PSTH: Chapter Thirty-Six

Voice One: What’s the deallll with four core slots? You’re telling me that– Oh. You actually have an answer? I mean, this isn’t really th–

Voice Two: Well, think of the core like a cell. The ‘organelle’ of ousia within the condensed core that serves to link the pneuma and anima pools is almost perfectly cuboidal. With the pools each taking up one face of this ‘cube’, that leaves four empty spaces. It’s in these blank spaces that patterns for spells are etched. Now, the really interesting thing comes from attempts to restructure the ousia to a pentagonal prism, which collapsed the ability to hold spells. We’re doing research right now in ways to expand the space of each of the prism’s sides, and hope to one day create a method that will allow for the holding of five, six, seven spells within a condensed core! 

Voice One: I… see. Thank you. Back to my joke…

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Recording of a stand up comedy routine that became derailed, circa 419 Modern-Era

-

I floated up next to Gawain, shifting my body oddly under the effects of the flight spell. It was easy enough to manage the basics of using it, but getting comfortable with the nuances was another matter entirely. It reminded me of trying to swim in the ocean – floating and letting the current drag you away was easy, and staying in one spot wasn’t too hard, but swimming a long way was a good bit harder. In the end, I leaned back so that I was on my back and propelled myself along as if I was doing the backstroke. Gawain’s glowing lavender eyes flicked over to me. 

“You look ridiculous. How are you even flying like that?” 

“This is easier for me,” I said with a shrug, wincing as my leg brushed against a rock. “But I’ve got a better question for you: why did you lie to me?” 

“I did no such thing. I don’t lie,” Gawain said flatly, and his voice held so much confidence and surety that I almost believed him. But at the same time, I knew what I’d felt, and it certainly hadn’t been Gryphon casting that spell on me. 

“Heart’s truth, I almost think you’re right. As far as I can tell, you’ve only told me one lie, and it was just now. You were the one who cast the flight magic on me.” 

Gawain stopped walking for a moment, fixing his purple gaze on me. The dancing lights conjured by the Primal writhed uncomfortably for a moment, but I barely noticed. I was meeting Gawain’s look intently. We stared at one another for a long moment, and I got a sensation like he was weighing something about me.

“No, I didn’t,” Gawain finally said. “Because if I did, then the government would all but order me to go to them for testing. A human with both raw essence and a core? That’s utter nonsense.” 

“They wouldn’t do that,” I said. Oceanseed’s government wasn’t perfect, but it did a pretty good job, as far as I was concerned – having it run entirely by citizens tended to make a citizen focused government. It wasn’t going to black bag someone just because they were an anomaly. To my surprise, Gawain let out a sharp, hard laugh. 

“Please. My mother can’t even be too successful without them forcing their way into every aspect of her life. Once, when I was twelve, a bunch of them showed up at our house unannounced in order to make sure that she wasn’t ‘hoarding wealth’. Apparently there had been some finance reports that had been filed wrong, and that was enough for her to be declared a wannabe Obsidian King.”

I pursed my lips, trying to figure out how to articulate my argument, while Gawain started walking again. After a few moments, I settled on keeping it short and sweet. 

“There’s a big difference between intervention in order to keep people from being ripped off and abused by a growing, large business, and forcing you to be studied by scientists because you’ve got something unusual.” 

“Is there? The needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few is an idea that sounds great until you’re one of the few,” Gawain responded acerbically. I pressed my lips together, but didn’t say anything. I didn’t know if this fear had arisen on his own, or if it had been fed by his mother – intentionally or otherwise. But it was understandable. I didn’t entirely agree with it, and I still thought that we’d built a system of common workers that would respect his autonomy. But the fear? That was understandable. So instead of continuing to argue, I reached out and let my fingers gently brush against his arm. 

“I’m sorry. It must have been a terrible thing, to grow up afraid all the time.” 

Gawain’s face softened slightly and he nodded. 

“It was. I… well. My mother thinks that I was born with an evolved gift that gives me some of the benefits of condensing a core, while keeping my essence raw. Like how sometimes a Primal will evolve a gift from, I don’t know, fire element resistance to complete immunity to fire and fire magic.” 

“Nothing with both essence and biology, like humans, plants, and essence beasts, has ever shown any ability to evolve their ability to choose what aspect their core is,” I said, the reaction coming on impulse. It was just the kind of statement that didn’t make sense, like saying that someone who had never cultivated before would simply condense their core already with a hundred layers on it. It simply didn’t happen. Realizing that it somewhat sounded like I was calling him a liar, I hastened to add more to the statement. 

“But if it’s true for you, I can see why you’d be worried. That’s never happened before, across, what… several billion human samples, and who knows how many essence beasts or awakened plants? I promise, I won’t say a word about it, not with anyone other than you.”

A part of me was admittedly curious about what other spells he was able to cast with his pseudo-core, but given that sort of intrusive curiosity was part of the issue that he was trying to avoid dealing with, I kept my silence. 

“Thank you,” Gawain said, letting out a slow, relieved breath. “I just pretend it’s an implant, and I’d appreciate it if you did the same. I do actually have a fairly advanced prosthetic that’s similar to a pacemaker, due to a congenital heart defect. And Wyfynods can actually learn flight magic – it’s not a spell they naturally learn, but they can have it imprinted without causing issues with their core.” 

“I can’t imagine anyone pressing me for details, at least not about your core and spirit and junk, but if anyone asks, I don’t know anything. But if there is anything, it’s probably an advanced prosthesis or something.” 

We walked – or rather, he walked and I floated  – for a few more moments, circling around the curve of the camp in silence until the glowing mass of illusions sank into the ground. Gawain frowned and leaned down to examine it, and I lowered myself as well. The ground here was shaky and crumbled, with large stones and boulders, evidence that there had been a rockslide here some time ago. Gawain lit his pneuma around himself, and began to lift the stones, using the enhancement to his strength to move them far faster than most non-essence enhanced humans. 

After what felt like the entire night, but was probably half an hour or so, he pulled a stone the size of my head aside, revealing a small cavity in the ground. No, not a cavity. It looked like one because of the dark skin, but it wasn’t at all. Gawain lifted a few more stones, and the Primal burst free. It looked something like a black salamander with purple spots and lines across its skin that swirled in shifting, dizzying patterns. As soon as it was free, there was a tremendous surge in the ambient essence as the Primal began to pull it into their core. 

Primals sustained themselves on ambient essence, not needing food for anything other than pleasure. And ambient essence moved fairly predictably through different substances. Like any rule, there were exceptions, but generally, the more energetic the state of matter, the easier that essence could pass through it. Plasma and air were easy, while liquid was harder, and stone was near impossible. That was the entire reason that essence hearts created tunnels to and from the surface when they spawned from… wherever it is that they came from. It allowed the conduction of essence. 

This poor Primal had been trapped by a landslide for who knew how long, through layer after layer of stone, with no cave openings for the essence to leak through. It could have passed away of starvation, trapped down there with little access to the ambient nourishment that was normally so common. Despite the fact that the creature had been tormenting us with illusions of horrifying monsters from folk stories, I felt some pity for the poor thing. Gawain held the Primal for a long moment before raising a hand and casting Bond Primal. The spell sank in, connecting their cores and Gawain smiled softly down at the salamander-like creature he held in his arms. It almost looked like a parent looking down at their baby. 

“He’s a little troublemaker, but he is cute,” I admitted. “And I feel bad for him.” 

“Troublemaker,” Gawain said thoughtfully. “That’s a good name. If it matched the rules for naming Primals, I might use it.” 

“The rules?” 

“My mother wants me to keep consistent branding, so everything is named with a G. I told you this already,” Gawain said, some of his irritation rising up again. I sighed and rubbed my forehead. 

“Who cares? Heart’s truth, most professional tamers have a theme, but plenty of them have Primals named, I don’t know, Jeff. Or Salmon. Or Bagel Thief.” 

The last was actually a real one. One of the Regents had a Kirow named Bagel Thief, named after how they’d met. 

“Mmm. I’ll think about it,” Gawain said, before turning back up to look at the light of the campfire. There was a surge of anima around him, and then he lifted into the air. Unlike me, who flew on my back, he remained upright, as if he was about to step forward. “Let’s go.” 

We flew back to the camp, landing to find an exhausted looking Gabby, who leapt forward and threw her arms around both of us in a hug. Scales barked happily, while Hex began to rub against Gawain’s leg – mine was still floating. 

“We found the source of the illusions when one of the pallid folk appeared and began to lead us to the spot where it had been,” Gawain said, presenting the salamander-like Primal to Gabby for inspection. “And Aiden fractured his shin bone. But thankfully, Gryphon knows the flight spell, and we were able to fly back here after I dug out the Primal."

“Ya should have stayed put,” Gabby grumbled for a moment before relenting. “But I’m just glad you’re safe. Aiden, let me see your leg.” 

She rolled up the leg of my pants to my knee in order to see my shin, and her hands began to glow with green light. 

“I know plenty of first aid and healing spells, but I’m not a real doctor. I can mend the bone and fix any damage to the leg, but there could always be little things I miss. If you want to end the tour early and get checked out, that’s fine.”

“No, as long as I can walk on it, I want to finish the tour,” I said earnestly. “A few days won’t hurt, and if something comes up, I can leave then.” 

Gabby grumbled something as the soothing wood element anima began to seep into my leg. As she worked, Gawain brought his augpad over to me and held it out. 

“Here. I thought you might be interested, seeing as you were also tangled up in this.” 

I took the pad and examined it. On the screen was the results of a Primal Scanner app, similar to my own. 

[Name: Troublemaker (?)

Tamer: Gawain

Species: Boogeymander

Element: Arcane/Shade

Rarity: Rare

Level: Sixteen

Gift: Absorb negative emotions such as fear, anger, or disgust, and convert them into essence.

Spells: 

- Phantom Fear (Shade)

- Enhance Emotion (Arcane)

- Illusionary Strike (Shade)

- Telekinetic Pulse (Arcane)

Description: Boogeymander are single form land based Primals, akin to a salamander, with a wide variety of emotional and illusionary spells. They are most frequently found in the Barkeaten Mountains, but have occasionally been observed elsewhere, as any mountainous essence heart is theoretically capable of crafting them. Click here for the full description.]

I let out a breath and relaxed my head, even as people began to emerge from their tents. That, at least, explained things.