The Third Step: Chapter Two

I flickered along the boat with a handful of short teleports, then unlocked the door to the room and slipped into Dusk’s realm – technically, I could have done it from the boat’s small training room, but it was a good idea to let the staff see me entering and leaving the room if I wanted to continue to seem slightly normal.

Once I was in Dusk’s realm, I walked to the alchemy room and flicked open a chest to reveal the small pile of elixirs that I’d purchased with the leftover points from my last handful of weeks at Crysite, as well as the paper that Elio had given me with the identification number for his scrying mirror, so he could show me the other spells when I was ready for them

It was kind of weird to have the number of an occultist. On one hand, if I really needed to, I could summon a simulacra of Ikki, or track Meadow down, so it wasn’t exactly like it was the first time I’d had the ability to contact someone powerful. Even setting them aside, I was fairly certain that Orykson was spying on me near-constantly, and he’d been somewhat responsive when I’d called him. After all, he’d not shown up when the Idyll-Flume had fractured and I’d called for him to get Kene out, but he had on the way to Delitone the first time.

But those were also my mentors. It was normal to be able to get in touch with the people who were teaching you if you really needed something. It was far weirder for me to be able to just walk over to my communication mirror, open a portal to let it connect to the global network, and then dial up an Occultist. It made it feel more real, in a way that I couldn’t explain.

I glanced at the paper one more time to make sure I had the twelve digit number memorized, then put it back on the shelf – with my breakthrough, I’d call him soon, but not right this moment. 

For right now… 

I reached down and removed the four elixirs I’d purchased with my share of the points before leaving Crysite. None of them were anything special, not even close to something like a golden soul elixir, but Kene had used some of the plants in Dusk’s realm, as well as a few of the desolant beast cores to further refine them. As a fourth gate mage, their ability to craft advancement resources had – apparently – shot up a good bit, as many of the more specialized spells used in the crafting were fourth gate.

I lined them up, examining their swirling contents. The first elixir was a vibrant brown color – not something I normally thought was possible, but I couldn’t figure out another way to describe it. It definitely wasn’t orange, just… vibrant and bright brown. It was a potion for assisting in growing plant based spells, and I was hoping that my mana-garden and legacy would let me stretch it to work on fungi as well. 

The second potion was a cerulean color, with flecks of silver and gold swirling in it with a strange pattern, and was designed to help improve mana sensory spells. It had been the most expensive of the potions, since most potions for that were either first or second gate, or else the absurdly potent ones that were like sixth gate. 

The third potion was a chalky white color, and uncomfortably chunky feeling. It had been the cheapest of the lot, and I had to figure the unpleasant texture was part of the reason why. It was a standard mana advancement elixir for temporal mana, designed to help push back mists within the mana-garden. Given what Ikki had said about the size of the Combat Echo spell, I thought I might actually complete my temporal mana before I completed anything else for once, and would need this to fit it and the timemind in right away. 

The final potion looked just like water, and if it weren’t for the fact that it was slowly shedding power to my mana senses, I might have thought I’d been scammed in purchasing it. The elixir was supposed to assist in the integration of mind altering natural treasures, letting them act a little bit more like standard spells, which should work well for Timemind. 

With my current mana toxicity limits, and the fact that the final potion was so gentle, I was fairly confident I should be able to handle all four without getting a splitting headache, so I picked up the chunky white one and downed it as quickly as I could. The awful texture made me gag for a moment, and I wanted to wipe my mouth out, but I immediately felt the power rush to my temporal mana and begin pushing back the mists, burning them away into nothing. 

I uncapped the water-like potion and downed it, and it was like the finest nectar by comparison. I felt it reach out for the mental, life, and knowledge energy in my brain, so I went ahead and drew the multifaceted shard of selenite that was the Timemind into my spirit, letting it sink into my peak third gate. The elixir reached for it, connecting tendrils of all three energies to the temporal energy shedding from my spirit.

As my mana began to pass through the natural treasure, I could immediately feel the difference. The world wasn’t any slower than it had been before, nor was I thinking any faster, but it was somehow… clearer. Things seemed to make more sense. It was almost like moving with Foxarmor on and letting my senses guide my movement, but permanent, and compounding with Foxarmor’s effect.

I spent a few minutes just walking around, getting used to the new sensation, then picked up one of the boat pamphlets and read a few paragraphs before getting bored and putting it down to walk away.

With that done, I started to sketch out another large, complicated spell. The spell from the Soulsearcher Rabbits was a rather unique one, and with the amount of mental mana built in, I didn’t think I’d have been able to cast it without my full-gate spells. 

It was a weird spell, helping get a general sense for a person’s mana-garden, like a less accurate or detailed version of Analyze Mana-Garden, but it also had an effect the analyze spell didn’t have. The soulsearcher rabbit’s spell allowed for a minor feel of the person’s second layer of the soul. I wasn’t clear exactly what that was, but as I understood it, it was tied to the Arcanist breakthrough, and it was also the source of some of their more intense resonance. I thought it might also be somewhat associated with ghosts and intent, but I wasn’t entirely sure. 

Once I’d finished sketching it, I picked up the sparkling cerulean potion and downed it, directing the stream of power to the new spell. It settled in, and I felt the familiar tearing sensation as the spell broke through into the mastered stage. With my full-gate spell, that wasn’t as important for me as it was for others, but it was still something. Besides, ingraining came from using and understanding the spell, so I’d get closer through use. 

While I was sketching, I picked up one of the sheets of paper that Ikki had given me and sketched combat echo. It wouldn’t become truly impressive until I ingrained it and was able to charge the copy with mana to improve the amount of time it stuck around and power it exerted, but even for now… 

I flexed my mana and cast the spell, and a copy of me appeared, lingering for just a moment before vanishing. The moment it vanished, the second of memories that it had returned to me. 

I’d expected it to be disorienting, despite what Ikki had suggested, but… it wasn’t. The memories were mine, just from a different perspective. I thought the Timemind probably helped some, but I also thought my constant use of teleportation was part of the reason why. I was used to my perspective shifting quickly and dramatically, so it wasn’t too strange to have two of them, especially since it was the past. 

I did think I’d have been able to handle two streams at once, but it would probably have also been more disorienting, and wouldn’t have been ideal for a fight. 

I wandered outside, and took a moment to absorb Dusk’s new appearance. She hadn’t changed much with her advancement, keeping the four seasons theme she’d lived with for a while now, but she’d grown her internals and further integrated the shadow realm – it was close to a hundred acres in size now. Her main size had grown to about four square miles, which was enormous, but not as much as I’d expected. She claimed she had a reason for it, though she wasn’t finished with it yet.

I’d accidentally wandered into her working with Dawn a handful of times, and even Aerde once. I suspected the three of them were cooking up something with the intentionally limited jump in size, but I wasn’t sure what, and wasn’t going to pry. She’d share when she was ready. 

I shook off my thoughts and cast the Combat Echo spell a few more times, testing my copy’s ability to draw on my mana and attack. Kene, who was reading a book in a chair near the faerie circle mushrooms, raised an eyebrow when they saw my copies. 

“You broke through?” 

“Yep! Testing my new spells. Speaking of, lemme test out the Soulsearcher Rabbit spell…” 

“Soulgaze. It’s easier and gets the point across.” 

“Fine, let me test out soulgaze,” I said, flowing energy through the array and empowering the spell. The magic surged and I felt my sense for Kene’s mana grow sharper. It felt… odd. They were seemingly split between three main focuses, with a strong affinity for improving others, alchemy, and healing.

That was normal enough – it was the intent part where things got even weird. I felt the spell drawing something up through my mana-garden, but also reaching out for the power of my Nascent Truths and staff, and then extending all of that out, diffusing it into my mana senses. It wasn’t resonance empowering them, as Orykson had shown me how to do, but it was… something, certainly. 

Where my senses empowered with the strangeness came into contact with Kene’s shedding mana, I got a sense of warmth and positivity coming off them. But beneath that, I could feel a very old wound, one that had never healed, and was just sapping them. It wasn’t painful anymore, just… tiring. They’d fight it, they had to keep fighting it, but after almost a decade of doing so, they were tired. 

I stepped over and pulled Kene into a hug. They blinked then hugged me back, and I squeezed gently. 

“You’re doing a good job fighting. It’s hard, I can’t imagine how hard, and I’m proud of you.”

Kene gave me an awkward smile and half a laugh. 

“Guess that spell really works, huh?” 

“Something like that,” I agreed, but I kept my arm on his waist for a little longer. Eventually, however, I lifted the brown bottle. “Alright. I’m going to find Meadow and try and see if she has any recommendations for plant or fungal spells.”