me with the knife held in both hands, as if he could run me through.

  I slapped the knife out of his hands and carefully kicked one leg out from under him in one quick motion, and the boy fell face first on the ground. Shaken but still determined to fight for the rocavid corpse, he jumped back up to his feet and lunged toward me with bare hands.

  I side stepped and tripped him again. Before he could stand a second time, I picked up the corpse by its back legs. “Where’s your house?”

  The boy got slowly to his feet, his brows turned down in confusion.

  I tilted my head. “Didn’t you want this rocavid?”

  “Y-yes!” he sputtered. He whirled around and began to lead the way, but stopped after only a few feet. Turning around, he gave me a fearful look. “Y-you’re not going to hurt my family, right?”

  Raising one eyebrow, my lips turned down in a slight frown, I asked, “What’s your name, boy?”

  “Belmun,” he said warily.

  “I’ll leave this close enough to your house that you can have your family come and help you take it after I leave,” I replied. “Does that sound okay?”

  Belmun nodded before scurrying off, leading me toward the outskirts of Maerin Town.

  I smelled Belmun’s house before I could see it—in the area that Chumo and Sembi had told me about. Shacks made from splintered wood and other discarded material lined the wall on the outskirts of the town. Torches were sparsely lit, leaving most of the homes shrouded in darkness.

  “You can just leave that here,” Belmun said.

  “Yeah, sure,” I muttered, my gaze still sweeping across the dismal collection of hovels.

  To my surprise, Belmun bowed, his tattered clothes showing his exposed ribs. He gave me a toothy grin that finally made him look like a child. “Thank you, sir.”

  When I arrived back at my residence a few minutes later, my mind was still consumed by the unfortunate child. In Dicathen, even the few slaves that I had seen—despite, of course, the ban on such things—were in better shape than Belmun.

  “Didn’t think you were such an altruist,” Regis said, curling up on the leather couch. “Especially considering your hate for Alacryans.”

  “I’m not an altruist,” I retorted, taking a seat as well. “He just reminded me of someone.”

  Regis tried to hide it, but I could feel his amused disbelief. Instead of nettling
me further, though, he simply closed his eyes and went to sleep. Although he didn’t need to breathe, the purple, fire-like mane around his nape started pulsating rhythmically, and I could see the aether particles around him slowly being absorbed.

  As the peaceful silence lingered in the air, I ran a mental check of my possessions. I wasn’t a king anymore, nor was I a Lance. The only things I had were my clothes, Caera’s knife, Sylvie’s stone, the relic cube, and several mana beast corpses.

  Still, despite my limited belongings, the thing weighing on my mind was that little kid. This was the society that Agrona has created, a society where, without strength, you were tossed aside, no better than trash.

  I’m not here to save every urchin I stumble across, I reminded myself. I have bigger things to worry about.

  With sleep eluding me, I began meditating, refining the ambient aether into my core, but I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth. From the bestowment tomorrow, to the exhibition, and even beyond that, I was curious but also afraid to see what this continent had in store for me.

  This continent, ruled by deities that saw these people only as weapons and tools.

  286

  Price to Pay

  ELEANOR LEYWIN

  The pain of my fall was really starting to set in by the time we found our way back to Elder Rinia’s cave. Most of my body was covered in black and purple bruises, which I knew would look even worse by the time I made it home.

  Mom is going to freak out.

  Boo’s sense of direction was just as good as his sense of smell, so the return trip was pretty straightforward. I gave him a few scratches around his ears and across the silver crescent of fur on his chest, then limped through the narrow crack opening into the little cavern, carrying my broken bow and the blight hob’s slimy tongue wrapped in a piece of cloth from my shirt.

  Inside, Elder Rinia was sitting at a little table, staring down at a square board covered in marbles. As I watched, she picked up a marble, set it back down at a different place on the board, and mumbled something under her breath.