PSTH: Chapter Fifteen

Some believe that the first tournament was the start of the downfall of the Tamer’s Consortium. Though its stated purpose was to gather funding and identify talented up and coming tamers that could be assets on the ongoing war against the self-appointed Obsidian Kings plaguing the shattered Empire, it paved the stage for what the Tamer’s Consortium is now – little more than a sports league that occasionally is called on to settle international debates. While such a supposition is dramatic to the extreme, there is some merit to the idea that flashy, open viewing tournaments have been baked into the DNA of the organization ever since the earliest days of the Tamer’s Consortium. 

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Alyssa Verdosa, retired Regent, 386 Modern-Era

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As Vince poured his anima and pneuma into the egg, thin cracks of red light began to run through the smooth surface. The shapes that made up the surface of the egg were glowing more intensely than the rest of it. Then a crack raced down one side. Another. Then a third, fourth, fifth, and then the egg exploded. The shards dissolved into glowing red magic and cycled into the creature that had emerged from within, though the entire area was glowing so brightly that it was almost impossible to get a good look at it. As the light faded away, I got my first new look at the Primal. 

It didn’t immediately match any Primal I had seen before, nor did it resemble the description of any legendary, possibly cryptozoological, Primal that I’d read about online. It was small, which made sense, given it wasn’t in its battle form and was still level one. It faintly resembled a velociraptor – an actual, chicken sized one, rather than a massive hunting creature from a shlocky story – though it differed in a few key ways. 

Its body was translucent, and seemed to be made of spun light, almost like a low difficulty illusion spell, and it had a pair of wings neatly tucked in behind itself. I suspected that they were slightly longer than the Primal itself was long when unfolded, but it was hard to tell. Its face seemed more real than most of its body or skin, and its eyes in particular were sharp and focused as it looked around at us, taking a delicate hop forward. Looking through the illusionary body, there were bones that seemed to be made of a shimmering silvery metal. The metal bones just hung there, suspended by seemingly nothing, which had to be an effect of an incredibly complex ousia pattern. 

The anima that the creature radiated was a mixture of metal and a type that I personally hadn’t felt before, but would bet was radiance. Though it wasn’t rare for Primals to learn spells that used radiance, it was one of the least common aspects to actually make up something’s personal essence

I was almost certain Vince was right. We had found a Primal that either hadn’t been discovered before, or was so rare that nobody who had discovered it had managed to log its essence patterns into the database. The Primal let out a squawk as it hopped forward again, sounding remarkably like a chicken, then tilted its head like a dog. When it spotted Scales and Hex, it flared its wings and hopped forward, conjuring its battle form. 

Given how little the battle form changed it, I assumed that like a Serest or Sharmond, this creature sacrificed initial, low-level power for the ability to evolve its battle form into new, upgraded versions. The only real changes were that the feathers of pneuma gained a slightly metallic tint, and the tips of its wings curled in to reveal metallic claws. 

Scales let out a chuff of amusement at the bold hatchling, then stepped forward, adopted his own battle form, and gently bit into the smaller creature’s pnuema shell. It glowed, even as the newly-hatched Primal pecked at Scales, before the pneuma collapsed. The Primal landed and turned to run away, squawking, while Scales dismissed his battle form and sat down next to me, radiating a sense I could best describe as amusement. 

“It’s adorable!” Laurel said, kneeling and leaning forward to look at it. “What is it? I don’t recognize this Primal.” 

“It’s a level  one radiance and metal type, but I don’t know the rest,” Vince said, shaking his head. “I don’t recognize it at all.”

We glanced at River, who shrugged and shook his head. 

“Don’t look at me. You’re the monster geeks. I don’t think I can tell a Kirow from an Ebonwing, let alone identify a Primal that you all can’t.” 

“Well, it seems to like fighting, given that it forgot about it being hungry to immediately challenge the most advanced Primal nearby to a fight that it knew it would lose. I’ll see if I can bond it, then we can all scan it and see if it’s in any of our databases.” 

He raised his hand and anima bled out. Where it took me ages to put the spell together, and even River had required a few moments, Vince spun out the spell for Bond Primal with the ease of a seasoned master. The link clicked into place, and Vince grinned.

“What do ya know? The little fellow seemed delighted by the idea. He’s also fine being scanned, because he doesn’t know if there are others like him.” 

I nodded and raised my augpad, then sent some anima into it. The screen started to buffer, and then froze. It went back to buffering for a few moments as it tried to parse the information, before generating a status sheet for the new Primal.

[Name: None

Species: Error

Element: Radiance / Metal

Rarity: Error

Level: One

Gift: Absorb one third of the anima opponents put into their attacks, decreasing the offensive power and using it to restore your own. 

Spells: 

- Pneuma Bite (Null)

- N/A

- N/A

- N/A

Description: Error.]

My fingers went to go send the sheet to my companions, but there wasn’t a local network out here, so instead I held up my augpad and flipped it around for Vince and Laurel to see, while River looked over everyone else’s. Laurel’s pad used slightly different verbiage: unknown, rather than error, using ‘to restore the Primal’s anima pool’ rather than ‘to restore your own’, and things like that. Despite the minor changes, the core message was still the same. 

Vince tapped next to his eye, where I assumed he had the augtech implanted.

“Mine’s pretty low powered, it doesn’t have the capacity to analyze gifts unless they’re already stored. I didn’t even get the full information. Give me a second, I’ll access the global net and do a scan with some of the better software. It’ll still be limited to my ocular prosthesis implant’s hardware, but…” 

He trailed off as his eyes flicked around, and I wondered if he even realized that he had stopped talking. A few moments later, he muttered under his breath, focused on the Primal before him. 

“You just like saying ocular prosthesis implant,” Laurel said, her tone making it clear she was teasing, though it still made me uncomfortable. I hoped that Vince had made it clear that he was fine with those jokes. 

“Huh? Oh. Yeah, of course I do. Saying I have an artificial, prosthetic, or fake eye sounds like, at best, I’m less capable. Saying I have an ocular prosthesis implant makes me sound like a sci-fi action hero. Which would you rather have?” 

He, Laurel, and River all laughed, and I chuckled as well, relaxing that Vince seemed to enjoy the banter. 

“Okay, I’ve got it,” he said after a moment. “I didn’t get much more information that you all. I can confirm what you all have, and the ousia weave is complex enough that it’s definitely somewhere in the epic or legendary ballpark, but getting exact information will need better hardware.”

“Can’t you just pour more anima in?” Laurel asked, only for River to lean forward and shake his head. 

“No. Not at all. That’s like saying if you fused six extra cords into your augpad charger and connected it to the wall, you’d get a faster tablet. Sure, some components need a bigger power supply to work, but adding power doesn’t increase computing power.” 

“Oh. That’s stupid,” Laurel said with a huff, then rolled her eyes. “He’s a high level, he should be able to do whatever he wants.” 

“Sure, and we’d be living under the Obsidian Kings still,” I pointed out. 

“Whatever,” Laurel said, though she had a half-laugh as she did, before she turned to face Vince. “I guess this is the end of our expedition, then?” 

“Not until we get back,” Vince said. “But… Yeah. Soon.” 

“On that note, I do think I can move now,” River said. “My anima pool is going to be sore for at least a few weeks, but I can move.” 

On that somewhat victorious, somewhat sad note, we started to pack up. I triple checked the campsite we had made, then checked it once more to make sure none of the inexperienced campers had left anything behind. I helped get everyone into their kayaks, then pushed them off, before I stopped once and looked at Hex. I knelt down and placed a hand on her head, then tried to send her a series of impressions.

We were leaving the island, and she had accepted the bond. But she also had wanted to help the essence heart. She had felt like exploring was something she wanted to do, but the essence heart was free, and it had expanded to its full power. If she wanted to stay here… now was the time. 

It wasn’t that she couldn’t break the bond if she ever wanted to. She absolutely could – even an essence heart couldn’t force a bond. But if we were hundreds of miles away and she wanted to return, then it wouldn’t be a simple thing. 

Hex absorbed the information slowly, then hopped onto the boat and looked out at the water curiously. She wanted to explore, to fight strong Primals that could push her to her limits. I gently petted her, then climbed into my own kayak and pushed off. Scales circled the waters around us as we went. 

Just like Vince had said, the ambient essence levels did start to drop, but they never fell quite as low as they had on our approach. When we stopped at the small, unoccupied island for a rest, I estimated that it was at around level seven, while before it had been closer to five.

This time, there was no Aquarb attack, so our rest was much smoother, and after a quick meal we went for the final stretch of our journey. That was by far the easiest part, though a chunk of that was just that the tides were on our side for the latter half of the journey.

I locked up the kayaks in Willie’s row while Vince closed out the account he had given me access to. Then the older tamer smiled, stepped forward, and extended a hand to me. I took it and he pulled me into the sort of handshake hug that always made me feel incredibly awkward. Once he let go, he clapped me on the shoulder, and my augpad vibrated, indicating the deposit of his promised payment. 

“Thanks for your help, Aiden. I’ve got to get Choko to the Consortium HQ, so I’m going to head out on the four in the morning bus line. You and Scales have a great future in front of you. Don’t hesitate to send me a message. And if you ever wind up in Calcite city, hit me up! We’ll do lunch.” 

“Thank you, Vince. You… this…” I trailed off, having a hard time saying anything. I settled on just repeating myself. “Thank you.” 

River shuffled forward, and we had an awkward handshake. 

“Nice to get to know you, dude,” he said. “Thanks. You can message whenever.” 

“Same to you. You’re a good dude, River. Thanks for your help.” 

“Don’t steal him from me,” Laurel said, her voice dry, though I was confident she was teasing me. She stepped forward and also pulled me into a very brief hug. “What’s your plan now?” 

“Spend a bit of time getting things settled here. Then… I don’t know. Maybe I’ll head to Tourmaline city, challenge the Councillor there. What about you?” 

“I’ll be going to Pegmatite town, since River and I promised we’d spend the equinox with his folks, then we’re headed to Arkose Nature Preserve.” 

“You should come,” River said. “There’s a Councillor who hangs out around there.” 

“You can also see some wild essence hearts, and possibly even bond a Primal,” Vince added. “It’s where I found my own Serest.” 

“Sounds like a plan!” I said, pulling my fist to my heart. “Tourmaline, then Arkose!”