One Hundred And Twenty-Five

One Hundred And Twenty-Five

“Ahahaha, you got royally chewed out!” Karen-san was laughing as she swayed about, drunkenly leaning on my shoulder. Shit, when she relaxed after accepting my offer she got hammered...

“You looked like a deer in the headlights. Yes father, sorry father, no father, I understand, father! Pfft hahahahaha!”

Yeah, she’s a truly, truly annoying drunk. Still, I can’t blame her, and I’m happy to see it. Looking at her, all beaten down and having given up on life, well, if this is the other option I’ll take it, even if she is spitting and drooling all over my shoulder.

“Whoopsie!” she sniggered as she stumbled, her heel catching on the pavement. I caught her, careful not to grab anywhere I shouldn’t, and set her upright, which brought more laughter.

“You can laugh all you want, but...” I said, ready to get my own back. “... come the weekend, there’ll be your first unexpected request.”

“What, you want me to go on a date with you? We already did hahaha! Oh god, ugh...” suddenly her laughter was interrupted as she turned green and staggered to the side. Bending over she was noisily sick, the tension and alcohol having proved a bad combination. After spending some time patting her back while she was unwell, eventually she had emptied her stomach.

“Feel better?” I asked her, getting her a bottle of water from a nearby vending machine. As she took a drink and used some to wash her face, she sighed.

“Sorry, my bad. I’m not fired on my first day, am I?” she gave me a wan smile.

“Nope, I’ll be sure to forget everything. but in exchange, you’ll carry out your unexpected and unusual request, which is, you’ll have to meet my father and reassure him I’m not doing anything shady. That’ll be punishment enough...”

********Upstodatee from n(0)/ve/lbIn/.(co/m

After seeing Karen-chan home and putting her to bed, leaving her some food and water I bought from a twenty-four hour supermarket, I returned to my own room and undressed, throwing my soiled top into the bathroom for later. It was time to re-join Shaeula in my Territory.

Hopefully everything is okay. She’d surely have retreated if not...

The Anchor still stood, the halo of ether around it a shining silver constellation. There was even more than before, probably from all the invaders we had killed. Checking the progress of the Anchor upgrade, there were still 72 days remaining. I hate the Territory being defenceless, but then I need at least 250,000 ether for my next plan, ideally I’m going to need another 150,000 or so on top of that for the quick build of a new set of Ether Spires to start raking in the ether as soon as possible...

Yeah, it was a thorny problem. Still, leaving all this ether out and unprotected could potentially lead to enemies finding my Anchor, so... Oh man, this hurts my soul, but... Most of the ether around the Anchor and Silo were suddenly absorbed into the Anchor, a hundred thousand of my stock vanishing nigh-instantly. The glow around the Anchor intensified and the shaft thickened and lengthened, small buds forming at the bottom, three of them, the purpose as yet unclear. Checking my Territory again I sighed. 61 days left now. A full hundred thousand, and all it gets is eleven days. Most of the bounty I had gained in Las Vegas was gone now, though luckily I still had a full Silo. Oh, and some Etherite ores too. Mustn’t forget them.

Having made my decision, and feeling a twinge of regret at spending the money for a slender gain, I left and headed for the shrine. As I did so I was met by Shaeula, who had sensed my entry and had hurried over.

“Master, are you well-well?” she asked. “I felt the Territory tremble.”

“Don’t worry about it. I decided to use some of our excess ether to try and speed up progress. I may regret it later when I’m poor again, but for now... sixty-one days. I could bring it to an even fifty, but that would leave us way too lacking in ether...”

“I see-see.” She nodded. “Well, whatever your decision is, Akio, I shall-shall support it. Now, to business. We should return to the shrine and hold council. We have this area under watchful eyes, have no fear-fear.”

At her words I glanced around and could see several white snakes hiding amidst the rubble, their innate earth essence helping them blend in. “I see. Clever. Have there been problems with more ghosts?”

With some effort I expelled the rampaging crimson light, and staggering away from the source I slumped down, beaten, feeling like I had terrible cramps all through my body. Shaeula came over and pulled up my head, sliding it onto her lap, where she began patting my head gently. “Poor Akio. I suspected so, but it was too much, even for you-you. Trying to balance three energies, both opposing and consuming... such a feat is unprecedented.”

“Yeah.” I groaned, my throat raw, the tang of scorched soil and hot wind in my mouth. “I also realised I didn’t know enough about earth after all. I thought I did, but well...” I wanted to get up, but my body was aching and it was pretty comfortable, lying on her legs. “I wonder... what does darkness oppose? Light, I’m guessing? Maybe I could master that...”

“Foolish master, ever eager to push your limits.” She said fondly. “But before, you knew little of shadow and darkness. Has this changed?”

“Yeah, I’m afraid not. If it was light, then I reckon I’d know pretty much everything about it. Darkness to me is just absence of light. Still, maybe if I try to take in a little it’ll spark something, some breakthrough or even just a hint. I think it’s worth a try.”

“Very well, but you must first recover, your network was not damaged for you wisely stopped your efforts, yet the energies within are still turbulent indeed-indeed. I will allow though...” Shaeula gazed into my eyes from above, amber meeting moonstone. “... seeing your efforts first-hand has proved rather enlightening. I still would perish, trying to mix stone and wind, yet... perhaps a path does exist...”

“Cool. Well, I’ll hear your insights another time. For now I’m just going to enjoy the momentary peace.” We spent a little time making cheerful small-talk about trivial things, until Shaeula advised me I was stable enough to attempt my next feat. Somewhat regretfully I got off her lap and we headed towards the graveyard. Her legs were soft, and she smells good... smell huh... damn, I do love thinking of pointless things. Besides, I shouldn’t be smelling other girls... sorry Eri.

The graveyard was as I remembered it, and since it was unlikely to be targeted since the tree seemed to be a naturally occurring thing, we had left it unguarded. Although thinking about it, the tree is probably providing something like half of my incoming ether right now... “I think we need to make sure the Rhyming Tree doesn’t fall to the enemy. It’s too valuable.”

Shaeula nodded. “I shall have some of my kin stationed here. Should there be an attack they can raise the alarm, or should-should the worst happen, I shall know if they fall in battle. So, are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” I said, taking my place under the gloom of the tree. Adopting a meditative pose, I couldn’t help but grin. “You know, in certain Eastern stories, people meditate for years under trees like this to gain wisdom.”

“Well, I would like my master to be wiser indeed, yet we do not-not have years to spare, so do your best!” Shaeula snarked.

All right then... grasping at the darkness energy that permeated the surrounding space, I started to absorb it. Unlike the prickling of wind, burning of flame, or solidity of stone... this was... intangible somehow, both cold and hot at the same time, hard yet also soft as finest silk, an impossible dichotomy. As the dark energy trickled in I could see that it wasn’t in fact black at all, no, it was a deep blue. The energy started moving to my throat, and the chakra there began to absorb it.

So, darkness. An absence of light. In fantasy stories it is often used by necromancers and other beings. It also doesn’t seem to have much interaction, if any, with the wind and flame energies...

As I wracked my brain to come to an understanding with it my lunar chakra started burning, spikes of pain jabbing into me everywhere. Still, Shaeula motioned for me to continue, so I struggled to draw in more, grasping for understanding.

Darkness and Light. Yin and Yang. Female and Male. Dark is more associated with females in cultivation myths. Yin also tends towards the emotions of turmoil and chaos...

I meditated under the tree for several hours as the pain continued to build, until finally I was defeated, expelling the darkness from my chakra network as best I could, helped along by aether to cleanse it. As I staggered to my feet, the torment diminishing, Shaeula commiserated me.

“A noble effort indeed, and one much more successful than with that vile earth energy.” She said, taking my hand in hers.

“You think? I guess I didn’t do myself any damage, not that I made much progress.”

“I believe I told you when we first met-met. It takes a great deal of time to master the understanding of an element of the four, let alone a rarer one such as this darkness. Only by understanding the essence of it will you tame it-it, and if you do not know, then slow, incremental steps, by taking in and feeling the nature of it, is the only path to mastery.” She gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. “We have time yet, master. If it takes you months, or years, or even decades, I shall be here-here, watching.”

“I hope it is quicker than that.” I returned the squeeze, grateful for her support. “Still, that’s enough for now. Time to find out where our enemy is lurking. I would love to refill our ether stocks...”