Outside Influences

Bel woke to a tingling sensation spreading through her limbs. Her innards shifted – or that’s how it felt – and she could feel a second Core forming alongside her first, like a bizarre new bud forming from the stem of her existing core. It popped into being with a chaotic swirl of power. A moment later, the extra essence that she’d absorbed from the dead guards rushed into her cores and she felt them grow through two thresholds.

Her original core continued to give her the impression of unfurling petals, but her new core was like a chaotic symphony of discordant instruments. A new, slightly out of tune noise joined the chorus with each threshold that she passed.

Bel grimaced at the sensation, but the more she felt her new core, the more she became aware that there was a shared melody behind the noise, but one that she struggled to follow because it was too chaotic.

Which makes sense. Dutcha did call herself a spirit of chaos, right?

Bel would have been elated at the expanded options she could feel from her cores, but instead her mind lingered on Ishmael’s words. Was her thinking being influenced by the powerful entities that she was connected to?

No, right? Wouldn’t I notice?

She thought about how certain she had felt as she killed off the guard when she passed through the Barrier.

Maybe there’s something going on. But only after I cleared the twentieth threshold. Probably.

“God, finally,” James complained. “You were asleep forever.”

She snorted and opened her eyes. “You mean you’re finally awake. And I wasn’t sleeping,” she rebutted, “I was advancing my Path.”

“Could have fooled us, kid,” Beth grumbled. Despite missing an arm, the woman hopped to her feet, seemingly none the worse after the events of the previous day. “Hopefully you didn’t do something crazy without supervision. You didn’t pledge yourself to some god of pretty flowers or something, did you?”

Bel was surprised to see her sister up and energetic, but a glance at the concern on her brother’s face made it clear that Beth wasn’t doing as well as she wanted to appear.

“Are you doing okay Beth?” Bel asked, her snakes leaning forward with concern.

Beth made a rude noise with her mouth. “Oh please, hon, I’m great. I finally got you to the other side of the Barrier, right?”

Beth leaned closer, examining Bel’s face. “Did you get your ears pierced?” She reached for Bel’s ear and Bel leaned away.

Beth scowled. “I don’t like it. It calls more attention to you. That’s dangerous.”

Bel rolled her eyes. “Ventas didn’t mind.”

Beth jabbed a finger at Bel’s shoulder. “Ventas hasn’t been struggling to keep you safe all these years.”

Bel’s eyebrows shot up. “That reminds me. Ventas told us that the war between the Points and the government was brewing for years and that his fellow priests were helping out because Technis double-crossed Lempo.”

“Is that so?” Beth replied evenly.

“Yes. Apparently, Ventas and the rest of Lempo’s priests got involved once I wasn’t being held as a hostage. He wondered why you didn’t bring me to see them back then.”

Bel stared at her suddenly quiet sister. “They were pretty eager to help, apparently.”

Beth arched an eyebrow. “Oh, really? Too bad – I didn’t hear anything about that.”

Bel crossed her arms. “I don’t believe you.”

Beth laughed. “Oh, c’mon Bel. I rescued you from the High Temple and then we were on the run for years. How was I supposed to know that a bunch of hermits were eager to see you?”

“You snuck off on your own plenty of times,” Bel accused. “What were you up to?”

Beth gestured to one of her daggers, fastened to a belt going across her chest. “Taking care of my own business.”

James sighed loudly enough to get their attention. “Look, Beth, being vague and menacing like that isn’t the right way to build trust. Why not just tell us what you’ve been planning? You clearly had something in mind when you rescued Bel, right?”

Beth shrugged. “Look, kid, if you don’t want to trust me that’s your problem. I just do what Durak asks.”

“But why,” James pressed. “What are you getting out of it? And don’t just say that you like stabbing people.”

“But I do like stabbing people,” Beth insisted with a flippant tilt of her chin. “Some people more than others.”

“And what do you want to do out here, Beth?” Bel asked. “Now that we’re out of Satrap? Is there anyone you want to stab out here?”

Beth’s expression went blank. “I have no idea really. Gather an invasion force to liberate Satrap, I guess?”

Her siblings stared at her.

Beth shrugged. “It’s a reasonable plan. We’ve always heard that everything beyond the Barrier is incredibly dangerous, right? So that people here must be stronger as well.”

James drummed his fingers on the table. “I suppose that the Dark Ravager’s people were pretty tough. I don’t think that they’d want to work with us though.”

Beth grinned. “So we’ll find someone else. Durak’s been guiding my steps this far, I’m sure he’s got something planned out for me.”

“But what if we don’t want to overthrow everything in Satrap?” Bel challenged. “What if I’m supposed to do something else? You know that Durak isn’t my god, right?”

Beth’s eyes softened. “That’s life kid. Families go their own ways eventually, you know.”

“I don’t know,” Bel bit out, “you two are the only family I’ve got. Other than some magical goddess mother who doesn’t even talk to me.”

Bel stormed off – to the other side of the cavern. She didn’t want to wander off and get lost after accusing Beth of wanting to leave her behind – that would be silly. Her fingers itched for a door to slam or a tent to dive into, but the cave didn’t come with anything like that.

“I’m with Bel on this one, Beth,” James added. “Sure, I would have gone to college, but I would have still been visiting my family regularly if I hadn’t been sucked into Satrap. I mean, I’d at least email them.”

Beth rolled her eyes. “I don’t understand why you two aren’t out for revenge too. If you want to stick together, why not help me out?”

“Because I’d rather go home,” James insisted, “and I’d take Bel with me in a heartbeat. Revenge won’t make us happy.”

Beth just scoffed. “That’s just because you haven’t stabbed someone that you really hate yet.”

James tugged with frustration on his chin’s ragged stubble. “Well, whatever we decide to do later, let’s try to get out of these caves first before the Dark Ravager’s people come to check up on this place.”

He poked at one of the maps that Bel hadn’t been able to read. “I think we can get out of here in less than a day,” he asserted.

He glanced at Beth before speaking in English. “And Bel, don’t take what Beth is saying right now too seriously. She’s still pumped full of whatever chemicals she’s producing to keep herself sharp. She’s like some kind of chemical-fueled super-soldier right now, hyper-aggressive and on edge.”

Beth frowned. “Hey, are you talking about me behind my back?”

James scratched at his growing bush of a beard. “Nah, of course not.”

He turned back to Bel and continued. “You know that my last conversation with my Old World family was a big argument – I don’t want to repeat that on this world too. She’s a bit crazy, but in an overprotective elder sister kind of way.”

Bel looked at her sister. She could see the dark, puffy circles around her eyes, the rigid way she held the stump of her arm… yeah, Beth wasn’t in a good place at the moment. I shouldn’t judge her too harshly. Bel smiled warmly, letting her sister know that she was forgiven for being a grouch.

Beth scowled back and Bel laughed.

“Oh, before we leave,” Bel exclaimed. She rushed to where they’d stuck the bodies and liberated a short sword from one of their belts. Beth nodded in approval as Bel cinched the belt around her waist.

“Also,” Bel proclaimed, “I want to learn some new abilities!”

Beth frowned. “You didn’t pick a flower god, right?”

Bel rolled her eyes. “No. I didn’t have many options, and that wasn’t one of them. Gorgons are cursed, apparently.”

She looked at James to see if he knew anything about it, but her brother shrugged helplessly.

“Well, the three people from my ceremony were all available. Kjar’s path was about hunting people down–”

“Yes,” Beth hissed.

“–but I didn’t take it,” Bel finished. “I had better rapport with the other two.”

Beth sighed loudly, obviously disappointed.

“Your mother and the spirit, right?”

Bel nodded. “Yeah. I ended up taking Dutcha’s path because Lempo… well, after seeing what happened to Ventas and some warnings from Ishmael I just wasn’t sure about it.”

James frowned. “Who’s Ishmael?”

“Weird worm guy,” Beth replied. “Guides everyone through their path selection stuff as a supposedly unbiased observer.”

James’ eyes shot up. “Really? That sounds weird.”

Bel turned her attention towards her abilities, too excited to want to talk about the caterwhatsit.

Beth waved her hand in the air in a so-so gesture. “Yeah, I was a bit weirded out as a little kid, but it’s thanks to his lack of memory and impartiality that I was able to follow Durak when I reached my second milestone.”

“Huh,” James grunted thoughtfully, “I wonder if I’ll go through the same thing? Ventas mentioned that my core might work with the religious parts of Olympos.”

The constellation around her new core had expanded, and had a myriad of interesting treats. She could do the minor body modification, and then there were four abilities that could turn something that she was touching into fire, water, air, or stone. How, exactly, a rock would turn into a fire she couldn’t guess, but it sounded interesting.

Then there were some abilities to make the temperature around her chaotic, which didn’t sound very useful. Another to make the air warm by manipulating random chance? Bel had difficulty grasping what the ability would do. Finally, at the end of the abilities that she could see, there was one that would make her more spirity.

If the previous one had been confusing, Bel really didn’t understand the last one. She got the impression that it would make it easier to talk with spirits, but that was a side-effect of it making her more like a spirit. It would also, maybe, let her eat spirits – a vague impression that didn’t make much sense.

I wish these came with better instructions. I’ve never seen a spirit though, so this doesn’t seem very relevant.

Bel had picked Dutcha’s path because she needed more power now, not some vague time in the future.

“Hey guys, would it be better to be able to set things on fire, evaporate them, petrify them, or melt them into a liquid?”

Her siblings halted mid-conversation and turned to her with confusion.

“Like, temporarily,” she explained. “Oh, and how about changing a small part of my body? Temporarily again. That’s cool, right? It’s temporary so it’s probably safe.”

Beth furrowed her brows. “Not a flower god, then.”

“No,” Bel replied, “Dutcha, divine spirit of chaos.”

Beth made a gagging face.

“Can you turn someone to stone at a touch, Bel?” James asked eagerly.

Bel closed her eyes and felt around the contours of the ability. “I don’t know? I think that they would turn back.”

“Well, liquifying someone or turning them into stone sounds pretty OP. That should be like an instant death attack, right? You can’t survive being turned into a puddle for even a short time, right?”

Beth snorted. “Not likely. Everybody can resist you using an ability on them. It depends upon the relative sizes of your cores, how full they are, and how much energy your ability can handle.”

She pointed at James. “So you could probably liquify your brother straight through to his heart with only a bit of resistance, but it wouldn’t work on me.”

Beth leaned back thoughtfully. “You could use that kind of ability to break someone’s weapons though, or to get through their armor.” Beth tapped on her teeth as she thought about it. “I suppose if the ability is really fast then you could liquify something as it cuts into you. Some people have abilities that affect their weapons though, so that won’t be reliable.”

Beth nodded her head to her inner thoughts for a few moments. “Solidifying your clothes could work, but you’d be better off just wearing armor. I don’t know about evaporating things. Do they cost the same?”

Bel shook her head. “No, turning something into air takes more energy than turning something into water.”

James nodded. “That makes sense. It probably takes more energy – it’s breaking chemical bonds, I guess.” He scratched at his beard. “Or maybe making new ones to turn something into a liquid? Man, now I want to see you doing this stuff. I’m gonna wish that I had a microscope though.”

Bel ignored her brother’s mad rambling. “So maybe I’ll take liquify and minor body modification?”

Beth waggled her finger. “I don’t think you should take either. Filling up your core with random stuff isn’t a good plan, and you’re in no rush. I’m here to look out for you, so there isn’t any danger.”

Bel examined her obviously ailing sister. Yeah, she looks like she’s going to fall apart at any minute. I’m not going to wait.

James shrugged. “Sleep on it. Or pick one at the last moment in the middle of a fight. I think that’s more exciting narratively.”

“This is not a game,” Bel deadpanned.

“Yeah,” he agreed wistfully. “If it was then I’d have already met at least one princess,” James groused.

Bel thought back to all the crap that she’d gone through, running around in caves, getting separated from Beth, being ambushed outside of Clearbrook, being dragged around by Nebamon and Rikja, the inquisitor squeezing her neck…

Could any one ability have stopped all of that? No. But burning things would be nice, right?

Then again… Rikja hadn’t had much luck with the automota in the caves leading to the Barrier. She felt out the options again. She could put off the decision, sure, but she would much rather have something that she knew how to use when the next disaster struck.

Maybe Immolate or Liquify? Burning an over-large insect sounded good, but turning Nebamon’s sword into liquid sounded pretty awesome too. And maybe she could liquify armor and thick hides.

Oh, and if a cave-in happened again I could probably liquify the rocks, she realized. That sealed the deal. She traced the ability, burning the inscription upon her core. It was the first time that she used the core on Dutcha’s path, but it worked exactly as the little caterwhatsit Ishmael had described: the thirty-stroke ability fit onto six strokes of her second core, taking up less than half of her available space. That would mean that she could activate the ability twice before she had to wait for her core to refill.

She didn’t want to stop there though, so she traced the strokes for minor body modification, filling another four strokes. Her core would take hours to refill after she used both abilities, but that was only until she passed more thresholds. Bel didn’t think that would take long: more fighting was inevitable.