Adamant Blood

Most of the mess was already in the basket, the bloody tissues looking like someone had done some amateur butchery. Some tissues remained on the table. It had been a good half an hour of breathing, until something ephemeral gave way inside Mark and he was fine to breathe, but nothing was changing in his wounds. He had hit his limit.

His ‘astral fortitude’ was expended, and likely for a good ten minutes, at least.

“Only ten minutes, though?” Mark asked.

“Think of Union like this: If you run at as quick of pace as you can, how long of a down time do you need to recover so you can start walking, and then how long do you need before you can run? Other powers might have smaller or larger down times, but Healthy Body, Adamantiumkinesis, and especially Union, will always go the distance, Mark, and especially when you get stronger with them.”

Mark smiled at that.

And then Lola breathed for him, sealing up his wounds.

Mark rubbed his arm as Lola breathed across the table next, turning blood into dust that scattered on the air, becoming nothing at all. Lola blew against her hands, and all the drops of blood on her fingers and on her dress evaporated.

Mark watched, saying, “Neat trick. Reminds me of—” He stopped suddenly. He was about to say ‘Mom’s cleanse magic’, but the words stuck in his throat. He tried, “Didn’t know Union could do… Other magics.”

“Union can do a lot. I will tell you how to do this someday far in the future,” Lola said, smiling. With an easy countenance, she plucked out the plastic liner of the trash bag and tied it up, as she stood, saying, “Let’s go get your Power Level readout.”

Lola led the way, dumping the trash into a chute in the wall, labeled ‘incinerator’.

- - - -

The scanning machine was pretty simple. Mark was glad that it wasn’t in a big scanning room, like the one where he had first met Addashield. Instead, it was a silver plate on the floor, a silver plate on the ceiling, and the whole thing existed in a room about the size of a closet.

Lola asked, “Ever used one of these?”

“Not as such… no,” Mark said, looking into the small room.

“You just go inside and stand on the plate. The lights light up and there’s a projection in the air, and you can choose to get a printout if you want.” Lola pointed to a slot in the wall, to the side of the silver disks. “That’s where the printout comes from. Everything is holotouch.”

Mark nodded and… walked into the small room.

Lola shut the sliding door and the lights went on in the room at the same time.

The silver disks glowed gentle gold.

Mark took a small breath and then stepped onto the silver disks—

The air chimed and then chimed again. Numbers appeared rather quickly.

Body, Healthy Body: 005

Shaper, Adamantium: 005

Mind: 1

Natural, Union: 005

Soul: 1

Arch: 1

“… Huh,” Mark said.

He was pretty sure Malaqua had given him a readout like 2, 4, ~, ~, 3, ~, the first time.

So this was good, right? The numbers were higher? A lot higher, actually. Probably pretty low compared to others, but this was good?

Yeah sure. This was good! Always good to track progress.

And all the base numbers were at 1 instead of a ~, too.

For a brief moment, Mark felt anchored.

He loved progress.

This meant that he was getting… Somewhere. Mark wasn’t sure where that ‘somewhere’ was, but he was getting closer to it. Mark brushed away the numbers in the air as he stepped off of the platform. The numbers went away, and the lights dimmed.

Mark opened the door, looked to Lola, and asked, “When will I be able to fully use my power?”

“Adamantiumkinesis needs you at Power Level 80 to fully use it. That will happen within several months. It will happen sooner, if you go to the Vault and pick up that adamantium and stress your astral body by trying to pick it up. Union is an SS Rank Talent. Learning and using Union properly is the work of a lifetime. Expect to reach 100 in Union. Healthy Body will Power Level up to 20-ish without much need to stress it in about 2 months.”

100 in Union! Holy crap!

Mark smiled at that. “Are there work release programs, or something? You must have ways for people to get experience out in the wilds fighting monsters? I want to do that.”

Lola took a moment, and then she spoke diplomatically, “I think we can arrange something like that. However, Orissa and David are overseeing your actual case and would have something more definitive to say one way or the other. For now… I would speak of other ways for you to practice healing outside of these dangerous lessons. I’ve sent you some homework through COFR. You can do that on your own time, and we’ll have another lesson in a week, or sooner, if you wish. I expect you will be very busy, though.”

“Oh. Uh… Sure.” And then Mark realized he was addressing his teacher, and also the woman who had given him Union in the first place. Mark’s eyes went wide. He stepped all the way out of the room and bowed, saying, “Thank you for the instruction!”

Lola did a tiny bend at the knees, saying, “Raise your head, Mark.”

Mark did so.

Lola looked upon him with care. “You are set for greatness, but this talk of hunting monsters already worries me. You must train more, raising your skill and capability, lest you die to the weakest of monsters. They’re tougher than you think they are. Usually, we don’t send anyone out with less than 10 in Body. That’s the bare minimum to not get your throat ripped out by a baby goblin’s passing claw swipe, or parts of your body consumed by the mere touch of a slime. You’ll still get a nasty cut and your skin will still boil off, but you won’t suffer a catastrophic injury.

“For people with your Talents… Well. I’m not sure what the conventional wisdom would be regarding that, but you should stay in safety until you reach 20 in Body, since you have an actual Body Power, and you have previously expressed a desire to be a frontliner.”

Mark nodded. “Okay. I can… I can do that. I guess?”

“Good. You should also learn how to passively breathe in the good and expel the bad at all hours of your life, and especially when you’re exercising. This is so that you can exercise more strongly, and eventually run it all the time in the field, when you are out there. Eventually, you will be running the Talent full time, never turning it off, and learning how to actively ensure that even miasma-based attacks cannot be used against you.

“Longer term plans include learning your way around nobility and kids your own age.” Lola said, “I cannot stress this enough, Mark, and perhaps it is too early to be thinking about these things, but people like you don’t get as much recovery time as you should have. You’re a tri-Talent, with a high synergy and a high minimum floor level of expected power. Most people cap out at tier 4, unable to safely pursue higher power. Imagine if you were just a Healthy Body. Most Healthy Bodies only make it to tier 2. You will go so much higher than that.

“You will also be pursued as soon as you leave the Citadel, and probably while you’re here, too. I suggest you take Xerkona Etiquette classes, or the club, when you can. Maybe in a few months. The club is basically high class parties every weekend, hosted by various noble families.”

That was a lot.

Mark’s head swam, as he did what he thought he needed to do, and he bowed to Lola again, saying, “Thank—”

“Stand up, Mark.”

… Mark stood up.

Lola looked him in the eyes. “I want you to be strong.”

Mark went still.

“That is where my instruction comes from; not from me trying to be your instructor. Don’t bow to every professor or person in authority, and especially don’t bow to me. I put you in a coma, Mark. No matter what happened afterward, I still wronged you. I wronged the world by not… If you hadn’t ended up in that coma, maybe… I failed so many duties.” Lola turned distant, vanishing behind propriety. “I owe you a great deal of recompense, and do not deserve your obsequiousness.”

“… I don’t feel that way at all…” Mark fell silent.

Lola did not respond.

“I guess it’s complicated,” Mark said.

“Most things are.”

A moment passed.

Lola said, “I am sorry for your losses. I don’t believe I have said that yet. Or maybe I have. I forget. I am sorry. How you chose to approach a dishonorable situation with highest honors is laudable in ways few people ever are. I am sorry things turned out this way.”

Mark teared up but he did not break down. Softly, he said, “Thank you.”

“I’ll see you next week, Mark. Your homework should cover a lot of small ways for improvement. Please do the lessons. Please do not purposely injure yourself outside of supervision. It was good to see you again, Mark.”

Mark nodded.

There was a silent moment.

Mark walked away.

- - - -

Inside of his bedroom, Mark read over the breathing exercises.

The exercises went from simple to complicated fast.

Breathe while running; 30 minutes. Sure. Easy enough. Mark was kinda tired from all this morning and then the hour of breathing exercises, though, so he would leave this for later today.

Breathe while fighting. He’d have to leave that one for tomorrow at sparring club in the morning.

Feel the breath in your lungs connect to the spirit of the world itself with each push and pull of your existence. Mark wasn’t even sure where to start with this one. He tried opening his lungs to the world and breathing in and out and nothing felt different at all. Was he doing something wrong? Maybe he needed to be in other locations than simply his bedroom in order to ‘feel the spirit of the world’. He had no idea how ‘push and pull of your existence’ related to breathing, though. Perhaps Mark needed to go out onto the grassy hills outside and try this? Maybe tomorrow.

What does ‘good’ mean in the context of breath? What does ‘bad’ mean in the context of breath? Can you imagine truly good things? How about truly bad things?

… All of that was a mental hurdle to overcome. Something Mark would need to think about. All the rest of the list was even more complicated.

Do trees breathe? Well yeah, but not like people.

Are you breathing with your lungs, or your aura? The lungs… but was he?

Can you breathe with the ground? Err...

Can you breathe with the wind, and does the wind work for, or against your efforts? Uhh.

Mark ended up crashed out on his bed for ten minutes as he tried to wrap his head around all of these weird ideas—

“And also the weird idea that Union isn’t even about breathing at all!” Mark exclaimed to himself, staring at his ceiling. “Union-through-breathing is just how Freyala does it… To start? I guess?” Mark thought. He asked himself, “Union is really just about sharing… something… with something else, right? I mean. It’s in the name, right? ‘Union’.”

Mark stared at the ceiling and thought for a while.

And then he went and got lunch.

By the time he got back to the room he had another plan.

Mark opened his phone and started searching for classes of all sorts. He needed more magical education. Just… Just general stuff, really. In all sorts of ways. How does magic work? How do astral bodies work? Mark rapidly discovered that there were lots of options, but most of them were for graduate studies, and he was not eligible for them at all. He’d need to go to college, first.

There were lots of options for basic education, though.

“Okay. Well… Maybe… ‘Understanding Curtain Protocol’ seems useful? And maybe… Maybe Etiquette Club— Err… Not that one. Not yet… But this one…?”

Mark had no desire to play dress up with nobles or noble-adjacent people right now, but there were lots of other options available.

A few signups later and Mark was good to go for Understanding Curtain Protocol, Geography and History of the Two Worlds, and Xerkona Culture. All of them were classes, which meant classroom time, but it also meant books. After his signups, Citadel of Freyala Resources pinged Mark with a message that his books were available for pickup at the local bookstore, and to please keep them in good condition because they would be used by whoever came after him.

All of those options were rotating classes, though, because everyone came off of Tutorial at different times. So Mark would be doing most of his learning for those courses on his own, and then he would join the actual class later. If he wanted more school-like learning, then that was not done here, at Citadel Freyala.

Mark started his studies on World History—

The first warning in the texts was to take Understanding Curtain Protocol before attempting World History.

“… Well okay then.”

So that is what Mark did.