“Amazing,” Erika said. “I feel like I could run a marathon.”
As soon as she said it, her face was stricken with a startled and queasy expression. Jason and Farrah pointed at the shower room door, and she bolted for it. Ian moved to go after her and Jason stopped him.
“You may not want to see your wife like that.”
“She’s my wife and she probably needs me,” Ian said. “It doesn’t matter how I see her.”
They watched Ian follow her into the shower room and heard some very unpleasant sounds emerge during the short moment the door was open.
“He’s a good husband,” Farrah said.
“Yep,” Jason said. “He's one of the good ones, alright.”
Jason then turned to Hiro.
“Alright, Uncle,” he said. “Looks like you’re up.”
70
THE DANGERS OF WHAT I DO
“I have some mixed feelings about this essence,” Jason said, turning the translucent cube over in his hands.
They were still in the ritual room. Hiro's essences had been done and they had moved on to Ian. It was the third essence for Ian's combination after they had already imbued him with the first two.
Jason had kept the renewal essence that Taika declined, and given that Ian was a doctor, healing seemed the obvious power set to aim for. There were many potential healer combinations, each one fitting a specific niche. As Ian was not looking for the role of combat medic but a more traditional doctor role, Farrah had suggested a specific combination.
“There’s a popular combination that is the first choice for a behind-the-lines healer for anyone who can get their hands on a renewal essence,” she explained. “You don’t see adventurers using it because it largely avoids combat powers unless you pick the right kind of awakening stones.”
The renewal essence was first, then the life essence. The third was one that gave Jason pause.
“The pure essence,” he said, continuing to stare at it as he turned it over again and again in his hands. “It has some specific connotations for me.”
“I know,” Farrah said. “I’ve seen your recordings. The Church of Purity turned out to be evil.”
“There was something not in the recordings,” Jason said. “It was right near the end and I didn’t put it in. The others didn’t see her because it was before I started recording, but you remember Anisa, of course.”
“Yeah,” Farrah said.
“Who’s Anisa?” Erika asked, looking up from where she was running her fingers over her skin. After recovering from ranking up to iron, she was revelling in the new sensations of being a magical being. Hiro was still in the shower room, while Erika, Ian, and Emi had been joined by Ken, who had arrived to watch for himself. He was still uncertain about getting in on the strange magic powers.
“Remember I told you about when my team first met Jason?” Farrah said. “The priestess guiding us was named Anisa and she was part of the Church of Purity.”
“You shouldn’t trust people who talk about purity too much,” Erika said. “Take your eyes off them, and suddenly, they’re rounding people up into camps.”
“That’s what I said,” Jason agreed.
“I didn’t care for Anisa,” Farrah said. “I’m not sure Rufus needed to kick her out, but she was not a good person to work with. Was she one of the bad ones when the Church of Purity turned out to be corrupt?”
“Yes,” Jason said, sparing a glance at Emi while deciding whether to continue. “She turned out to be a chief henchwoman and we fought her in the astral space.”
“What happened?” Farrah asked.
“We won,” Jason said. “She was with her boss at the time, who was a silver-rank essence user. We knew he’d be very hard to deal with, so we decided to… handle Anisa first.”
“Oh no,” Emi said. “I’m only twelve and have no idea what an obvious euphemism is.”
“Emi,” Jason said, “there’s a time for being serious.”
Everyone in the room turned to look at Jason.
“What?” he asked.
“You fought the silver-ranker after?” Farrah asked. “How was that?”
“Hard,” Jason said. “Nothing like the chump they sent after me here and even that guy beat me. This guy was a healer, so between his silver-rank toughness and his powers, he was damn near immortal. That did mean he didn’t have as much attack power to throw at us, but even then, our front liners had trouble holding on. We’re getting side-tracked, though. The point is this pure essence, not some dead archbishop of Purity.”
“It’s not a divine essence,” Farrah said. “It’s got nothing to do with the god, despite the name.”
“I know,” Jason said. “I can’t help but hesitate, though.”
“Okay, I’m starting to feel concerned,” Ian said. “If you were going to hesitate, I’d really prefer you’d have done it before we were halfway through.”
“I’m sorry,” Jason said. “This is completely the right choice; it’s just my hang-up. I don’t normally know the people I…”
He frowned.
“Enough of that. Let’s get you some more magic powers!”
Ian’s essences were soon complete, and he made a beeline for the shower room, Hiro already having left.
“How much crystal wash did you put into the flask?” Farrah asked.
“Enough to last a few years, so long as I’m careful,” Jason said. “Dad and Emi get to rank up here, but the others can use their own showers.”
“That gunk will be hard to clear off with regular soap and water.”
“That’s a fair point,” Jason said. “I’ll buy them some steel wool.”
Jason’s and Farrah’s phones simultaneously bleeped with messages. They both looked at their screens, then shared a glance.
“We’ll have to postpone the rest of the magic talk,” Jason said to Erika and Hiro. “I know that the timing isn’t great, but it’s a category three, which means all hands on deck. In the meantime, stay on the boat and take a rest. There’s a big lunch spread set up in the lounge.”
“First, though,” Farrah said, “you eat like an essence user.”
She handed Erika and Hiro a spirit coin each.
Monsters swarmed through the uneven bushland scrub. They crawled out from gullies, over ridges, and through dense patches of prickly vegetation. They took the form of bugs, from giant beetles to horrifying desert mantises to things with no Earthly counterpart. Millipede-like creatures, except that instead of a singular body, five bodies spread out from a central hub, like the limbs of a starfish. Each body-limb ended in an acid-spitting mouth with gnashing mandibles. They weren’t quick, but they were the size of trampolines and hard to approach without being intercepted by acid spit.