PSTH: Chapter Eighteen

Metal. Metal. Metal! My personal favorite of all essence types, as any loyal viewer knows. Heart’s truth, it’s the type I aspected to. Its pneuma tends to be incredibly solid and defensive, even more so than earth essence, and its anima is similar. It hits hard when its spells hit, and it’s great for channeling in melee combat. But it doesn’t just stop there! Metal spells are vital in construction, in technology, in production of components for augpads and more. Everyone loves to give credit to arcane spells as the best, but I think I can make a convincing argument that metal spells can outshine even things like teleportation! Without any further ado, let’s do further… 

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Intro to the sixth in a video essay series about essence types and their unique factors, 454 Modern-Era

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It took Rane and I the better part of the evening to finally feel like we had caught up with one another. She showed me some of the things she’d learned about photography, and even one particular piece that she’d won a local photography contest with – it was a shot of a Kirow and a raven, each one of them in flight, with what looked to be a shaved parsnip strip held in their beaks. It was a very cool looking shot, though some of Rane’s comments on composition and framing went well beyond my understanding. That was fine though. Neither one of us fully understood the other’s interests, but we listened and picked up what we could.

Once Rane’s talk turned to the two guys she was in a semi-serious relationship with, as well as a new woman she had gone on a few dates with, I felt a thin worm of envy start to wriggle in my guts, but I kept my face happy and supportive. And in fairness, I was happy for her. I was just also jealous of her seeming ability to attract people into her orbit. I was just glad she hadn’t asked me about my own dating life – she knew full well that the instant I managed to find a boyfriend, I'd have called her.

When her story finally wound down, I started to fill her in on everything that had gone down while she was away. It started with village gossip, who had started going out, who had died, who had broken up, all that. Before long, though, it turned to me recounting my meeting with Vince, the trip to the island, finding the essence heart, and even discovering the egg of a new legendary Primal.

“Oh, yeah, I think I saw an article about that,” Rane agreed with a nod. “Something about a new, never before seen breed of Primal being discovered. If it was created by the essence heart down there, do you think more will show up?” 

“Maybe? I don’t even know if that was the heart that created it, but even if it was, creating a legendary Primal takes a ton of juice. There’s a reason they’re legendary.”

“I suppose that makes sense. Shame, though. It would have been cool for you to have an Aura Chicken.” 

“It is not going to be called an Aura Chicken!”

We devolved into a friendly argument for a while after that – her insisting that any velociraptor shaped creature with wings was just a chicken, regardless of if it was a Primal or not, while I argued that the breed was deserving of a name like Auraptor, not Aura Chicken. 

Eventually things wound down and Rane asked about what my plans were in the city. She’d have class the next few days, after all, so while we could hang out in gaps or in the evening, we’d have to wait for her weekend to really hang out a lot. 

“There’s a Councillor here, Miguel Cruz, that I want to challenge this week,” I said. “I’m not sure when I’ll be able to face him, but I’m aiming for this week. Then we can hang out during the weekend.” 

“How long are you planning to stay?” Rane asked. “If you want to crash at the apartment, you can use our couch.” 

“I appreciate it, but I’ll probably just stay at the hostel,” I said, shaking my head. “I wouldn’t want to impose on you or your partners.” 

We spent a while longer talking, and I went through a second cup of coffee before Rane had to split off to head to dinner with the woman she’d been seeing. They’d been planning it for a bit, and since I hadn't known when I’d arrive, it was an unfortunate bit of timing. 

“Oh, before I go! Let me see Hex! I’ve only seen her in pictures so far.” 

I spun a bit of essence into the storage gem and summoned Hex, causing Rane to immediately crouch and start loving on the catlike Primal. That managed to successfully delay her for several more moments before she really did have to go. I gave her one last hug, before pulling up directions to the city’s official Tamer Consortium office. Like any good non-essential government or government-adjacent office, it was closed when I was free, but I shifted to instead look for any free hostels nearby. The one a block away said that it was currently full, but there was another one a few blocks out, well within easy walking distance with several vacancies.

I set the directions, then started heading out that way, walking rather than biking. The sun had set, and while the warm amber tones of the streetlamps were enough to see, they weren’t exactly the brightest things. I probably could bike around just fine in the light level back home, but in an unfamiliar, heavily populated, place? It seemed like a bad idea. 

I was getting pretty hungry by the time that I was nearing the hostel, and was tempted to stop at one of the street vendors. I knew that the more economic option would be preparing some of the food cubes in the hostel’s kitchen, but in the end, the call of food was too great for me to wait. I stopped and bought a bowl of beans in a smokey sauce, served over rice and some greens. The beans were good, but I found myself missing fish. It wasn’t the most available, not this far from the sea, and I wasn’t about to pay the higher costs and taxes on meat from somewhere further away. Sure, beef would probably have been good, but not that worth it.

Food finished, I gave the bowl back to the vendor, who started washing it, and I finished making my way to the hostel. I checked in with a young woman who was clearly in the middle of puberty, and we talked for a little bit about acne solutions before she handed me the key to the room and let me know that the room currently only had one resident. I thanked her, then left, very glad that I wasn’t dealing with acne nearly so much anymore. I might still technically be a teenager, but that was one aspect I’d been fortunate enough to no longer have to deal with. 

I walked up to the third floor and unlocked the door to the rooms before stepping in and looking around. It was small, but clean and well kept. There was a shower, separate from the rest of the bathroom, a common room with a table that could seat two, and a room with a bunk bed on it. A guy was currently sprawled out on top of the bottom bunk, swiping through his augpad. 

He was tall, tall enough that he almost didn’t fit on the full bed, and had the kind of musculature that suggested he did a lot of running or swimming. He had long black hair that almost fell to his waist. It was loosely bound in a ponytail, but was a bit frizzy and chaotic, likely due to having just come from a shower. He had angular but handsome features, with a sharp chin and cheekbones, and looked to be a year or two older than I was.

He had a cat-sized Primal laying on his stomach. It almost resembled the fuzzy white satin moth, but its wings were glowing slightly with the power of fire essence, and its antenna looked to be made of forged starlight. I didn’t recognize exactly what it was, but it was definitely very cute. As if having a Primal companion wasn’t enough of a hint that he was a tamer, his eyes were a lovely shade of pastel purple that bordered on lavender, and his backpack on the floor had two storage gems that glowed with the same shade of magic. 

I swallowed thickly. He was really… Handsome. Pretty. Both at the same time, which absolutely was not fair. At least, I thought he was until he spoke. 

“What are you doing here?” the lavender-eyed man asked, clearly annoyed, and with a sense of entitlement that I thought might give an Obsidian King’s a run for its money. “I didn’t want a roommate.” 

“This is a free hostel. If you’re lucky enough to get one to yourself, great, but you shouldn’t expect it,” I said irritably. “What, have you never had to share before?” 

He froze for a second before rolling his eyes and running a hand along the moth-like primal, gently stroking its fur with a kind of gentleness that contrasted the domineering entitlement he’d shown to me. Scales and Hex both manifested a moment later, emerging on their own rather than at my request. That actually got the man to look up from his augpad, and his eyes scanned over both of them. 

“Well, at least you look like you know what you’re doing when it comes to taming,” he said. He’d said it under his breath, likely not intending for me to hear it, but in the cramped confines of the bedroom, it was easy for me to catch it as I started to unpack my bag. 

“Gee, thanks,” I said dryly. “It sure is nice to meet you. My name is Aiden, and I’m delighted to have you as a roommate, friend-o.” 

A look of irritation crossed the guy’s face, until Scales sneezed in amusement, after which he seemed to be torn between the two emotions. He eventually settled on something, though I wasn’t sure what it was. 

“Gawain,” he said. 

“Huh?” 

“Gawain,” he repeated irritably. “That’s my name. You said yours was Aiden?” 

“It is,” I agreed, reaching out to try and get a sense of them. I could feel Gawain doing something similar, looking over Scales and Hex, even as Hex stared at the moth Primal on his chest. I whistled and projected that she was not allowed to battle it across our link, and she somehow managed to give me a look of disdain before trotting away. I sighed and returned to scanning them. 

The mothlike primal was simple enough for me to get a read on. It was a fire primal, and I was guessing that it was at least a rare, maybe even an epic. It felt like it had just broken into level thirteen, putting it a tiny bit ahead of Scales, though not by much. 

Gawain, on the other hand? I couldn’t figure out what was up with his essence. Tamers in general were kind of hard to read, since we kept our essence raw, rather than compressing it into a core like Primals or magians had, meaning measuring a tamer’s power was more an instance of comparing and contrasting than sensing how many layers a core had. 

Even putting that aside, though, I did not know what to make of him. He felt like he had compressed his essence and become a wind and arcane magian, but also felt like he had the raw essence of a Tamer, which just shouldn’t be possible. It was like saying a stick had been burnt into ash, and was also an unburnt stick. If he had wind or arcane magic, he had to compress a core, which meant it wasn’t raw anymore. 

The only thing I could think of that would even remotely feel like this would be if he had a wind and arcane enchantment implanted, like something to regulate breathing for someone whose lungs had been crushed. Vince’s implant had been augtech, so it had felt very similar to raw essence, but one of the older women in the village had wood-aspect implants that helped her with her autoimmune issues. It didn’t feel exactly like this, but I honestly couldn’t think of anything else this could be.

He noticed my senses lingering on him – and my gaze, though that was actually accidental – and gave me a smug grin, clearly daring me to ask. I didn’t give him the satisfaction. I instead finished unpacking some of my stuff and headed to take a shower, then climbed into bed, snuggling Scales next to me while Hex curled up on the dresser. Not long after, Gawain turned off the lights. The soft golden glow of his moth Primal’s wings and horns, as well as the glowing purple smoke of Hex’s tail and paws, cast the room in a strange but relaxing light as I drifted off to sleep.