But Juan’s abuela would not be shushed. She scolded the nurse in rapid-fire Spanish, the verbal assault so cutting and forceful that the nurse looked around for backup. When backup didn’t come, Juan’s abuela took the nurse’s moment of hesitation to bypass her, beelining for Juan.
“Juanito!” she cried upon noticing his head bandage. “Pero qué te hiciste!”
“No te preocupes, abuela, estoy bien,” Juan replied quickly, his stupor evaporated in the heat of his grandmother’s presence.
“No te preocupes,” she repeated dramatically. “No te preocupes?”
Terry hesitated, fingers brushing against the small Aura-Filtering Container in his pocket. He’d been saving this last bit of the Blood of the Mother for something just like this.
But with the arrival of Juan’s abuela…
“I’ll leave you two to it, then…” Terry said, taking a halting step backward.
Juan’s eyes bugged out, wildly cutting from his grandmother over to Terry.
“No, Terry! I mean…would you please stay?” A sudden thought seemed to occur to him and he waved a hand toward Terry. “Abuela, este es el que te dije. El que me salvó!”
The tiny woman whirled on a dime, her eyes wide as she practically stomped toward Terry. He took a hesitant step back, wondering if she intended to hit him. When her arms went up, he had to resist flinching in front of the barely five-foot-tall grandma—only to have her wrap him tight around the waist in a hug.
“Oh, muchísimas gracias! El ángel de mi ni?o! Gracias, Dios, por enviar a tu ángel!” The woman spoke so fast, he had trouble deciphering the Spanish, but he heard something about God and Angels, and made the assumption it was a good thing.
He replied back in English, not trusting that his poor Spanish wouldn’t embarrass him. “Your grandson is a good man. He saved all of us in that other place.”
Over the woman’s shoulder, he saw Juan cringe. His abuela looked confused, turning toward Juan.
“What? What did he say?”
“Nada, abuela! Nada!”
Terry shot Juan a message.
[Terry]: Sorry, bro. Did I say something wrong?
[Juan Carlos]: I told her I was holed up in the cave the whole time while you and Al’Ruzan finished the Quest.
[Terry]: Shit…sorry. Hey, I’ve got something for you.
Terry took advantage of the momentary distraction as Juan’s grandmother scolded him in a barrage of Spanish. He quickly pulled out the small container and pressed it into his friend’s hands.
[Terry]: I took some Blood from the Underworld. Should help with your head.
Juan’s eyes widened in recognition, his fingers closing around the container discreetly.
[Juan Carlos]: Thanks, bro.
But his grandmother wasn’t distracted enough to miss the handoff, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. “Y eso qué es?”
Juan smoothly slipped the container under his blanket. “Solo medicina, abuela. Terry me está trayendo medicina. ”
“Medicina?” she repeated, her eyes narrowing at Terry.
Terry nodded, feeling the heat rise to his cheeks under her appraising stare. “If you’re feeling better, I’m just gonna go…” he added, backing away.
His grandmother continued interrogating Juan in too-fast-to-follow Spanish as the boy shot him a desperate look. Terry shrugged apologetically as he backed away.
“Nice meeting you,” he called as he neared the exit.
Juan’s abuela was too busy to even notice his departure.
[Juan Carlos]: Thanks for the Blood…Traitor…
[Terry]: You’ve faced down killer vampires, bro. You got this! And you’re welcome!
A sudden rise in his grandma’s pitch echoed out from the tent and Terry hastened his steps before cutting through space to return to Tania and Ellie.
He announced himself by clearing his throat, then poked his head inside Tania’s tent. She was cross-legged on one side, her eyes closed as her aura stirred. He could tell right away that it was the bone growth skill he had loaned.
He opened his mouth to ask about her progress, when Tania’s eyes shot open. She shushed him with a finger to her lips, indicating Ellie with a nod. The girl was passed out, but mumbling quietly to herself.
Tania rose from the ground, following Terry outside.
“How’s Juan?” she asked quietly.
Terry thought back to that final yell as he portaled away and cringed in sympathy.
“Medically, he’s fine. But his grandma seemed ready to finish what the rift started.”
Tania snorted, shaking her head. “Guess that’s the beauty of losing your parents—no one to get mad when you put yourself at risk.”
Terry blinked at her morose tone. Tania furrowed her nose as she read his face.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean that.” She indicated her arm with a nod. “Think I’m just impatient being cooped up here.”
He nodded in understanding. “It’s okay, I get it. You wanted to get stronger and heading inside one of the rifts would have sped that process up.”
She sighed. “Yeah, but I heard just before you came out that the Es are all cleared. Guess there’s a lot of newbies like me just jumping at the chance for a leg up.”
“Well, the unfortunate reality is, there’s not gonna be any shortage of rifts until whatever this is ends…one way or another.”
An uneasy silence settled over the both of them as they considered the war Earth had been pushed into.
After a few moments, Terry looked toward the tent, searching for a change in subject. “What should we do with her? Think she’s gonna be alright?”
Tania followed his gaze, the side of her cheek shifting like she was chewing the inside. “She came to for a minute, begging for me not to call anyone.” She sighed, meeting Terry’s eyes. “I’m getting a bad feeling that she’s hiding something. There’s no other reason to refuse a mind healer.”
Terry nodded, thinking back to his mother’s words. “She’s definitely hiding something. But my mom let her leave her custody, so it couldn’t be that bad.” He pursed his lips as a thought occurred to him. “She’s probably monitoring Ellie right now—us, too, if I’m being honest.”
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Tania instinctively went to look around, then scoffed at her own silliness. She leaned in, lowering her voice. “I don’t really like the idea that she can read minds from across the camp.” Tilting her head, she sighed. “I don’t even know why I’m whispering.”
“It is a bit unsettling,” Terry admitted. “What we need is to distract ourselves. I’ve got a bunch of snapshotted Skills waiting to be cataloged and you’ve got some healing to do.”
She scowled at the reminder of her injury but didn’t argue. With a nod, she indicated the tent next to hers. “I reserved you a tent.” Her face suddenly flushed and she couldn’t meet his eyes. “I didn’t—I wasn’t sure—I just thought—“
Terry simply smiled, finding her sudden discomfort endearing. “Thank you, Tania. We haven’t talked about…” Now he found his own face heating up. “…our kiss. I know we’re in the middle of a war and all, but I don’t regret it.”
Her face softened, the edges smoothing. “I don’t either.”
He nodded, taking a half-step closer. She leaned in, rising slowly on her toes. When their lips met, it was just as electric as the first time. Her breath quickened, warm and sweet-smelling as they pulled back. Her eyes trailed down to his chest in embarrassment, then shifted back up.
“We should do that again.”
Terry exhaled the breath he’d been holding, his heart pounding. “Yeah, totally,” he murmured, leaning in once more.
The kiss extended as they explored each other’s mouths, not immediately falling into a rhythm. But then they did and she pressed tight against his body—
“Ah!” she hissed, flinching away.
“What! What is it!” For some reason, his instincts had him looking around, scanning for some approaching enemy.
“Just bumped my shoulder,” she replied, chuckling at her own clumsiness. “I’m still pretty banged up.”
His eyes widened as his fight-or-flight brain finally settled down. “Oh, crap. You okay?”
She had a twinkle of amusement in her eyes from his reaction, nodding softly. “Yeah, but maybe we should hold off on any…extracurriculars, until I have some connective tissue in my shoulder joint.”
He forced a chuckle, though he couldn’t help the sinking disappointment in his stomach.
“Yeah, probably for the best.” He eyed his own tent, suddenly feeling the urgency to get stronger. A new wave of rifts would spawn, sooner rather than later. “I’m gonna start cataloging some Skills. You gonna be alright?”
She lightly punched his arm with her good side. “Come on, I’m not some delicate rose. You don’t need to keep checking on me.”
He held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, note to self: never check on Tania’s wellbeing again.”
She rolled her eyes and he smiled. They lingered a moment longer before one more, softer, quicker kiss, then he retired to his tent.
It was a simple affair, just a sleeping bag inside a bare tent, but he didn’t need much to catalog his Skills. As he settled on top of his sleeping bag in a cross-legged position, he pulled up his list of snapshot skills. After filtering away the ones labeled Unknown, as that typically indicated they were A-rank or higher, he was left with twenty Skills to catalog. He left out the healing Skills because Tania was still utilizing bone growth. He left Ellie’s single Unknown Skill in the mix, curiosity pinging at him. Her aura was clearly that of a C-ranker and she had entered the C-grade rift with him, so it wasn’t like she was hiding her true rank. There was something about her Skill that made it special, but as he perused the remaining snapshot Skills, there was one that pulled at him even more so than the mystery behind Ellie.
Master of Space (Marlon)
He smiled to himself as he closed his eyes and pulled up Master of Space’s catalog mold.
“Marlon…all your secrets, will be mine!”
The mold appeared in his vision and what once would have staggered him with its complexity, now felt almost familiar.
He was beginning to see the patterns in the Master-grade Skills, feeling an inherent sense of what defined them—and connected them.
His Quest pulled at him, now that the adrenaline of the rift, Juan’s injury, Ellie’s showdown with his mother, and his kiss with Tania had finally begun to settle. It had felt like a constant stream of anxiety, punctuated by brief moments of celebration, that had begun to sap at his focus.
But now that he regarded Marlon’s trump card before him, he was able to settle into a state of ease, despite the grueling nature of cataloging the intricate mold.
He suspected Master of Space wouldn’t fit into one of the Aspects he had already begun to make progress in—those being Elemental and Metaphysical. But as he began to work on the Skill, he knew he was peeling back the mystery of these advanced powers.
The three Master-grade Skills he already possessed—Light, Telekinesis, and Skill Analysis—were a fairly predictable combination of his existing Skills. And as he thought back to his first two Master-grade Skills, he recalled that a major component of both had been his High-Efficiency Matter and Light Transportation—the very same Skill he had learned from Marlon.
He was beginning to suspect that there had been a bit of an easter egg in the Skill Marlon had demonstrated for him. Now that he knew the man possessed Master of Space, it didn’t quite make sense that he had taught Terry an inferior version of the ability.
Unless, it had been intentional; a way to give him the building blocks of future Master-grade Skills. It was a hypothesis, and one with little data to support it, but it also had the feel of rightness; that type of oblique instruction was the hallmark of the gruff Traveler.
The one piece of data that he could include in his theory, was that it felt as if the Weaver had pushed him toward Marlon in a roundabout fashion. Marlon’s Skill had been essential for his D-rank Class Quest and the Quest to unlock his Midmark—anchoring a Skill in a person or object—had been a specialty of the Traveler.
All this churned in his mind as he continued examining the intricate mold. He couldn’t be certain as he worked, but he was getting a sense for a shared component, some sort of master key in the mold that mirrored his other three Master-grade Skills.
An indeterminate amount of time passed as he worked and a smile touched his lips as the familiar notifications streamed in.
New Skill: [Master of Space]
Spectral Master-grade Skill identified…
Master of Space
Set Progress: [1 of 5]
Master of Space (C — Upgradeable)
Use aura to manipulate space’s shape. Complexity of shape and degree of alteration are dependent on the caster’s mastery of space and aura manipulation.
Note: This is an upgradeable Skill. As user's rank, understanding, and aura control increase, so can this Skill.
The first thing that surprised him was that Master of Space was a Spectral Skill rather than a Physical. But as he considered it, he supposed it made a sort of sense; Traveler was an adjacent Class between Physical and Spectral, while Summoner was the adjacent Class between Spectral and Mental. The Spectral component was clearly the magic responsible for bringing Summons from other worlds, which meant that travel was tied to the Spectral Aspect more than the Physical.
Of course, there had to be some overlap, but it wasn’t as confusing as he might have thought.
He turned his attention to the Skill’s description, puzzling out that specific wording: manipulate space’s shape…
His expectation had been some enhancement of his previous ability to transport light and matter, but this almost seemed tangential. But that was enough speculation; he wanted to try it.
With a thought, he removed his portal Skill and accepted the prompt to Affix Master of Space in its stead.
While he waited for his aura to shift, he pulled up the four Master-grade Skills, lining them up side-by-side in his vision. Four complex three-dimensional molds materialized and he sent them spinning slowly with a thought.
It only took a few moments for him to identify that glaring similarity in the Skills. The matching sections weren’t exact, but were unmistakably related, where as the rest of the molds were quite distinct.
With a thought, he was able to separate the components he had pegged as related to the Skills’ grades, arraying the four individual sections in front of him. His eyes went soft, just a touch out of focus, as he compared the four separate components.
Now that he had them isolated, the synchronicities were undeniable. Light and Telekinesis had a nearly-identical Master-grade component. The Space component was close—very close—but just different enough to be distinct, while the Skill Analysis component was obviously different.
But all four components possessed a quality to them that poked at his mind, reminding him of the feelings he had experienced when possessing the Singularity or observing the Weaver.
It was like a touchstone of the universe made manifest, folded into these tight sections of aura that could be incorporated into the broader set of System Skills.
He yearned to follow that line of thought and experiment with creating more Master-grade Skills, but his Affixations settled; there was no way he could put off playing with Master of Space.
The moment he activated it and tried to use it the way he usually did his portals, he could feel that the Skill was different. In the same way Light Shift had been dramatically different from Master of Light, Master of Space and High-Efficiency Light and Matter Transportation were not the same.
He had expected a simply supercharged form of his portals, but instead, found an overwhelming bevy of sensations that was closer to how Master of Telekinesis had felt initially. Space seemed to take on a structure around him, complicated and interwoven, defying his eye and aura sense as he regarded it. It felt like interconnected planes of existence crisscrossing to infinity, but also one single fabric at the same time.
When he tried to reach through space and form a connection between his tent and the rift field a few hundred feet away, it didn’t form. With his original portal skill, forming a connecting portal would have been a trivial task and he had to wonder what he was doing wrong.
He tried cutting through space like he’d felt Silver do with the Physical Singularity, but space resisted uncharacteristically, bucking against his hold like a living thing.
Abandoning that attempt, he instead tried to draw his tent toward the rift field, like a thread connecting to locations.
That did work and his gut suddenly wrenched as his sense of equilibrium turned on its head. Bile splashed out onto the tent floor and he gripped his head as his vision danced.
When the nausea and disorientation settled, he distantly became aware of sounds all around him. A moment later, he recognized voices—both Spanish and English—and they were clearly talking about him.
Stumbling to his feet, he poked his head out of the tent, the light from the sun seeming to stab into his eyes.
A crowd of onlookers were gathered around him, staring both at him and his tent with confusion. As he scanned around, he was pleased to note that he had arrived where he had intended, though with far more physical consequence then he had been expecting.
Then, his eyes trailed down, noting that he was elevated on a patch of dirt and grass that seemed almost to levitate. He stepped from the tent, surveying the ground, only to realize that he was levitating from the ground. Or rather, space had warped in some way, such that gravity seemed stymied by his new positioning and refused to pull the floating grass and tent down.
Now that he had shown his face, the murmurs only increased and he groaned inwardly as he realized he was drawing far too much attention to himself.
Retreating to the tent, he considered trying to undo what he had done, but feared that any more fiddling with space would see him transporting to his death into the solid ground—or worse, killing someone else.
As much as it pained him to do so, he sent a System message to Marlon.
The smug, condescending reply that followed a moment later nearly made him wish for the cold embrace of solid earth.