Abyssal Road Trip - 327 - Burning up (Patreon)

Amdirlain’s PoV - Material Plane - Qil Tris- Year 4369 (Local calendar)

Appearing directly in her bedroom, Amdirlain considered the modest setup within the spacious room. Unlike the living room, a small mirror was the only thing adorning the walls. Open clothing racks ran along the longest wall packed with bagged clothing and shoes, each tagged with upcoming performance dates. They butted against an old-fashioned wardrobe in the corner that contained her clothing for chilling. The dark wooden bed across from it was maybe a single king, and Jul’iane delighted in teasing her about the latest stresses media rumours said it had endured.

Storing the shadow vines, Amdirlain slid into the fresh bedding and relaxed while she was thinking. Her thoughts were wildly different from what some of her fans likely expected her nighttime activities to be. Skimming through the latest growths of the eldritch skinwalkers, Amdirlain turned her attention to her offered choices.

The names of the five options narrowed the selection down to only two for Amdirlain.

[Inspiration’s Herald

Details: This Skill inspires the possessor’s desired emotions or intentions in others. The effect becomes maximised if the audience has a line of sight, but the sound of their voice is sufficient.]

It provides a broader scope than Femme Fatale, but at least I can choose.

[Muse’s Insight

Details: This Skill focuses on buoying and drawing out others’ beliefs and inspirations, giving them the confidence to pursue them. While it works best in smaller groups, it can still work on larger audiences in a more limited capacity. Charisma’s regular effects still apply but cannot force emotions or goals onto people who don’t share them.]

I don’t mind helping people find inspiration or understanding what inspires them. Do I hold off until after the concerts? I want to maximise the funds I leave to the scholarship program, without just creating tonnes.

While dealing with her Charisma would have to wait, Amdirlain wanted some practise time with Protean’s change. The Power’s description had shown a restriction of living creatures but didn’t apply to size. Reviewing Sarah’s memories of millions of lifeforms had provided her with options.

Thoughts of the aggressive aura that now let her avoid risk to allies were icing on the cake. The possibility of stacking the benefits of Mental Hardening was just a nice bonus.

[Phoenix’s Rapture selected

Protean [G] (6) evolved into Phoenix’s Rapture [G] (1)

Mental Hardening [G] (10) merged into Phoenix’s Rapture [G] (1 -> 2)

Pain Eater [G] (1) merged into Phoenix’s Rapture [G] (2 -> 3)

Angelic Aura [G] (42) merged into Phoenix’s Rapture [G] (3 -> 24)]

When the notification vanished, she felt energies compressing, and a searing heat rushed through her spiritual net. A horrible-smelling sludge that echoed the Abyss started to ooze from her pores.

Pinpricks of light stopped her from teleporting away as her sigil let up and light blazed through the bedding. The sigil’s nodes ignited into miniature suns fueled by her Ki pool. The change prompted Amdirlain to teleport to the hazardous materials chamber in Kadaklan’s lab.

The lab wasn’t some rustic Alchemist brewing station but an Earth-style research lab overlaid with arcane trappings. Long metal benches held retorts, evaporators, filtration rigs, and hundreds of other items. Test tubes, beakers, Petri dishes, and other glassware items were in glass-fronted cabinets. Refrigerated cabinets and open racks alike held thousands of material samples.

Her arrival point was a four-metre cube walled with mithril-infused glass panels and an incineration rig in the ceiling. A double airlock chamber on the side allowed equipment to be moved in and out, with only the bare minimum kept within it. Amdirlain didn’t even get to call out to Kadaklan. Yellow lights flickered above the chamber and a siren squawk yanked Kadaklan’s gaze toward her.

Frowning in confusion, he activated his Third Eye, and the first flicker of its flames was enough for him to leap into action. “Start cycling; pull any stored Ki into you,” he screamed, not bothering with the chamber’s intercom.

His panicked tone had Amdirlain withdrawing the latest crystal storage block she had intended for Kadaklan. She didn’t even take the time to get comfortable, letting Harmony connect her to the Ki remaining in her pool and the block in her hand. Battling against the swirling Ki, Amdirlain struggled to complete the first loop in her sigil.

Amdirlain held onto the Ki’s flare rather than let it gush into her slowly emptying pool. She managed a second loop before the airlock door to the chamber opened, and Kadaklan stepped inside. He set down the crystal spire containing the Ki Amdirlain had first paid him, and two barely glowing blocks cascaded from his Soul Space onto the room’s table.

“Cycle faster. Watch for growth from your sigil’s starting node. Twist them gently but firmly around the net’s lines towards your second node. Don’t break the line or growths.”

Kadaklan quickly cycled through the airlocks to get materials from storage racks in his workspace. A burner ignited with a flicker of Yang flames, and he dumped a flask of pre-measured water into a large beaker. His song lost all amusement and shifted into the methodical rhythm Amdirlain recognised from her operation. He blurred along the lab’s long bench and secured the outer door’s security lock. He didn’t waste time closing its shutters and activating the energy containment wards. Turning, he ran back to the beaker, blurred hands snatching up component vials.

Her progress felt too slow, and Amdirlain closed her eyes to focus on the sigil. Filaments of shiny gold extruded from the starting node’s miniature sun. The energy remained connected to her, and Amdirlain coiled them like living serpents around the guideline. The struggle to connect nodes didn’t ease when the first pair joined; instead, it increased, and her pool emptied further. Repeated loops caused the cable’s reach to grow, and when she connected the third node, the pressure shifted.

The cables entwined between the first nodes sank into the delicate strand, leaving it looking the same. When the loop restarted, the Ki raced between the first nodes at a blistering speed that had Amdirlain lose the rhythm. The rush spilled the Ki from the route she’d found between nodes. As the Ki launched down the wrong path, Amdirlain cut her losses and focused on restraining the Ki she could control. The cables lost significant ground before she could resume.

Foul fluid pooled beneath her eyelids, and Amdirlain felt it saturating her fur. The abyssal stench was thickening when Kadaklan’s voice came through the intercom. “Ki State. Yang Mana.”

Balancing everything else, Amdirlain dug mental fingers in and dragged the Ki through a sharp turn. Enabling Ki State caused her Mana to fill her outer flesh, saturating it with an energy that slowed but didn’t still the Ki drain. When the leaking sludge caught fire, the chamber’s metal fittings melted. The stone tiles beneath her feet cracked, and liquid flames dripped from the tips of her fur and whiskers.

Amdirlain could hear Kadaklan outside the chamber through the flames cascading off her. His flesh sang of racing Ki. A constellation of an outstretched hand shone through his skin, but his entire focus was fixed on the potion he was brewing.

The cables were only a third through the nodes before Amdirlain had emptied the crystal in her hands. The trickle in the two dull blocks soon followed, and Amdirlain turned on the remnants in the spire before she was halfway done.

The inner airlock door squealed a complaint as Kadaklan forced it to move. Stepping through the surrounding flames, Kadaklan clasped a burning hand above hers on the spire. As blue-white Yang flames blazed in his agonised gaze, the burning abyssal material peeled his flesh away.

“Complete the cables,” said Kadaklan, his voice an eerie echo of crackling flames.

Ki rushed from him into the spire, and Amdirlain heard his theme change. As his pooled Ki emptied, his flesh released its inherent Ki, gushing from him to fill the spire. His body shone with an iridescent light before he crumpled, breaking apart in Yang flames that slid off Amdirlain’s Ki state. Spilling flames, his skin, flesh, and bones collapsed inwards, ash scattered across the floor. Amdirlain heard his essence twist into alignment with the dragon stairs and vanish.

Seeing him dissolve caused a shock to ring against her Mental Hardening, and Amdirlain grasped her Ki just in time to prevent another spill. The process continued to grow more challenging. Ki racing through the early stages would gain speed and have to be forced along the correct route.

[Sigil Purification complete.

Sigil reinforcement stage 1 complete.

• Capacity for stage 2 unlocked through successful completion!

Spiritual net reinforcement at five per cent.

Ki benefits kept from sigil improvement:

• Increased Ki Pool
• Increased Ki Cycling speed

Note: Fallen condition overrides any Shen transformation.]

A note in the Power description warning me about picking it would have been nice, Gideon.

When Amdirlain finally finished, the chamber’s containment was on the brink of failure. The fittings had melted and disappeared into the liquified stonework. With the floor hardening around her feet, Amdirlain lifted herself and the spire free as it cooled.

The blackened glass cracked inwards, and Sarah looked at her in concern. “Are you finished breaking my toys? Where’s Kadaklan?”

Amdirlain clothed herself in the shadow vines again and teleported beside her. The orb floating beside Sarah had prevented the fire from spreading beyond the ruined chamber.

“I didn’t even notice your arrival. He gave me a boost of Ki, but it cost him his physical form,” explained Amdirlain, and she turned to the brewing station Kadaklan had been using.

The flame at Kadaklan's brewing station was still burning, but he’d shattered the beaker on the floor. The only evidence of his work were a few droplets staining its pieces and the components scattered about his workstation.

[Elixir of Consuming Flame

Details: This elixir speeds up cycling rates and draws all the life force from the consumer’s body into their Ki pool. It allows for a singularly explosive surge of Ki in the last moments of life. Though it has beneficial uses, the formula for this elixir originated from demonic practitioners looking to harvest others’ Ki.]

Sarah crouched by the broken breaker for a moment before the debris vanished. “He harvested his life energy, an interesting twist to sacrificial offerings. So what set this all off?”

Amdirlain mentally shared the details with Sarah. Once Amdirlain had disposed of all the melted materials, she re-created the chamber and enchantments. Sarah replaced the component vials and their matching racks.

“Any ideas where he presently leaves notes for his assistants and students?” asked Amdirlain.

Sarah nodded and motioned to the other room. “He’s got a team board in the break room; I’ll mark him absent. If anyone asks, our pride’s needs unexpectedly called him away.”

“I hope Judge Po doesn’t chew him out for spending his life to help me,” Amdirlain sighed. “His decision, I know, but I…”

Sarah shrugged. “Not in our control. I’ll be interested to know why he deemed your esoteric sigil thing worth the price of admission.”

“Sorry I didn’t share that part; Gideon said completing it unlocked my capacity for stage 2 reinforcement of the sigil,” clarified Amdirlain.

“That explains what you got out of it, not why he thought it was worth dying over,” replied Sarah.

Amdirlain sighed. “I wasn’t reading his mind. How long until dawn?”

“Just over an hour. Why?”

“Just, I know some of his assistants get in very early,” explained Amdirlain. “I wonder if Kadaklan would even hear me if I sent him news.”

“What’s the worst that can happen?” asked Sarah.

Amdirlain bit her lip before she sighed. “Judge Po getting annoyed that an outsider dared speak to one held for review and keeps him for years. I’ll send the details to Cyrus and see what he thinks.”

After Amdirlain dispatched the details to Cyrus, they returned to the apartment. They’d both snagged drinks and sprawled out on the living room couches when Cyrus’s reply appeared. Amdirlain tapped the hovering Mana orb, and they both listened to his response.

“Don’t talk to Kadaklan directly. Enquiries and appeals have to go through Judge Po’s clerks. Normally, completing the sigil in such a state would move you from Immortal to Shen. Failing to complete the sigil reinforcement prevents you from increasing it further. If you damage your sigil, it can hamper Ki cycling and future improvements to Ki powers.”

His words echoed in the silence between them until Sarah coughed and flicked her tail towards one piece of artwork on the closest wall. “Have you considered getting drawing lessons from this fellow?”

The one she pointed at was a pencil sketch of a sheltered valley surrounded by hills capped with snow. The broken stonework of a fallen city rose through the valley’s snow fields, decaying gravestones of the thousands that had died during the city’s fall.

Amdirlain snorted. “You critique me for blatant subject changes.”

“The drawing seemed suitable,” replied Sarah. “You hide your feelings of guilt or grief under work. The same way the snow hides the destroyed buildings and scattered remnants of the dead.”

“I think I’ll prepare him a nice thank-you gift,” stated Amdirlain, and she took a swig of her drink.

“Going to wrap a bow around yourself?” asked Sarah drily.

Putting a hand to her mouth, Amdirlain barely stopped spraying the room.

“Really?” spluttered Amdirlain.

Sarah gave her a broad shrug. “Whoever can make you happy, sweetie.”

“I don’t think it’s like that at all.”

“Yeah, because he needed to stick around for five and a half years. He fixed that last node in your leg eight months ago. Why exactly did he stay?”

“To teach people,” suggested Amdirlain.

“He could load his knowledge up into memory crystals, and you could duplicate them,” countered Sarah. “Instead, he stays far from the Middle Kingdom’s centre; since he’s an Immortal, it’s ‘mildly’ unpleasant, not impossible. Why did he even start to teach people? An idle proposition from you.”

“That’s-”

“He spent most of two days watching you with his Third Eye while you were cycling Ki and using Universal Life. You using Universal Life for a moment allowed Isa to hear your Soul’s song and realise you were Julia,” observed Sarah. “I think he might know the sort of person you are better than anyone else. Aside from appalling jokes you find funny, he’s never made a move on you. He’s provided plenty of what I’d consider gifts of interest, and he’s not your doctor anymore.”

“Are you trying to set me up?” enquired Amdirlain.

“A bit of romance might be good for your heart. Dragons rarely do lifelong marriages, but a few hundred years of happiness is good for you.”

“I-”

“Got strapped to a table within minutes of meeting him,” interjected Sarah, and she wiggled her eyebrows. “I mean, if I’d known restraint bondage was your thing-”

Amdirlain blew a raspberry. “He clipped a blanket in place to prevent it slipping.”

“Okay, stick to your story,” joked Sarah, and her snickers had Amdirlain lifting an eyebrow. “What have you got planned for the day?”

“Check in on Tulne, see how she’s going with the last set of affinities I taught her, then more show preparation,” replied Amdirlain. “For now, I’m going to cycle Ki and refill the spire.”

“Enjoy,” replied Sarah, taking a mouthful of her drink before relaxing on the couch. “You going to stop giving her affinities at some point?”

“I wasn’t going to provide any of the tier 4 or 5s to her,” replied Amdirlain.

Sarah nodded. “I could see an understanding of the heavenly planes going down like a lead balloon.”

* * * * *

Amdirlain meditated until it was late enough to check on Tulne without interrupting her morning routine. When Amdirlain activated the scrying window, it surprised her to find Tulne sitting on a rooftop vantage point. The roof had multiple levels of chairs to provide any watcher with an unobstructed view of the training complex and its surrounding park. While the building was the site of Tulne’s apartment, what surprised Amdirlain was that Tulne wasn’t preparing to join her team.

The five and half years since they'd first met had treated Tulne well. A growth spurt in her late teens had added thirty centimetres of height to the previously tiny female. Her lean form had gained little muscle, leaving her with a delicate air that belied her magical strength. The sunlight washing across her picked out the silver in her primarily black fur, making it appear like Tulne was dusted with sparkling frost.

At the centre of the training complex was a stubby hexagonal tower sheathed in muted yellow stone not used in any other construction. It was a colour that matched the law keepers’ hazard lights and wasn’t a comforting one for the local Catfolk. Within the spectrum of colours they could see, it popped out and grabbed their attention, putting them on edge like hair prickling up the back of their neck. Amdirlain didn’t want anyone coming to the building to feel safe entering it and the demi-planes it granted access. The tower itself was only a placeholder for the demi-planes to exist. The park has fifty, four-meter-tall white Laen spires that shine like ice spread out in concentric circles; their enchantments teleporting those touching them to a chosen access point within the demi-planes.

“How goes the Lightning and Metal?” asked Amdirlain as she plopped on a chair beside Tulne, causing her to jump.

“Blast it, J! Are you trying to stop my heart?” yowled Tulne.

“You’re all keyed up; just thought I’d have some fun,” replied Amdirlain, glad for the feisty spirit that Wha’sin’s kin had fostered in Tulne.

Tulne grumbled. “I have certifications to study for, and you’re making fun of me.”

“You’ve passed the halfway mark of your memory crystal,” commented Amdirlain.

“Really?” chirped Tulne before she reined in her excitement. “That’s great and all, but how is it relevant to certification?”

“I’ve looked at the certification exams; nothing in there will fool you if you keep your cool,” reassured Amdirlain.

“Why do you keep returning to teach me more affinities?” blurted Tulne. “It’s not that I’m not grateful for the opportunity. I’m simply at a loss why you would.”

Amdirlain smiled. “Because I said I would, and each time I have, you’ve kept your desire to learn and not become expectant to be handed anything.”

“Couldn’t I be faking that?” asked Tulne.

“Please,” scoffed Amdirlain. “Now, let me give you my congratulations. I see you got three enhanced affinities working since we talked last year.”

Tule nodded. “Once I worked out the process for Gravity, it was simple to repeat it for Spatial and Life.”

“Why pick Life as your third enhanced Affinity?” enquired Amdirlain.

“It means I can cast healing spells more efficiently, which could make the difference between life and death,” explained Tulne. “Mor’lmes shared the grimoire with me that's been making waves.”

Amdirlain smiled. “You’ve come a long way from the terrified young girl recovering from being raised from the dead, but you’re still the same in some ways.”

“What do you mean?” asked Tulne.

“Your interest in magic then was to keep others safe in the ghost caverns; now you’ve gained magic to heal,” noted Amdirlain.

“Not like that’s needed now,” laughed Tulne. “Whatever entity created the training complex and its zones seems to have done something to the Gods’ Grave as well. All the reports they release show none of the pathways have shifted so much as a metre.”

Amdirlain nodded. “I’ve seen the report. Did they do you out of a dream?”

“A bit, but I’d rather the soldiers be safer,” replied Tulne. “Now I can start figuring out how to get rid of the graves completely. If the pathways stay open, what lies beyond the spawning abominations?”

“This is the only city to have a stable Gods’ Grave; all the others are still erratic,” noted Amdirlain.

Tulne frowned. “Do you think this is the only city they’ll change? It seems a little egotistical to think we’re the only city deserving help.”

“Time will tell; some people believe this city is the prototype, or at least the precursor of the others shifting. Yet even if they change them all, it could be crucial when a new location grows into a city. After thousands of years of the graves existing, do you think whoever or whatever made the changes will stick around?”

“Those crystals and their questions made it clear something cares enough to ask,” countered Tulne.

Amdirlain shrugged. “Yet not enough to get rid of the graves themselves.”

“Mor’lmes says we’re in an adversarial relationship with the graves that has strengthened us,” advised Tulne.

Amdirlain lifted her eyebrows. “Where does he get that idea?”

“He said it was a theory someone put to him,” replied Tulne. “Though he wouldn’t say who, he sounded annoyed by them, or at least the theory. Which means it’s potentially right, but he doesn’t want to admit it.”

“It’s a frustrating theory, especially if true,” noted Amdirlain. “Does he often sound annoyed to you? He does to me, but I wanted to know if he behaves the same around others.”

Tulne laughed. “Frequently, he’s the grumpiest fellow I’ve ever met unless he’s with his mate. Though he sounded like he had extra prickly burrs in his fur on this occasion.”

“Phew, it’s not just me then. Anyway, why are you sitting up here? Doesn’t your team normally go into the complex shortly?” asked Amdirlain. “I thought I’d find you preparing.”

“They got a certified replacement,” huffed Tulne. “Likely it’s my fault, I’d only been levelling Wizard while trying to get these enhanced affinities working. Now I’ve gained them, I’m without a team.”

“Never know what might turn up,” replied Amdirlain. “In the meantime, it gives you time to ace your certification exams. Did your team get past the latest stage challenge?”

“They did, but they left me out, so I’ll need to find a team at that point or willing to work through those three levels again with me,” declared Tulne. “I’ll post something on the board. The problem is finding a part-time team so I can keep studying.”

Amdirlain almost teased her about over-preparing for the exams but nodded. “How long until your certifications? They’re quarterly, aren’t they?”

“Yep, I just missed the last ones; the next exam slot is in two months,” sighed Tulne. “I’ve got to pass the first time.”

Amdirlain got to her feet and motioned for her to stand. “Then let’s ensure your level is way over minimum for the practical.”

“I’m level twenty-five,” protested Tulne.

“Twenty-five in one out of four; the others are still level one,” countered Amdirlain, and she passed her a pair of bracers. “Loaners; you kill the beasties, and I’ll keep them off you only if I have to.”

“We’re going into the complex?” asked Tulne as she clicked the bracers around her wrists.

Bad habit. She needs to learn to check things, no matter the source.

Amdirlain grinned. “Nope, a real-life scenario.”

“What are we fighting?” asked Tulne.

“Not us, you. Giant bugs, they got out of a Wizard’s lab from what I can tell,” explains Amdirlain. “The abominations are causing the locals issues by eating everything in sight.”

“Wait-”

Suddenly, they were standing on the stubble-covered ground. Nearby, hundreds of roaches nearly three metres long were grazing on the remains of a few thousand head of cattle they’d cornered against a cliff.

Tulne hissed in surprise, and the antennae of the nearest monsters flickered towards her.

[Species: Giant Dermestids

Level: 17

Health: 221

Defence: 42

Combat Attack Power: 39

Details: The experiment was to create a predatory sentry animal from a local beetle that handled decaying corpses. A mistake in the laboratory controls allowed a few to escape into the wild. Instead of laying thirty to forty eggs, these magical bugs lay a few hundred.]

“Fireball?” suggested Amdirlain, and she casually waved towards the closest roach pack.

That wasn’t the approach Tulne opted to take.

Tulne’s first Spell was a half-centimetre-wide wall of gravitational force that encircled them. As fifteen gravities bore down, soil and debris crackled, and the sudden pressure cut five bugs along its course in two.

“I hate bugs!” screamed Tulne.

Spinning dimensional rifts sliced through the closest group, scattering their chitin and guts across the ground.

Amdirlain watched the black ‘blades’ of the rifts sail through the other side and into the next pack. “Tell me how you really feel.”

One of the bugs that scuttled forward to feed on its former brood mate had its antennae sheered off as they touched the barrier.

“Right. It seems you’ve got this under control,” noted Amdirlain.

Tulne’s fur fizzed as she rapidly blasted off spells to herd, crush, and rend the insects. Once Tulne’s new classes had chimed for the third time, Amdirlain took them back.

“Why did it have to be bugs?” grumbled Tulne, her fur still bristled up. “Fireball? Seriously? I won’t use a fire Spell on a bug! I’d never get the roasted smell out of my nose.”

“Rest, meditate, recharge your Mana, and take time to adjust to the additional levels. The specialist Wizard Class levels pack a punch,” advised Amdirlain, and she rubbed Tulne’s ears before she reclaimed the bracers.

Tulne’s ears flicked rapidly, and she nodded. “I can feel my mind racing, seeing meaning I hadn’t seen before. Are you ever going to stop popping in and turning my life upside down?”

“Sooner than you might like,” replied Amdirlain, and she disappeared.