Beta Chapter 16-18 (Patreon)

Chapter 16: Arson and Titty Twisters.

“..I choose One of the Guys.”

The thought process was simple. The mutation allowed him to create a disguise quickly and easily, with no risk of losing his mind. It would be incredibly useful when it came time to escape. If they were chasing down a pale young man and saw one of their own warriors, well, they might not give him a second glance, simply a friendly nod before breaking away from each other to more efficiently chase him down.

And there was a hidden meaning in the statement that it would average his features. If he could lure someone away 100 feet away from anyone else, he would be the average of a sample size of one. In essence, he could steal the identity of anyone he could isolate.

User will be rendered unconscious while Mutation is taking place.

Oh, yeah, this.

“Gah!” Cal choked back a scream as his bones came apart like puzzle pieces, along with his skin, which itched so badly he felt like scraping it off.

This was by far the most comprehensive mutation he’d ever…

Everything went dark.

Cal opened his eyes, and the sunlight streaming into his yurt had only moved by a few inches, no longer than ten minutes.

“Oh, thank the gods,” Cal said, sighing as he sat up. His body and skin looked identical.

Knife-Work has reached Level 5!

Level 5: Boosts handling and sharpness of knives, 25% correction.

+1 Kinesthetics… point value capped, rerouting… All physical stats capped, rerouting… Expanding List of Abilities…

Please choose an ability or mutation from the list of compatible ones.

Save it for a minute. Cal thought, shoving the list aside without paying attention to it.

One of the Guys.

Cal’s body rippled, sending the strangest crawling sensation up his spine. He watched as the ripple crossed his arms and chest multiple times. His skin rapidly turned grey, and his bones creaked, and muscles ached as they contracted, down to slender, feminine limbs.

His breasts stretched and swelled, protruding in front of him, and his cock…

Let’s not overthink this. Cal dragged his attention away from his crotch.

Cal inspected his body, that of a young female Genosian.

Makes sense. The vast majority of the population of this village is women and children, so the average would be female, and young.

Cal ran his tongue over his teeth and accidentally cut it against his brand-new razor-sharp teeth. Despite the pain, he found himself smiling a shark-toothed grin.

Now there’s a fuckin’ disguise.

Cal willed the changes to revert. The last thing he wanted was to get caught shapeshifting, or as a strange woman in the Incha Huala’s tent. The community was small enough that he couldn’t exactly disappear into the crowd. He needed to keep a tight lid on this particular ability.

His bones creaked, skin gained color and unfolded, shoulders widened, teeth dulled, and hips narrowed, all in about ten seconds. The second time around was just as strange, sending shivers up his spine.

He would get used to it, though, if it meant escape.

If you’re done playing with yourself…

Show me the other one.

Please choose an ability or mutation from the list of compatible ones.

Abilities:

Bleeding Strike: 1 Bent. Does what it says. The bleeding will not stop without extreme interference.

Penetrating Strike: 1 Bent. Softens material that comes in contact with the blade. The blade isn’t tougher, everything else is softer.

Edge Lord: 1 Bent. Grants a kinetic field of force that applies an edge to anything for as long as it’s held in the user’s hand. Sharpness dependent on Knife-work level. Anything can be a knife with the right mindset!

MacGuyver: 1 Bent/8hrs Applies a malleable kinetic field to a knife that allows it to be used as virtually any hand-held tool (screwdriver, hammer, saw, socket wrench, tweezers, planer, you name it.)

Invisiblade: 1 bent. Makes a knife invisible for 1 hour. Careful you don’t cut yourself with it!

Mutations:

Grindstone fingers: Sharpen any blade by running your fingers over the edge.

Blade Body: allows one (1) knifelike object to be absorbed by the body per five (5) levels of Knife work. Absorbed knives can partially or completely emerge from either palm, or with practice, from other parts of the body. Speed dependent on practice.

May make the user slightly magnetic.

Razor’s Edge: User gives off a passive kinetic field that increases the durability of knives, and raises their sharpness when threatened.

Cal thought about it for awhile. Macguyver, whatever that meant, was very appealing to him. He could create simple tools with Splitting, but that was limited, while this particular ability seemed to promise a solution to almost any problem for the price of one Bent.

On the other hand, Blade Body called to him just as strongly. The ability to stow a knife away on his person without cost in terms of Bent was very appealing. Being able to make it grow out of his skin would be very useful in combat. Again, without spending Bent.

With Splitting, he could crudely mimic either ability, it was simply a choice between which one would do more work to guarantee his survival.

Macguyver was a convenience, whose benefits would slowly pile up over time, however it wouldn’t help in a fight, actually costing him Bent that could be used for combat.

Blade Body was specifically for getting him out of a fight alive, a winning card he could keep hidden until he needed it.

Wait. I could carry around an inch-thick steel plate and use Splitting to create tools from it as needed, file, saw, tweezers, pliers, etc. As long as they fit inside the plate. With a simple steel plate, Macguyver would become redundant.

It would still be cheaper than Splitting for tool creation, seeing as he would need to spend bent every time he wanted to make a new one, but Cal didn’t see himself desperately needing half a dozen specialized tools in a row any time in the future.

Remember to get that plate, he reminded himself.

“I choose Blade Body.” Cal said.

User will be rendered unconscious while Mutation is taking place.

Cal’s entire body began to tingle slightly, feeling almost like he was vibrating…everywhere.

This isn’t that bad at all.

The mutation still knocked him out.

When Calvin woke up, the sun had moved quite a bit further toward the east, dousing his yurt in shadow as the sun passed behind the mountain.

Aoehe was sitting in the corner of the yurt, staring at him.

He didn’t see anything suspicious, did he? Cal thought, with a sudden burst of panic that he ruthlessly smothered, acting nonchalant.

“I wish you hadn’t needed to do that.” He said with a sigh. “Kuetha was a very…polarizing individual. Ah well, these are adult problems. I’ll handle them. You simply need to worry about practice and reaching your full potential guarding my daughter.”

Them constantly speaking about practice made Cal think about the nature of the Chained Spirit ability. The way they spoke about reaching his potential made It seemed as though the spirit couldn’t improve after it was consumed, nor could it degrade.

That didn’t exactly scream living spirit with its own will to him, that said the ability took the creature at it was in a single moment in time – presumably just before death – and replicated that in a soulless entity.

Cal decided to take a risk.

“About that…” Cal said.

“Huh?”

“My Body stats are already the highest they can go and my fighting Skills aren’t far off. I’m…not going to get much better very quickly. The reason I’ve been able to do so well against your people is a lifetime of training. Relative to other people my age, I’m probably going to get worse as they grow into their heightened Body.”

“Huh,” Aoehe gave him a cold, calculating look. “Why would you tell me this?”

“I’ve got a hell of a lot of progress to make with my Mind. You saw what I did to Kuetha?”

“An interesting trick. You are a Maje…no…wizard of Gadvera?”

Ilethans called them sorcerers, Malkenrovians called them Mages, Gadverans, wizards, and Genosians, Maje. But it was all the same thing.

“That was the tip of the iceberg. My Mind has a lot of room to grow. I need to be allowed to regenerate my Bent and practice my spells, or I won’t grow at all. I need to stop drinking the noeula and let my Bent return. I’m not going to get any stronger, physically.”

Aoehe watched him for a moment, carefully deliberating. Cal could see the thoughts bouncing around behind the man’s eyes, weighing his escape against the possibility of earning a powerful wizard summon for his daughter.

“Thank you for telling me this. I will speak to Ella, and after tomorrow’s ceremony, we will tailor a training regime to your situation.” Aoehe stood and nodded to Cal before leaving the room.

Cal relaxed. If the Maje had been lying and was about to have him killed and stuffed in the freezer, Cal couldn’t spot it. for all Cal could tell, he still honestly wanted him as Ella’s Chained Spirit. Which meant either she could loan his copy Bent, or it would have the Bent he died with.

In any case, he had no intention of going through with it, magical love-potion or no.

After Cal recovered from the fight and the mutations, he spent four hours working with leather before he was told to go back to his yurt for the night, his chains dragging behind him. Cal waited until the noise of the village slowed to a crawl, only interrupted by the occasional wails of babies. Lying on the furs, facing the dark roof of the massive tent, he decided it was time to go.

He got one Bent back every fourteen hours, so he had another, bringing him up to four once the Scowling Moon was high overhead, radiating light from its jagged mouth. Enough to do some reconnaissance.

Splitting.

3/10 Bent remaining.

Cal shed the manacles easily, before picking up an errant stick, about a foot and a half long with a little nub at the end. It was too small to do anything meaningful with, so no one bothered to stop him from taking it home.

Sense-grafting

2/10 Bent remaining

He bound his right eye to the nub at the end of the stick and crawled along the floor, holding it on top of his left eyelid to ease discomfort.

Once he was at his doorway, he carefully poked the stick through his doorway, using it to peek around the corner. It’s nice to have the resources to do things properly, Cal thought, spinning the stick slowly to view in all directions before he began creeping out of the yurt.

Sliding through the quiet camp and using the tiny stick to peek around corners, Calvin was able to sneak all the way to Aoehe’s tent, where he could just barely make out a discussion, consisting of harsh whispers.

“I don’t understand, father, why do you wish me to shed blood to the Guya now? Should it not be during the ritual?” he heard Ella’s voice.

“No blood will be shed at the ritual. It will be held privately. Here.” Aoehe said.

Cal very carefully slid the stick into one of the tiny gaps in the leather, giving himself a view of the two figures.

Ella and Aoehe stood in front of a bowl full of glowing green liquid that gave off a strange vapor that seemed…alive?

“You don’t...” Ella said, backing away. “You intend to let him drink the Guya without adding his blood.”

“He’s not one of us, he only needs to serve you. Nothing more. When you are older, you may bond with a real warrior.” Aoehe said.

“I’ll not participate in something so unbalanced,” Ella said, crossing her arms. “Let our Wills decide.”

“You can’t…” Aoehe clenched his fists tightly before calming himself. “The boy is a Maje as well. He has a good reason to hate you, while you feel nothing strongly about him. His Mind will lash out. Best not to take that risk.”

“We will be bonded fairly or not at all.” Ella said, crossing her arms with all the stoic confidence of a rebellious teen. “I intend to honor my role as his Maje.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Aoehe said, running a hand over his bald scalp and sighing.

With a snarl, he brought his hand forward again, unleashing a green bolt that lit the darkened yurt as it crossed the distance between them before it slammed into Ella’s chest.

She stood there with her arms crossed, entirely unaffected.

“I’m sorry, daughter, I raised you to be strong willed by necessity, but in some regards, I must be the tyrant and enforce my decisions.” Aoehe turned away and retrieved a knife and bowl beside the green concoction.

No…she wasn’t unaffected… she couldn’t move! The girl continued to stand there, her breasts heaving slightly as she struggled to breath, her eyes flickering to watch her father, who approached her with a small bowl.

“I would prefer you drank the Guya with him tomorrow,” he murmured, making a nick in her forearm that began to bleed into the bowl. “Seeing as how many men we lost, we need every able body, but if you don’t wish to go through with this…then he will fill our bellies, and together we will seek out a situation more to your liking.”

Welp, this is some weird shit, Cal thought to himself. I need a distraction, and I need my blood in that bowl.

Cal dismissed the connection to the nub and left it where it was rather than risk moving it during that intimate moment.

Cal crept over to the banked fire in the center of the village and poked through the embers until he found a live one.

He blew on it until it was white hot. He couldn’t feel any eyes on him, so he changed into a young Gadveran woman.

One of the Guys.

Splitting.

2/10 Bent remaining

One white hot ember became thousands, targeting a yurt that still had a light on inside. In moments, flames began to lick up the side of the leather.

Took some effort. Leather’s not the greatest kindling. In any case-

“FIIIRE!!” Cal shouted in a young woman’s voice. It was the first time he’d heard himself talk in a different form, and it almost stunned him into not moving. So squeaky!

He had to move.

Immediately, Cal dropped low and began scrambling toward Aoehe’s hut, sliding around the side an instant before the Maje himself climbed out the doorflap, glaring at the mounting flames in the distance.

“Damn,” he muttered before running for the fire just as Cal dismissed the mutation’s effects.

Cal wasted no time in jumping into the tent behind him, hardly waiting for the man to leave eyeshot.

Ella’s eyes tracked him from where she was paralyzed, still standing with her arms crossed.

Calvin winked.

He picked up the Maje’s knife and sliced his left palm, dribbling his own blood into the bowl, mixing with hers. In the interest of fairness…

“See you at the ceremony. Boop.” Cal whispered, booping Ella on the nose and giving her paralyzed body a titty-twister on the way out. The veins in her forehead stood out as she watched him leave.

I really hope she doesn’t tell her dad. Probably shouldn’t have done that, but it was impossible not to.

Once that was taken care of, Cal hauled ass back to his yurt. The Maje was sharp and he’d probably check Cal’s yurt the moment the fire was under control. He had to get himself cuffed again and back in bed before that happened.

Cal opened the doorflap and froze.

Dang. Maybe a bit sooner than that, even.

“Did you know the word for ‘arson’ doesn’t exist in our language?” Aoehe asked from a stool in the center of Cal’s yurt.

“I did not know that,” Cal said as a meaty hand clamped down on his shoulder.

Chapter 17: Love potion number NEIN!

The Maje’s Chained Spirit shoved him into the room before filling the entrance with his mass.

“What did you do?” he asked, his voice icy with restrained anger.

This is where I lie, then he applies pressure, then I cave. Not my first Shliek-ride.

“I was going to visit Ella but she wasn’t in her tent, then I heard someone scream fire, so I investigated, then headed back here.”

“And you felt the need to remove the restraints.”

“They are awfully uncomfortable.”

“How?”

“I made a key. It’s not much of a lock.”

The massive Genosian seized Cal by the back of the neck, wrenching a strangled cry out of him as he lifted Cal off his feet one-handed.

“Did you set the fire?” Aoehe asked.

“Nope.” Calvin was most afraid that Aoehe would see the cut in his palm, trying to turn it away from the man as naturally as possible by gripping the massive Chained Spirit’s fingers with his left hand.

Calvin felt the point of a blade settle on the small of his back, right behind his liver.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Fine, I set the damn fire.”

“Why? What were you doing?” he asked.

“Like I said –“ He felt the point jab into him a bit harder. “I was looking for a way to escape.” He relented. “Looking for supplies to steal for my trip.”

“Hum. I see.”

Maybe I could reach into the earth and use Splitting to create a stone blade fifty feet above his head? it would take a little finesse, but gravity shoul-

Calvin’s thoughts were cut off when Aoehe threw his hand forward, and an identical green bolt of energy lanced forward, catching him in the chest.

Cal was locked uncomfortably in place, every muscle in his body seized in place, completely unable to move, barely able to breath.

“We’ll have to move the ceremony up to tonight. Bring him.” Aoehe said, marching past Cal.

The six-foot Chained Spirit threw Cal over his shoulder, carrying him like a stiff board, his arms still locked in an awkward clutching posture.

Move, move move! Cal demanded. Why can’t I move!?”

Answer: Your Stability is not strong enough to shrug off the effects. Your Will has begun digesting the foreign Bent, ETA 4 minutes.

Anything you can do to speed that up? Cal thought.

Nope.

Damnit.

Aoehe’s Chained Spirit hauled Cal back to his tent and leaned him up a cabinet in the middle of the room. By the time they got there, Ella was unfrozen, rubbing her right nipple and glaring at him.

I didn’t think my actions would have consequences! Cal thought, horrified.

I didn’t know you could think sarcastically. I’m impressed.

Who are you!?

“Ella, your Incha Huala here tried to escape, and lit a fire in Mayea’s tent to do it.”

“Did he?” Ella asked, walking up to Cal and studying him with a mischievous grin.

…oh no.

You know what they say…

“Sounds like he needs to be punished. Boop.” She tapped his nose, then reached out, grabbed his nipple and twisted.

AAAAAAAGH! That was way harder than mine! Cal’s paralyzed body was only able to watch the girl’s sharktoothed grin.

Turnabout is fair play.

To the nine hells with fair play!

Satisfied with her work, she pulled out a bloody rag, turned it to a dry spot and quickly wiped the blood off his left palm.

She winked.

“Yes, we’re going to do the ritual now,” Aoehe called over his shoulder as he mixed the bowl of blood into the green brew, stirring it with a strange wooden whisk. The glowing green concoction turned a strange glowing pink with the addition of blood. “Or he dies now, your choice. I can’t risk a Lueaya as slippery as he obviously is running around the village any longer.”

“I think death would be letting him off too easy. I see what you meant about him being a stupid, crude, uncontrollable foreigner.” Ella said with a smile. “Let’s do it.”

Aoehe finished mixing the brew and poured it into two separate containers, one of which had a long funnel at the end.

I wonder which one’s mine, Cal thought, rolling his eyes.

As expected Aoehe pried open Cal’s mouth, bringing the wooden funnel into his mouth. The rough grain caught against his tongue Aoehe pulled his jaw lower and mercilessly shoved the funnel into the back of his throat.

He would have gagged or vomited if he could, but instead, a metallic, tangy mixture began to pour down his throat, and it was everything Cal could do not to breathe it in, clamping his windpipe shut as hard as he could. Cal tried to writhe and kick. His body started moving just a little bit when another green bolt hit him in the chest, resetting his timer.

Damnit!

All the fun of suffocation with none of the payoff.

When Cal was starting to see stars, Aoehe withdrew the funnel, leaving a couple drops on his tongue. It was a bizarre, metallic flavor. Not just because of the blood in the mix it seemed to hold something that sizzled and moved on the tastebuds.

Cal struggled to breath, his mouth feeling violated where the wood funnel had bruised his lips and throat. A stringy bit of phlegm threatened to work its way into his lungs, but he was too weak to cough.

This is almost as bad as training with Karen.

“I’ll give you two some privacy.” Aoehe said, leaving the tent.

A small silence stretched between the two of them.

“You’re welcome,” she said, cleaning up the bowls and setting them on her father’s shelf, her body wiggling appealingly as she did.

Welcome? I think you mean we’re even, especially after that titty-twister.

Not how I tallied up the points, there.

You can sit on a Grensha, mysterious System voice.

The mysterious System voice didn’t deign to respond.

So how long’s this thing supposed to take? Cal thought, but the System voice didn’t respond.

Guess I made it mad. Or something.

Watching Ella work at cleaning up the mess, he didn’t feel anything in particular. A little queasy in his stomach, but that could just be a side effect of having splintery wood jammed down his throat. Maybe his Stability was too high to even be effected, if the paralysis beam was anything to go by.

Then she turned around.

She’s so nice, Cal thought, seeing her perfect lips and delicate brows. She was willing to go against her father to give me a fair shot at the Guya bond. That was really cool of her.

And wiping my hand so Aoehe didn’t see that I’d mixed my blood into the bowl. She basically saved my life.

I could see myself working for someone like that…

Shit, it’s already working! Cal thought with a panicked jolt of adrenaline.

Ella glanced idly over at where he was leaning against the cabinet and frowned, staring. Cal saw her pupils dilate until all he could see was black.

Is that happening to me!?

Ella stepped closer, cleanup from the ceremony forgotten. He could feel the heat from her skin she began inspecting him, running her fingers over his cheeks and memorizing his shape.

Now that she was this close, he felt as though they were two pairs of lodestone, somehow inexplicably pulled together by an invisible force. Slowly, their eyes got closer to each other as Ella bent down, her chest heaving against his as she panted, resting her forehead against his own.

Her eyes were so close that they became one. One pitch black portal into her soul. He saw a roiling tendril of pink in that black expanse, the vapor from the concoction. It reached out and latched onto another that seemed to come from his own eyes, creating a bridge between them.

And then the tug-of-war started.

Call didn’t have any other way to describe it. For an instant, it felt as though he were being sucked out of his own body into Ella’s, falling into her eyes, drawn along by that pink tendril. He fell along the bridge between them, his entire body drawn out of himself, plummeting toward her like the bottom of a well.

It was going to be perfect. He could already feel himself becoming one inside her, stretching out to fill the places she lacked…becoming an extension…

A flicker of Persei’s defiled corpse flashed in his mind.

No!

Cal pulled.

With every fiber of his being, he struggled to pull backward, slowly sliding back into his body, until he was back where he started.

Call didn’t stop there, continuing to tug on the bond until he saw Ella’s form crossing the bridge between the two of them, struggling, but unafraid. She wore a smile as if this were some friendly competition and not a life or death struggle.

Is it life or death? Cal thought to himself, his temporary distraction allowing her to slip backwards.

It doesn’t matter. In any case, winning is always better than losing.

Cal redoubled his efforts, pulling Ella towards himself. I mean, unless pulling them into you means you do what they want. Am I competing to win, or lose?

Gah, it doesn’t matter, I’ll win against this slattern and deal with the rest later.

Ella was tugged across the bridge toward him, struggling like a fish on a hook as he pulled her into himself.

How about that, you-

Ella, now close enough to touch inside him, gave a wicked grin and grabbed his arms before pulling backward with more force than she’d mustered until that point.

Cal screamed as he was dragged out of himself again, into the center of the bridge by Ella, who wasn’t holding back now that she’d caught ahold of him.

They were falling at top speeds toward the black portal behind her, when Cal managed to regain his foothold, shoving every harsh training session, every ounce of will that had compelled him to stand back up at her in a wave of memories that made her lose her grip, allowing them to slip backward partway across the bridge.

She answered back with the most horrifying memories of her childhood, the sensation of watching her pet get eaten, losing her mother.

Cal fired back with a week in a blood, piss and shit filled box.

She wrinkled her nose in disgust, allowing him to tug them back towards him.

She responded with the emotion of killing her younger her sister to spare her the pain of Joyaga poison.

The horrible feeling stunned Cal long enough to drag him dozens of feet, stopping just in front of the black portal behind her.

Cal shot back with the feeling of seeing his village burning at the hands of the Genosians, but it didn’t quite compare, somewhere in the back of his mind, he believed Karen and Jinnei were alive and well.

Ella shrugged off the memory and continued drawing him into her, buffeting him with a thousand memories of a life of hardship.

Sinking into her eyes felt good, like slipping into a warm bath.

No, I need something, something deeper, something stronger, something Darker.

Cal dived into himself, desperately searching for a little bit of extras juice to resist her with. Was there anything? Anything he’d forgotten? Anything he’d done?

Cal scanned through his memories, despairing at their ho-hum sheep-filled averageness. He certainly hadn’t mercy-killed his own sister.

He searched and rifled through his memories faster than he thought possible, when he noticed a pattern. He was avoiding something. Every time he turned his mind in one specific direction, he would unconsciously avoid that memory.

Cal turned sideways in his own mind, sidling stealthily up to the memory, whistling as he perused others. Wouldn’t wanna startle it.

He reached a hand up to his right while he was viewing a memory of helping Karen herd sheep when he was five.

He felt something cold inside his mind. A smooth barrier that radiated ennui blocking off…something.

I don’t have time for that shit, Cal thought, sinking his dream-hand into the dream-stone and turning to face it.

Pinning it down like this, he was able to see it. A thick stone wall separating himself from…some other part of himself.

In the manner of dreams, Cal reeled his hand back and punched the wall with all his force, shattering it. He needed juice to win the tug-of-war now.

The stone fell away, exposing a pitch-black emptiness beyond the limits of his soul. A thick black mist began to flow through the rent in the wall, pooling around his feet.

Something tells me this was ill-advised, Cal thought, watching the mist.

Something moved outside the hole in his soul.

Cal took a step forward, into the emptiness. Rationally, he realized he should be closing the hole back up as quickly as he could and running the other way, but the trill of terror working it’s way up the back of his neck had no effect on his feet that kept moving forward.

The jagged doorway into his memories shrank behind him, a tiny pinpoint of light in an ocean of black. The air was stale, but there seemed to be motion at the corner of his eyes, but every time he looked, the nightmare creatures hungrily surrounding him seemed to meekly subside.

In the center of this black expanse, was a mirror without a frame, jutting out of the black floor, facing him.

In the center of the mirror, he impassively watched himself approach.

This Calvin, the one in the mirror, was paler than him, longer of hair, slighter of build, and with a bit of a gut and bulging nose. He knew it was him though, from the way he stood, to the mischievous smirk he was giving him.

He wore a black shirt and green pants made from the finest woven cotton Calvin had ever seen. The pants weren’t even cotton. They almost looked like velvet.

The black shirt had some strange blocky script between two arrows that pointed up and down.

Behind the pale Calvin were racks upon racks of clothes the likes of which he’d never seen before of brilliant colors and perfect craftsmanship. Even further beyond was a window whose size defied logic, stretching to the ceiling of the room the man was in. The window revealed a strange stone floor with burning glass buildings jutting out of it. It was like nowhere Calvin had ever seen.

The pale Calvin raised his hand, startling Cal out of his observation. He tapped his skull and pulled out a memory, encapsulated in some kind of bubble. Calvin watched the memory pass through the mirror, floating in front of him.

Pale Calvin clapped his hands over his eyes.

Don’t look at it.

Calvin studied the opaque bubble floating in front of him.

It’s either that or getting eaten. He decided, reaching out and seizing the memory. Anguish, helplessness and guilt rolled off the bubble in a thick miasma as he seized it with his hand.

Cal had the strange feeling this would hurt Ella, badly.

“You got anything that won’t cause irreparable damage?” He asked. “Giving women mental trauma is frowned upon in modern society.”

Pale Calvin crossed his arms and scowled.

“I guess not.”

Like a wooden soldier on a string, Cal was yanked backwards, out of the black room, out of his memories, and back into the bridge between him and Ella, falling from the depths of his own eyes.

“Sorry about this.” Cal muttered, pressing the sphere into the Genosian girl. She gave a quiet gasp and shivered, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Cal seized the opportunity to drag her backwards, towards himself.

When Cal came to his senses, his lips were occupied by Ella’s, his hands occupied by her hips. They were lying on the floor, pawing each other. Ella’s hair was messy, and her top was partially shoved aside, revealing one grey-purple breast and dark purple nipple.

When did this happen!?

Cal wasn’t doing too great either, his tongue had multiple nicks from her teeth, his shirt was in tatters, there was a painful, bleeding bite mark on his shoulder, and her left hand was currently exploring his half-shed pants.

More than anything though, Cal was running out of air.

He drew his face away from hers and gasped for breath. The sudden noise seemed to draw her out of her drug-fueled stupor. Her eyes widened from their half-lidded state as she came to full alertness.

“Did I win?” Cal asked groggily.

“It wasn’t about winning and losing, it was about creating a bond,” she said breathlessly. Her uncovered stomach against his sending shivers of delight up his spine. “Knowing each other better than mere words can allow.”

Ah so that was the point of the memory-fight.

“Yeah, but did I win?”

“I felt some truly painful memories inside you for an instant. I couldn’t see them, but I felt them. I’ve never felt anything like that. I’m…sorry you had to go through that. You could call that a win if you wish.”

“Could you let go of my um…manhood?” Cal asked politely.

She blinked and glanced down at his pants sleepily before unclenching her fingers and releasing him, leaving only one lump in his trousers.

“Apologies,” she said without a hint of shame as her faculties slowly returned to her. she tucked her chest back into her leather top and struggled to roll away from him, her limbs seemingly weak.

Calvin tried to push himself up, but the floor and gravity didn’t exactly mesh. Everything told him that he should be falling her direction. When he tried to stand up again, he overcompensated and toppled away from her, smashing into Aoehe’s shelves.

Well that can’t be good.

Chapter 18

Your mental exercise has raised your Will by one!

Your mental exercise has raised your Stability by one!

“Lie down for awhile. It’ll fade eventually.” Ella said, lying on her back with her fingers interlocked across her stomach, not trying to stand up.

Unwilling to make a fool of himself even more, Cal flopped over onto his back, lacing his fingers over his stomach.

She took a deep breath.

He took a deep breath.

This is really weird.

Cal put his hands behind his head.

She put her hands behind her head.

Looks like it works both ways.

Cal shoved his finger into his nose and started mining for gold.

A moment later Ella followed suit.

She frowned, glanced down at her own finger in her nose and then at him.

Cal must not have been able to keep a straight face, because she scowled and slapped his arm.

He slapped her arm back.

she punched his arm.

He punched hers.

She jumped on him.

He flipped her over.

The two of them began spontaneously wrestling with each other, half serious, half playful. The girl was – to his shame – bigger and stronger than him, but he had more practice with actual wrestling, and compensated with speed and technique.

For a moment as he was catching his breath, Cal noticed how smooth her arm was, sliding his palm across her skin.

She relaxed against him.

He relaxed against her.

Her legs gradually spread beneath him, her hot crotch rubbing against his painfully hard cock, separated from each other by a thin layer of leather and trousers.

She stared up at him invitingly, her dark lips partly open. They looked soft and warm. As one, they leaned forward with the intention of bringing their lips together.

their teeth clacked painfully against each other.

“Ow!” Cal muttered, the shock breaking him out of the spell to realize that they were grinding on each other.

“When did this happen?” he asked, glancing at her thighs wrapped around his waist.

Ella blinked.

“Umm… I’m not sure.” She answered, her legs gradually letting go of him.

“Not that I don’t find you stunning,” Cal said, rolling off of her. “But I want to think about things for a moment.”

“Okay,” she breathed, nodding and staring up at the ceiling.

Okaaay, we’ve got a love potion messing with our heads and if we’re not careful, we’ll be balls deep in a matter of minutes.

But that’s not what’s important.

What’s important is how severe the damage is.

Do I want to stay in this village?

Of course not.

Do I still want to escape?

Absolutely

These two statements resounded with perfect truth as Calvin thought about them.

But that would mean leaving Ella behind. I can’t do that, he thought, a swirl of harrowing negative emotions accompanying the idea.

Crap.

Cal brought up the concept of escape against the idea of staying with Ella, weighing them in his mind.

Of course I want to stay with her, I’m smitten. I don’t think I could breathe if she didn’t like me anymore.

Shut up, stupid love potion. I wanna LIVE! Escape is the only way to make that happen. You didn’t forget what an Incha Huala is, did you??

Boys, boys, there’s a simple solution you’re overlooking. Can’t we just kidnap her? Cal’s ego proposed a compromise

That would work, yeah… Cal’s lizard brain agreed. Escape and the woman, no complaints at all.

But what if she doesn’t like us because of it?

You’re outvoted, love potion. Lizard brain said.

It’s two against one. Ego chimed in.

Well, can we convince her to run away with us?

That’s dumb.

Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna work.

No, no it’ll work. She has to feel the same as us. I’ll just—

He’s going for the Controls!

Hold him down!

He’s slipping!

It’ll be fine, just let me…do this!

“You wanna run away with me?” Cal blurted against his will.

“No.” Ella said.

Great fucking job, love potion, now she knows we still want to escape.

I’m very disappointed in you.

I’m sure she just meant-

Shut up.

Calvin blinked. It looked like the damage caused by the Guya was pretty severe, judging by the way his organizing and planning skills were in a three-way battle with his survival instinct and the need to make Ella happy.

All he could do for now was plan and prepare for his escape.

“You know the Bent borrowing thing?” Cal asked.

“You want to do it?” she asked eagerly.

“No, it’s just…It only works with women. I was trying not to arouse suspicion. I don’t want to have you come up to me with a helper only to find out it doesn’t work with him.”

“Only works with women, huh?” she asked, giving him a narrow-eyed look. “You’ll have to tell me what Skill spawned such an Ability.

“No I won’t.”

“Well, that’s fine,” she said, rolling onto her back. “There are very few men in the village who would be willing to give you their Bent anyway.”

They lay there, staring at the ceiling of the yurt, the force drawing them together slowly ebbing, until it was so small as to be imperceptible. Cal shakily came to his feet, breathing a sigh of relief when he found he could stand.

“I’m going to bed. It’s very late.” Cal said.

“You could come to my bed, now that we’ve drank the Guya.”

“I thought about it.” Cal said with a grin. “But I don’t know you that well yet.” That and he couldn’t afford to let himself become more attached to her than he already was.

She slapped his thigh.

Cal resisted the impulse to slap her back and start another wrestling war that had a good chance of leading to coitus.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, leaving the tent.

Tonight he would go back to his own yurt and try to sleep it off, but he knew he would have to act totally invested in the girl in order to keep Aoehe from breathing down his spine. Sleeping alone every night after taking the Guya was a pretty good sign he’d resisted it and still wanted to leave.

That meant Cal was going to have to wall off a portion of his being, protecting the determination to leave from the encroachment he felt even now, filling his head with rose-colored thoughts of Ella.

Once that was done, he would move in with her, get along, play, and make love, all with the intention of betraying her in the end.

A sinking sensation settled in his stomach, but Calvin burned it off with anger by bringing up the memory of Persei’s half-eaten corpse.

I am NOT staying here. And if I have to betray the person who had to watch her own sister die with a Joyaga stinger through her chest, then so be it.

…Freakin’ Guya.

Cal was busily constructing a mental wall around his determination to leave while he walked, when he ran into Aoehe standing in front of his yurt.

“How did it go?” He asked with his usual amiable grin.

“Just because you’re Ella’s father doesn’t mean I forgive you. You better watch your back.”

He leaned forward and looked Cal in the eyes. “Yes, seems like it’s taken well. Off to bed with you.”

With that, he left Cal alone, his Incha Huala eyeing Cal as they left.

I could drop a thirty-six pound rock on his head right now, and no one would know… Cal’s fists tightened as he glared at the man’s back.

Not until we’re ready to leave. The man deserves to die, but he’s the leader of the faction that supports me being Ella’s Incha Huala. If he dies, my life is most likely forfeit.

“Damn,” Calvin muttered, unclenching his hand and going into his yurt.

The manacles and chains were no longer there; he had stronger ones in his head, now.

Lucky for me, they don’t know how slippery I am. Cal thought, methodically stopping the spread of Guya-spawned thoughts and walling them away.

***

“It’s like I’m sixteen years old again, being mounted by Juena for the first time.” Cal heard one of the little old ladies twitter to another, who was eyeing Cal with a predatory intensity. It made him want to draw his limbs and head into his shirt and stay there awhile, but he forced himself to send them back a grin, spurring their animated discussion even further.

Put up with it, put up with it… Cal thought as he started practicing his spells.

Splitting, Splitting, Splitting…

Sense-Grafting, Sense-Grafting, Sense-Grafting…

The next morning Ella and Aoehe had met him outside his yurt with no less than six elderly women. Their purpose? To resupply him with Bent to allow him to practice more than he should have been able to in a single day.

The average amount of Will of a little old lady was eight, or just over one Bent per little old lady per day, on average, with an average of eight Stability.

The first day, he was able to split his practice, with twenty-five castings of Sense-grafting, and twenty-five castings of Splitting.

Each time, he tried to challenge the limit of what he was capable of, using the spells in new and uncomfortable ways, to increase the amount each practice was worth to him.

By the end of the day, Cal had gotten Sense-Grafting to level five, and chose the ability to target objects at range. He no longer needed to touch something before he grafted his senses to it, allowing a much greater range of flexibility.

The time Bekvah had grafted Cal’s balance to a book at range had left an impression, and Cal made that his goal for level ten.

The day after that, Cal had expected to only get a couple castings in, but the number of old Genosian women interested in lending their Bent had doubled.

The next day, it increased again.

By the end of the first week, Cal had raised his Sense-grafting to seven, and his Splitting to eight, buoyed up by the sheer amount of Bent he was able to harness on a daily basis.

There were roughly fifty old ladies, for an average of fifty-seven castings per day by the time the numbers had stabilized. It was the rough equivalent of having four hundred Will, or fifty times faster than he’d been able to practice at Deinos.

One week of practice outweighed an entire year by himself, easily.

…He could tolerate being used by old women for that.

It was draining their Bent in front of Ella while they moaned in ecstasy that really got under his skin.

The young Maje watched him with a smirk as the matronly Genosians gasped and shuddered. He was starting to develop something of a reputation in the Iron-Skin tribe…again. Married women and young girls were discouraged from associating with him, and Genosian warriors who walked by snorted and shook their heads.

“You can take the Bent from any part of the body, yes?” one woman of perhaps thirty-five asked slyly, not two feet away from Ella. She was one of the youngest women who visited; a widow.

“Just the hand for now, ma’am,” Cal replied, taking her hand as she clicked her tongue in disappointment. Cal began draining her Bent, ignoring the moans and Ella’s reveling in his discomfort.

3/10 Bent remaining

4/10 Bent remaining

5/10 Bent remaining

6/10 Bent remaining

7/10 Bent remaining

8/10 Bent remaining

9/10 Bent remaining

“That’s all I have. I saved up for this, so that you could go deep.” she said with a conspiratorial smile.

“I appreciate it,” Cal said, nodding and ignoring the prickles on the back of his neck. “I’ll see you next week.

“I’ve got nowhere to be,” the Genosian woman said, lying down and stretching, deliberately showing off as much of her body as she could. “I’ll watch you practice.”

“That’s-“ Cal was cut off by Ella.

“All right, you’ve had your fun, shoo, shoo! Be thankful I let you visit my Incha Huala at all, Aya.” Ella kicked dirt at Aya, causing the woman to hiss and scuttle back like a wild animal.

Aya cleared her throat, stood, and wiped dirt off her hide clothes, before throwing her nose up and walking away.

“Thanks for that.” Cal whispered as the young widow left.

“Can you take Bent with other parts?” Ella whispered into his ear, sending shivers down his spine.

“I think she said from other parts.”

“Bekata, beketa,” she said, a Genosian phrase that meant ‘Either or, it’s all the same.’

“Probably.”

“interesting.”

Cal got back to practicing, earning another level of Splitting, when he came to a realization.

His Will was about to bottleneck at fourteen. He needed to raise his Hunting and Meditation to compensate.

Nothing I can do about it right now, Cal thought, putting his head down and getting back to work.

Read Expression has reached Level 5!

Read Expression Level 5: Passive bonus to reading expressions. 25% correction.

+1 Intuition

Please choose an ability or mutation from the list of compatible ones.

Abilities.

Poker Face: Give away little by way of facial expression.

-She’s got to love nobody!

Open Book: Gain an intuitive understand of the relationship between two people who are looking at each other.

-Lover, Stranger, friend, enemy, conspirator. The face tells all!

Universal Language: Large bonus to understanding pantomime and expression regardless of species.

-She never told me she was a mime!

Mob Mentalist: Read the attitude of large groups of people easily.

-Never get caught off guard by a mob of pitchfork wielding peasants again!

Mutations:

The Pheonix’s (W)right eye- while making eye contact, you can discern if the target believes they are lying. Less useful on sociopaths and the misinformed.

-OBJECTION!

Med Tricorder: At will, determine a person’s health and identify anything that might be affecting them merely by looking at their face. Includes wounds, infection, blood loss, poison, food poisoning, drugs, parasites, disease, etc.

-Damnit Jim, I’m a doctor not an engineer!

Feel Intent: Feel the emotion behind any gaze upon you that you can perceive.

-Yeah, it stacks with Third Eye – The System

Calvin stared up at the ceiling of Ella’s yurt at the end of the day as he weighed his options.

The last one was most likely unlocked by the Third Eye Mutation, and it would make Third Eye far more comprehensive. It would be nice to know if the intent behind a gaze was malicious or not. He’d dodged the arrows before because they were aiming at his heart, but he couldn’t rely on that. The mutation would allow significantly more nuance.

“I choose Feel Intent.”

Open book and the pheonix’s eye were appealing, but more useful in an investigative, mystery-solving kind of way, while Feel Intent would serve both in and out of combat.

User will be rendered unconscious while Mutation is taking place.

Just like with Third Eye, Cal’s skin started to itch, and his head started to ache, then stab with pain as the plates of his skull popped apart and began to shift.

A moment later everything went dark.