Outside Influences

Flann laughed at Bel’s suggestion. “You want to shoot beams of water? From where?”

Bel frowned. “What’s wrong with shooting water?”

Orseis waved a tentacle at the dead crayfish. “They were shooting water that they brought with them. Back in the Golden Plains that’s a pretty useless ability.”

Bel gestured at Flann. “But he summons fire all the time.”

The fox shook his head. “I’m not summoning fire. That’s just a side effect of the heat.”

“Then you’re summoning–”

Flann cut her off. “No, I’m generating heat with the energy from my core. I’m not making anything. Making stuff is hard.”

Bel pouted. “So I can’t summon water beams?” She looked at the fist-sized crustacean still dangling from her hand. “Well, maybe it has something else interesting.”

Bel’s face scrunched with concentration as she grasped the core with her senses, feeling around for–

“Ah, it broke,” she exclaimed, dismayed.

Bel dropped the crayfish and grabbed another one. She again sent her senses into the core and–

“Ah, damnit, the cores on these things are super fragile.”

Orseis laughed. “Or maybe you’re just bad at this?” She prodded one of the corpses with a tentacle and closed her eyes.

“It’s got an ability to move water, another to make a distracting light, and, oh, there’s the one to shoot water…”

She went silent for a moment. “Yeah, nothing special. Better oxygen transfer so they can grow bigger, something to manage heat in the water… actually, maybe I’ll take that. The water around here is hot enough to scald my tentacles.”

Bel pouted. “Why was that so easy for you? Is it because you’re part fish?”

Orseis threw the crayfish at Bel, giving her a facefull of spindly legs. “I’m not a fish! Humans just call cuttlefish that because they’re bad at naming things!”

Flann chuckled at their antics while he gathered up the crayfish. “You two may as well just drain these for essence. We’ll find something small for you to practice your ability extraction on, Bel. Maybe those worms I was using for bait.”

“But why,” Bel complained.

“You’re more powerful now than you were before. Of course it’s easier to break things. You should really keep up your practice so stuff like this doesn’t happen.”

Orseis waved a crayfish in her face. “Half and half?”

Bel shrugged. “Sure.”

They divided the large crustaceans into two piles and before Bel and Orseis pulled out their essence. They were stronger then Bel had thought – her core advanced by two thresholds. That gave her as much free capacity as she’d had when she gained the lesser incorporation ability to merge spirits into her body, so she would get to see new abilities from Dutcha’s path soon.

Bel nodded with satisfaction. “Done.”

Flann rubbed his hands. “Great, now how about I cook ’em before Orseis shoves the rest into her face?”

The tentacled girl looked up suddenly, a bit of crayfish tail still hanging out of her mouth. She hastily snapped it off and swallowed. “Uh, yeah, cooking is great, I can totally wait.”

Flann snorted. “I swear, this girl was raised in a hole,” he muttered.

Orseis bludgeoned a shallow hole into a rock so that Flann could boil the crayfish in large groups. Bel wasn’t impressed with their flavor, but she was hardly paying attention. After eating a couple she started poking around the thick moss, searching for the worms Flann had told her to use for practice.

“You’re not eating more?” he asked with concern.

“Nah. I’d better practice that essence stuff. I don’t think my mom will be okay with me wasting time.”

Orseis immediately grabbed another tentaclefull. “More for me,” she declared happily.

Flann’s whiskers twitched. “You’re not used to all this, Bel. Didn’t you just get your core recently? Rushing isn’t reasonable – the hasty kit falls down the hole, you know.”

Bel shrugged. “Well, I don’t think my mom’s reasonable. Kjar warned me that she takes things to world-ending extremes when she doesn’t get her way, remember? I don’t want to fall behind wherever she thinks I should be.”

“Ah…well, I suppose…” His tail flicked with agitation. “I’ve never even heard of Lempo though, is she really that powerful? No offense, but maybe your mom is just a bit dramatic?”

Bel laughed. “Kjar didn’t think so, and she blew up the Dark Ravager’s pyramid like a kid kicks over a sand castle. I wouldn’t want to risk pissing off my mom.”

Bel nervously coiled one of her snakes around her hand. “Actually, Flann, maybe you shouldn’t speak disrespectfully about her, who knows if she’s listening through me.”

Flann shrugged. “Eh, then she must already know the kind of fox I am. Anyway, shall we get goin’? If those crayfish had found us while we were sleepin’ it would've been bad, so I want to find a more sheltered place to hide before we sleep again.”

He flicked his tail at Orseis. “Besides, I think Orseis is gonna start eatin’ rocks if we wait around any longer.”

Orseis spit out a bit of shell. “I wouldn’t eat rocks,” she declared indignantly. “But if we’re ready to go, I think there are some handholds leading down the cliff face. They’re a bit wet, but I think you two can make it.”

They peered over the edge of the cliff where Orseis pointed, and there was indeed a path of rough notches in the rock.

Orseis scampered down the cliff without a moments hesitation, and Bel rushed after her, eager to prove that she was capable. At first she tried to form her nails into claws to help with her grip, but she found that they weren’t nearly hard or sharp enough to dig into the rock.

Hey, why don’t I try to make little suction cups like Orseis?

Bel focused on minor body modification and quickly changed the texture of her skin.

As she slipped off of the rock, falling the remaining few strides, she realized that suction wouldn’t work with dry skin. She sank into a thick padding of ancient moss with a muffled grunt, but quickly slipped her arms behind her head and relaxed, trying to play it off. She avoided Orseis’ gaze as she watched Flann slowly pick his way down, his staff awkwardly swinging from his belt.

“So,” Orseis began, “you getting any cool new abilities from your parents?”

“Hmm? Well, I’m trying to build up more free space in my first core to improve my glare, but I’m hoping for something interesting from Dutcha’s path soon. You know that I can liquify things, right?”

“Yes, gods, you mention it all the time. Makes it easier to break something’s neck. You usually mime it with your hands, it’s starting to freak me out.”

Bel ignored her tentacled companion as she watched with concern as Flann felt around the slick stone for his next foothold. Maybe I should have asked Orseis to carry him?

He finally found the foothold and continued, and Bel breathed a sigh of relief.

The old fox finally dropped to the ground and rubbed his hand against his back as he leaned again the rock wall. “And toughened integument makes your skin tougher, right?” he asked. “Saved you from the jets of water from those crayfish. Good defensive abilities are just as vital as a proper offense. You youngun’s always forget that.”

Bel chewed on her lip. “Sure, but it still hurt. I’d rather have killed them first.” She tapped her tapped. “Although… there is a gorgon ability that lets me grow scales all over my body. It fills forty strokes though. I can’t afford it.”

Bel could feel the little star of the ability at the edge of her gorgon path, but she’d placed it out of reach when she’d inscribed eye of the huntress.

“But would it help you take down one of those serpents?” Orseis called from farther down the path. “I’m still mad about that last one. I think offense is the best defense anyway. Pretty sure someone smart said that.”

“Well…no, tougher scales wouldn’t have helped against that flying serpent,” Bel admitted.

“There are gorgon abilities to grow brass nails or brass claws for fourteen or twenty-eight strokes, or I could make things convulse from my glare for thirty-six strokes.”

“I got claws,” Flann interjected, “not helpin’ me much.”

“Well, Kjar’s path also has claws. I think they’re for rending the wicked. Probably made of flame and righteous anger or something.”

“Do they only rend the wicked? Or just rend them more?” Orseis asked.

“And what exactly is wicked?” Flann added.

Bel recalled how some things showed up more strongly with Kjar’s sight. “I have a vision ability from her path that makes some people glow. I’m pretty sure they’re who’s wicked.”

“How about the serpents?”

Bel shook her head. “Oh, not them, no. They’re just, you know, wildlife. Eating things isn’t wicked.”

Orseis waved towards another drop in the cliff and rushed ahead.

Bel sighed. “Do you need any help, Flann?”

“Nah,” the old fox waved her off, “I’ve still got a bit o’ spunk in me.”

Bel’s lips pressed as she wondered if Flann was trying too hard to act young, but she finally decided to go ahead. Once she reached the ground though, she waited at the bottom of the cliff and watched Flann’s descent, ready to catch the old man if he slipped.

“What about your mom?” Orseis asked as they waited. “Goddess of change and upheaval, right? She must offer some cool abilities, right?”

“Lempo’s abilities so far are more weird than useful, unless you wanted me to be able to make a disease stronger or weaker.”

Orseis waved a dismissive tentacle. “Pass.”

Flann hopped down onto the ground. “That’s actually pretty useful. Just not right now.”

Bel nodded in agreement.

“Well,” Flann sighed, “may as well keep going into… erm, into that cave I guess. It’s pointed in the same direction as the pillar and the blue wall at least, and the worn down sections of moss lead straight into it.”

Bel looked around and saw that the path did indeed go into a dark cave. “Think this was made by the Dark Ravager’s people?” Bel asked. “Or could there be other people down here?”

They all squinted at the opening for a minute, but none of them knew much about rocks. If it had been carved recently there weren’t any signs. With a collective round of shrugs, Flann summoned a small flame to light their way and then entered.

The cave started off level, but quickly began a steep descent deeper into the rock. As it dipped, the air grew hot, humid. It only took a minute for the three of them to become absolutely miserable.

“Oh, hey! It’s one of those worms!” Orseis shouted with excitement. “I wonder if that means larger, more tasty things will show up?”

Bel looked where Orseis was pointing and saw the same kind of thick, pale worm that Flann had used for his bait.

Orseis reached for it eagerly. “Actually, you caught something with one of these, right? Do they taste good?”

Bel’s lips turned down in disgust. “Ugh, Orseis, aren’t you still full?”

“I’m growing.”

“I don’t–”

Orseis ignored Bel’s objection and grabbed the worm anyway. She ripped it out of the wall and lifted the wriggling thing to her mouth for a large bite. Her eyes widened as she bit down, her w-shaped pupils going round as the moons before she spit it out.

Flann burst into laughter.

The light from his flame danced and flickered from his laughing fit; he worked himself to tears before he calmed down. “Ah, sorry girl, just the expression on your face.

Orseis was wiping desperately at her mouth. “That was disgusting!”

Flann nodded wisely. “That’s why it was bait.”

The wily fox danced away from Orseis’ frustrated tentacles, and Bel hurried after him as he danced farther down the tunnel. He stopped when the path abruptly exited into a cavern dotted with a few large, steaming pools, all teaming with life. Something – or someone – had drilled holes into the ceiling and walls, drawing cooler air in from outside as the steam rushed out from the holes at the top.

Orseis eyed the pools with mistrust. “Do you think it’s worth it to search for food in here?”

Bel raised her unscarred eyebrow. “You didn’t learn your lesson with that worm?”

Orseis grinned. “Ah, but what if there are fishes with useful abilities?”

Flann flicked an ear with impatience. The humid air had soaked through the outer layer of his fur and his whiskers drooped with displeasure. “Hey, I thought we were looking for a way into Satrap, not a buffet.”

Bel paused. “You know, the tentacled stomach has a point. What if they have abilities that would make it easier to get through here?”

Flann shook his head. “Plenty o’ creatures can survive in places like this naturally. No reason to get an ability to do something that comes naturally.”

Flann continued through the chamber, shaking his head with disappointment. Since he was the one with the light Orseis and Bel were forced to keep up.

The tunnel descended for a short while before bringing them into another, even larger chamber. This one was ventilated like the last, but the ceiling was extremely high – perhaps fifty strides from the floor – and the ground was dotted with several tens of shallow craters with small amounts of water that were steadily steaming. Bel glanced at the closest one and saw a suspicious hole in its center, visible through the clear water.

She tapped Flann on the back. “There’s a hole in the pond. There could be a monster in it.”

They paused to look for threats, peering at all of the nearest ponds with distrust. Without any warning, the surface of the water bulged. It exploded upwards, sending a geyser of white water straight to the ceiling and saturating the air with moisture.

Bel whipped out her short sword while Orseis and Flann also reaided themselves for a fight, but nothing followed the water. Instead, the liquid quickly pooled and ran backwards, draining back into the hole in the center of the pool.

Bel stared in awe as another geyser erupted farther back in the spacious cavern.

“Wow,” she breathed after finally finding her voice.

“Yeah,” Orseis agreed. “You know, it’s got to be pretty hot under all this. Have either of you thought about how we’re going to get down to the next layer if it keeps getting hotter? I mean, I could take that heat ability from a crayfish, but are either of you good at swimming?”

Orseis gestured at the geysers. “The deeper we go, the more flooded things are going to become. We may have to do some swimming in the scalding water.”

Bel paused. “That seems like something that the Dark Ravager’s minions must have sorted out, right?”

She received only shrugs in response.