Outside Influences

Bel leaned back against a tree and sighed contentedly. A light breeze ruffled her cloak, bringing with it the fresh scent of the forest. It had been a cold week on the mountain slope, and now the cedar were celebrating the warming morning with an aromatic onslaught while birds and little bounding mammals left their shelters to go about their business, creating a background hum of activity throughout the trees. A wide grin split Bel’s face as she took in the sights, sounds, and smells.

“These four weeks have been the best, right?” she asked.

James frowned. “Better than the week Beth busted you out of the temple?”

Bel tilted her head as she considered it. “That was the best day. But then we had to do a lot of running. I don’t know if you remember, but I fell down a lot.”

James laughed and slapped his knee with delight. “Yeah, you did.” He wiped at the corner of his eyes, over dramatizing the humor of the situation before turning contemplative. “I think the best week of my life was when I asked a girl out in middle school. She said yes, obviously.”

“Ugh, of course your best memories have to do with a girl,” she said with mock disgust.

“Well, duh. I’m a guy.” He pointed at her accusingly. “And you think it’s normal that your second most happy moments come from camping some rifts? We’re sitting around and killing everything that comes out. Maybe Beth’s violent nature has been rubbing off on you.”

Bel nodded enthusiastically. “Growing in power is great! And we’re surrounded by all of this nature! Also, Ventas let me get these piercings!”

Bel cupped her hands around her freshly pierced ears, each decorated with a moss-green stone held in place by a small amount of gold. “Beth never would have let me do that!”

James shook his head. “Because they stand out. You’re way to enthusiastic about body modification. Thank g–, er, thank Lempo that Ventas stopped you at just the ears.”

Bel shook off her brother’s criticism. “Too scared to get your own? Maybe the girls would like a man who was brave enough to pierce his nose. And back on topic, was doing whatever you did with that girl really better than getting magic?”

James stared into the distance for a moment. “Yeah,” he eventually replied, “yeah, it was its own kind of magic.”

Bel shook her head and looked back at the rift.

This was their fourth. Each morning they would wake up early, go to a rift, and clear out anything caught in their traps. Then they would reset the traps and wait around for new things to show up. Ventas had supervised them at first, but now he just brought them lunch shortly after midday.

Bel’s stomach gurgled as she thought about food. “Shouldn’t Ventas be showing up around now?”

James shrugged. “Who knows? You people haven’t invented watches. Don’t you tell time by your bowel movements?.”

Bel rolled her eyes, and looked up at the sun’s position.

“Yeah,” James finally admitted, “he should be–”

“Hallo!” Ventas called out.

“Right on time,” Bel said smugly.

Then she stood up and waved. “Uncle! Good afternoon!”

The priest waved enthusiastically before picking his way over the rocky ground, careful to avoid swinging the lunch basket hanging from his arm.

“How’s the catch today?”

Bel shook her head. “A couple of acidic snails in the morning. I think that whatever activity is happening inside of this rift is dying down.”

Ventas nodded. “Then I shall seal this one and we’ll move on to another.”

He turned to James. “Unless you still feel that there is enough essence coming out of it to make it worthwhile to stay?”

James shook his head. “No, I think it dropped off a couple of days ago. The essence drops and then the creatures stop coming, just like you said and the same as the previous three. I still can’t believe that the source of these essence spikes is truly random.”

Ventas gave an apologetic shrug as he opened the basket, releasing the aroma of the fresh food sequestered inside. “It is a mystery to us.”

James rubbed at his smooth chin as he muttered to himself. “Maybe because you don’t have any epidemiology, but maybe…”

Bel took advantage of her brother’s distraction, striking at the unprotected loaf of fresh bread and tearing off the crispy heel. She bit into it victoriously, cackling internally at her victory.

James came to his senses a moment later and scowled, but it was too late; she had already relieved the loaf of its second end as well.

Ventas let them stuff their faces in silence, and as their eating slowed he poured out some tea into three wooden cups. “How is your progress? You have the blood coagulating abilities and the ones to numb pain and raise or lower heart rates?”

James nodded. “And the one to remove inflammation. I got that last night.”

“Excellent. And your thresholds?”

“Cleared the fifth a couple of days ago. It’s way slower than Bel since I can’t take the essence from anything we kill.”

Ventas smiled sympathetically. “I apologize for my meager skills.”

“Oh, no, it’s okay. Like you said, once we’re stronger I can always go to a more dangerous place with more loose essence to collect it faster. Just being able to work any magic is wonderful, even if Bel won’t let me test it on her.”

Bel’s snakes twitched with annoyance. “I did let you test it – once. That was enough. You numbed my hand so badly that I could barely hold my sword.”

Her brother rolled his eyes. “I said I was sorry. You know I’ve been practicing since then.”

“Keep practicing,” she retorted.

Ventas cleared his throat. “So, Bel, how about your progress?”

“I just got to seventeen from those slugs,” she beamed. “I took the coagulation abilities a couple of days ago since they seemed good, so I’ve got eighteen free strokes.”

“Wonderful! Have your mother or the other divine beings blessed you with any interesting abilities?”

“Eh…” Bel’s snakes flicked their tongues dismissively. “Not really. Lempo has an ability that makes my mind numb to something – I think pain and horror maybe – and Dutcha’s constellation has something that randomly rearranges my body. I don’t think that one’s any good.”

Bel leaned back and sighed. “Right now my gorgon abilities seem the most reasonable.” She held up her hand and mimed scratching at something. “Metallic fingernails are a little bit useful, right?”

Ventas smiled warmly, his eyes twinkling. “You are too early on your Paths to dismiss what they may bring in the future. You’ll just have to be patient.”

Bel sighed. “Yeah, you already warned me that nothing great shows up until higher ability costs. But I have to form a second core once my first clears the twentieth threshold, don’t I? It looks like I’ll be going into my second core without having much insight into what abilities my different options will give.”

James drained the last of his tea and reached for his sling, preparing to do a little bit of after lunch practice. “Do you think that Bel should take Lempo’s Path?” he asked, as he searched for small, slingable stones.

Ventas tugged on his beard and hummed quietly. “Well, I think that she should do as she feels.”

He tapped his chest. “My third core follows Lempo’s Path, so I have some view of her abilities – the ones that she grants me, at least. Lempo’s gifts are powerful, but the power to change the world is rather expensive. Unlike your first core, which continues to grow even after you form more, your second core will only hold sixty ability strokes, which may not be enough to hold the strokes required to take advantage of Lempo’s blessings.”

Ventas smiled at Bel. “But do not worry, child. Your affinity with a patron will make your core efficient at holding their abilities, so I assume that you will be quite blessed when you attune a core to your mother. I see nothing wrong with taking another Path for your second core though, if that is what you think will ease your future progress.”

“You have it so easy,” she sighed at her brother.

He flicked a stone into the woods before turning to her. “I have what now?”

“With your ability list. It makes your decisions simple.”

James glanced at the pack that held the ability scroll. “Well, I suppose that it is like having a strategy guide, but my core doesn’t work with every ability like yours. I’m sure that you’ll get some OP abilities once you get past the early stuff.”

James whirled his sling and tossed a rock at a distant tree. Bel nodded when she heard the thock of the stone against the distance wood. “You’re getting good at that.”

James flashed her a thumbs up. “Of course! You know, slings were better than most bows. I think that maybe I read somewhere that they even have longer range than most bows if you make them long enough.”

Bel watched her brother pitch another missile into the woods. “How about those gun things?”

“Uh, no, guns are OP,” he replied, bluntly.

“Well…” he reconsidered. “I’m not actually sure about those primitive things that they’re using. I wonder if they learned how to make them by kidnapping someone else from Earth? Maybe that’s what they planned for me, but then they realized that our technology had gotten too far ahead to copy after they stole my phone.”

He scowled. “Or maybe they were kidnapping so many of us that they hadn’t gotten around to squeezing me for information yet.”

Ventas grunted and nodded his head. “That kind of callous mistreatment of the innocent sounds like them. The sooner we remove Technis’ boot from the necks of Satrap’s people, the better.”

Bel snakes shrunk back in shame. “I’m sorry uncle, I don’t think any of my abilities have anything to do with the Barrier. I’m sorry for being useless.”

Ventas quickly waved his hands at her. “No, no, child, I was not complaining that you should be doing more. I am merely eager for the moment when we will be able to strike back. For now, let the delvers and the southern alliance do the fighting. You need only concentrate on growing stronger.”

Ventas clasped a small, metal emblem that hung from his neck. “Some day your path out of Technis’ trap will become clear, I am sure of it.”

Bel groaned in frustration. “But I have no idea what my mother expects from me. What if there are some specific abilities that I’m supposed to learn? What if they told me, but I just can’t remember?”

James patted the air, prompting Bel to calm herself. “Maybe you aren’t supposed to use their abilities to get through the Barrier. Maybe you have them because you’re family, and there is no hidden meaning behind them. Getting through the Barrier could be a completely separate thing.”

Ventas nodded. “Your brother speaks the truth. His experience with these ‘tropes’ and ‘video games’ bring him wisdom beyond his years.”

Bel leaned back against a tree and thumped her head into it in frustration. Her snakes popped out of her cowl and hissed in her ears, letting her know that the behavior was unacceptable.

She waved them off, unconcerned. She had grown accustomed to their antics in the past few weeks, enough to realize that she would feel it if she actually hurt them. Not only were they more durable than regular snakes, but her toughened integument ability also affected them. A little tree bumping wouldn’t be an issue.

Ventas looked up at the sky and squinted. Then he turned around and sniffed the air. A troubled look passed over his face and he tugged fretfully at his beard.

“Is something wrong, uncle?”

“There is a strange smell on the air,” he replied vaguely. He stood abruptly, clearly concerned by what he had sensed. “You two stay here,” he instructed, “I must check on something.”

He was off before Bel or James could reply, bounding through the woods like a bird in flight.

“Damn, he’s fast when he wants to be,” James marvelled.

“Well, he’s pretty old,” Bel responded. “Old people should be powerful, right?”

James scoffed. “Maybe in this world. Back on Earth, old people had to take it easy or they’d break their bones.”

Bel’s snakes twisted with confusion. “Why would their bones break? This sounds like you’re teasing me again. You know, things are hard enough for me without you tricking me all the time.”

James sent another rock zipping into the woods before turning back to her. “You know, I think I’m the one who has it rough here. At least you’ve got a doting uncle in this town, I don’t have anyone looking out for me.”

Bel already knew where this was going and quickly moved to intercept the thread of the conversation. “Yes, there aren’t any single girls your age left in the town. It’s very unfair. No, I don’t care.”

James turned to her with a hurt expression. “Bel, why do–”

He was interrupted by a crashing sound. They quickly glanced at the rift before realizing that the sound had come from the woods in the opposite direction.

Bel tugged her short sword free of its sheath while James loaded another rock into his sling. A moment later a young man with brown hair and a scant beard hurled himself through the woods and into the clearing.

He paused for a few second to gasp for breath before locking eyes with them. He was covered in sweat and pine needles, and his eyes were wide with panic. He stared at Bel’s agitated snakes for a moment before shaking his head and looking her in the eyes. “Enforcers,” he shouted. “Maybe an inquisitor! You two need to run!”