PSTH2: Chapter Four

Allergies are a frustratingly complex thing for magic to deal with. It’s distinctly possible to narrow the scope of an allergy with spellcraft, such as turning an allergy to tree nuts into an allergy for pecans. It’s also much easier to treat allergic reactions with magic than using purely chemical processes. The ability to remove them completely, however, has been frustratingly elusive. However, I have some good news on this front: we have successfully removed an allergy from three mice, who lived for four further years. If our success can be replicated, we can look at moving into human trials. Within a decade, hayfever, dangerous food allergies, and other afflictions shall have a cure available to those who want it.

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Speech at an Oceanseed National Development Conference, Fifteen minutes ago

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Later that night, I sat in bed, my augpad on my knees. I stared at the faint orange-white glow of the screen, at the message Gawain had sent. 

< I am fine. I worked on this song during my breaks. You can listen to it if you want, but you don’t have to. 

Attached to the text was the audio file, about two minutes long. I stared at it for a long moment, not even sure what to say, how I was supposed to respond. He’d ignored me for so long, only for him to send this. A part of me was annoyed – if he had the time to compose and record a song, could he have not responded to me? 

On the other hand, with how terrible his home life seemed to be, it wouldn’t shock me at all if his mother had dropped ten thousand credits on getting Gawain the musical instruments and all the recording stuff he could want, but hadn’t let him reach out to others. She’d probably said we were corrupting influences, or something like that. 

I turned and dug around in the pack on the side of my bed for a moment, then pulled out my headphones. I put them over my ear and plugged them into the pad, then clicked on the file. I was immediately met with the thrashing of drums, the pounding of power chords, distortion, and a head-spinning tempo. After a few moments, the singer came on, the voice harsh and gritty enough that it didn’t immediately register as Gawain. The song reminded me of the concert that he’d brought us to, loud and punky, with a degree of raw emotion running throughout. I had a hard time actually understanding the words to the song over the hammering of the guitar and drums, but they were clearly passionate and harsh. As the song faded out, I typed out a message of my own. 

> I like it. There’s a lot of passion in the music, and it conveys the emotion really well. 

To my surprise, the message was read almost immediately, and a response popped up. 

< What did you think of the lyrics?

I paused for a moment, then sent my response carefully. 

> I couldn’t really hear them over the other sounds. They were gritty, and reminded me some of the band we saw and other music in the genre. It sounded good, but I couldn’t make out distinct words or such. 

< Are you still using those terrible headphones that you had? 

> Yes? Why would I not be? 

Gawain sent an ellipsis after that, and I could feel the sheer force of the eye-roll from however many miles away he was. I paused for a moment, wanting to continue the conversation, but unsure what to ask about. I could ask about training or levels or if he’d found a new Primal to round out his team, but those were all too one note. I didn’t want him to think that was the only thing I thought about. I could ask about Gabis, Gryphon, and Trouble more directly, but that was still focusing the conversation around Primals and taming. But nothing else came to mind. I was focused on training and taming a lot. I didn’t want to just brag about my experiences moving an essence heart either. 

Finally, I decided to just ask after his Primals, but though the message was delivered, it didn’t tick over to read. After some time, I put my augpad to the side, and lay down for bed. 

The next day flew by without any further messages from Gawain, and I was incredibly busy the whole time. I had a couple of repairs around the house in high places my mother couldn’t reach easily that I wrapped up. I drove off a couple of angry Squarrels that were trying to run rampant over a few vegetable patches, likely still distraught from having the essence heart moved. They’d calm down in a bit. My Primals and I even helped Yanette with getting some of her new systems online, and she handed me something after her converter was finished booting. 

“A gift for your time on the road,” she said with a wink. “With you helping to move the heart, I’m going to be able to do so much more.” 

“You didn’t need to do that.” 

“Ah, I know. I wanted to. Besides, it’s good for business for me to be able to say that

That wasn’t nearly as true as she claimed – It was possible she might make a sale or two off it, but that was likely all. But I took the disc I’d been handed anyway, flipping it over to see the inscribed spellform on it. It was an imprinting disc, clearly filled with toxic anima. 

“Venomous Needles,” Yanette said. “It’s like Hex’s current Poison Needle, but it’s got a few main differences – it defaults to a spray of multiple needles, rather than just one. Also each needle has the potential to inject a venom that burns away at the opponent’s pneuma over time. It is a bit more expensive to cast, but it’s a good spell. She technically has it in her weave, but it doesn’t unlock until level sixty-eight, according to the sources I saw, though a few said sixty-nine. By then, she’ll probably have better options, so I thought this was a good one for now.” 

“Thank you,” I said, rising and pulling the older woman into a hug. “This is a huge help.” 

A few others gave me some presents as I made my way out of town, including a large jar of pickled onions that I was half-sure was just because the Romeros were trying to get rid of some of their excess winter stores. That was fine. I liked pickled onions, so the food wasn’t going to go to waste. I made it back to my mom’s house that evening, and we had some leftovers – I actually managed to remember to soak the rice this time.That evening, Hex and I spent some time in the yard, firing off the thin, toxic-green sliver-like needles into the air, working on her aim, and on reducing the number of needles the spell conjured at once. The following morning, as I was getting everything set up on my bike, my mom pulled me into a hug. 

“It’s been good to have you back home, even if the months flew by,” she said. “Promise that you’ll be in touch? And promise you’ll be safe?”

“It was good to be home. And I promise – though you should know I will be. I did last season, didn’t I?” 

“True. I just still worry. And you did break your ankle last time…” 

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “I’m not going off cliffs anytime soon. Besides, even that same fall wouldn’t do that to me now. I’ve got a good bit more pneuma and anima than I did before.” 

“Alright,” she said, pulling me into a second hug and kissing my cheek. “Sill, try to be safe.”

I waved to her as I clambered onto my bike and adjusted my pack, then Scales, Hex, and Zale all dissolved into streams of essence and slid into the three glowing yellow storage gems. The fourth one clinked on my belt alongside those three, completely clear and empty. As I rode off toward Hornblende Village, I considered a few Primals that might be good companions for me. I wanted something that had a good amount of power, but wouldn’t be completely left behind if it had to fight with Hex. A gift like Scales’ would be good – powerups were always handy.

More important than that, though, was the type of Primal. Not as in its elemental type, but what role it could fill in my team. I currently had Scales as a frontliner with an emphasis on defense, Hex as the debuffer and support caster, and Zale as a major heavy hitter, which left a few roles that could be filled. A flying or burrowing Primal would be quite nice. Most low-level Primals were very slow to burrow, but I knew I’d likely encounter more of them as I continued to grow. They still weren’t common, even at levels like Vincent Angon’s but it was something I’d have to consider. Right now, my best counters to flying Primals was Zale using Light Dash to get airborne, and my counter to a burrowing Primal would be… 

I wracked my brain for a moment. There were a few viable plans. Most burrowing Primals were of the earth element, so Scales could hit them quite hard. Toxic was less effective, but if I could infect its pneuma shell with my new spell, that would cause damage, even while it burrowed. Finally, while Zale wasn’t able to dig well, Light Dash could let him dodge attacks from below without too much trouble. 

That brought me back to flying Primals. They were another counter to burrowing, something I struggled with, and a far more common threat at all levels of play. I needed my next Primal to be a counter to flying in some way, shape, or form. 

That really only left me with two options: a flyer of my own or a mage. The first was obvious. If I had a Primal that could fly – either through mechanical means like a Kirow or Shawk, or through magic like an Insubsturgeon or Procella – then I could meet the fellow flier in the air without having to make Zale leap up and down and crash into the ground. 

The second was a bit more nebulous. There were forums worth of people who would argue that X Primal didn’t count as a mage, since they were an even split of pneuma and anima, or that Y didn’t count because even though it was seventy percent anima focused, it mainly relied on empowering or debuffing spells. There was no real, strict definition of what was a mage and wasn’t, not when all Primals could use spells. A lot of people would probably argue Hex counted as a mage type, given her lack of physical damaging abilities, and that her essence core skewed toward empowering her anima. 

But when I said I could potentially use a mage, I meant one like Gryphon or the Starab. Something that could hang back and release torrents of power at any flying Primals. They could also throw magic down any burrowing holes, and could assist against land Primals in a similar way. Their element didn’t matter too much – they could throw fire, lightning, endless shards of metal, or anything else. Sure, some elements would help round out weaknesses better than others, but really I was flexible.

Both Gryphon and the Starab were interesting examples, given they were both fliers and mages, in the same way that Scales was both a tank and a frontline fighter. One of those might be ideal for me, and thankfully, there were several Primals that resembled birds and bugs that were capable of both flying and throwing oodles of magic around…

Thoughts of a future fourth Primal kept me occupied for most of the bike ride down to Hornblende, and until I was checked in at the hostel. I sent a few messages to River, Laurel, Rane, Gawain, and my mom to let them know my plans and that I’d arrived safely, before heading down to eat.