“He was the son of Zeus.”
“Well, I’m the son of Cheryl, and I know which one I’d bet on in a scrap. I mean, Zeus, obviously; the bloke chucks lightning. But still, Mum is quite stern.”
“Zeus isn’t real, is he?” Ian asked.
“Nope,” Jason said. “I was talking to this…”
He trailed off as he sensed a surge of magic from above, where Farrah was meditating. He chortled as he used his bronze-rank prowess and parkour skills to swiftly clamber up the outside of the houseboat. From the roof deck, silver light was already brightly shining.
“Congratulations,” Jason said, tossing Farrah a bottle. As Farrah tipped the crystal wash over her head where it started methodically coating her body, the foul ichor splattered over the top deck was already being absorbed and cleansed by the houseboat.
“That is a foul smell, even by rank-up standards,” Jason said. “I don’t know if that’s a higher-rank thing or a first rank-up after becoming an outworlder thing.”
“You did pump out a lot of foul muck that first time,” Farrah said. “How was bronze-rank for you?”
“Normal.”
“I know we’re meant to be teaching your family about aura senses and the rest of the things a new iron-ranker needs to know,” Farrah said. “I need to meditate and consolidate this rank, though, so I’ll have to leave that to you.”
Farrah was talking with a huge grin on her face. Despite saying she was going to rest and meditate, what she did was throw her hands up and in front of her, aimed out over the side of the roof deck.
“Burning heart of the world, show your might.”
A stream of lava spewed out of her hands and over the water, throwing up steam as it splashed down and cooled. She kept the stream going as she let out a victorious whoop.
“I’m not sure that’s safe,” Jason said. “Also, you just ranked-up. You’re going to be short on…”
The stream of lava stopped and Farrah fell over, unconscious.
“…mana,” he finished. “I hope no one saw that.”
71
WE WERE ALL MONSTERS
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Farrah said as she and Jason drove to Kaito and Amy’s house. Given the short distance, they didn’t portal over, so Jason had that power ready in case of emergency.
“No,” Jason said. “I still say we could go with the chimera confluence for Kaito.”
“We’ve been over this,” Farrah said. “That’s an adventurer’s confluence.”
“We could put him in front of some monsters. He might thrive. Think about it. Venom attacks, gas cloud attacks. He’d be an affliction specialist, like me.”
“Did you even get that third essence?”
“No,” Jason said. “I have snake and rat essences. Maybe the Americans could get me a skunk essence.”
“I think you should stick with the essences you’ve picked out, rather than try to make a petty point.”
“Fine,” Jason grumbled.
“The reason I asked if you were sure,” Farrah said, “is that you’ve already been through two rank-ups and he’s still better looking than you.”
“Seriously?”
“I’m not going to apologise for having eyes. You must have noticed that your rank-ups are making you look more like him.”
“That doesn’t make it something I want to talk about,” Jason said just as his phone rang. “Oh, good. Someone who wants to talk about something other than how handsome my brother is.”
“If this world had gods,” Farrah said, “I’d be praying that they were calling to talk about your brother.”
Jason threw her a look of mock anger as he took out his phone and put it on speaker.
“Keti,” he greeted. “What can I do for you?”
“What’s this I’m hearing about a light show at the marina?”
“Sorry about that,” Jason said. “Farrah got a little over-excited after she hit silver.”
“Farrah is category three?”
“I am,” Farrah said. “Hello, Ketevan.”
“Congratulations,” Ketevan said. “Look, we’ve passed it off as a cashed-up bogan playing around with propane but try not to make too big a spectacle. You’re lucky we swapped out the police department with our people.”
“You can do that?”
“For a small town like Casselton Beach, yes,” Ketevan said.
“So that’s why Paul got transferred to Coffs,” Jason said. “I appreciate the effort you’ve put in.”
“You’ll need to discuss the changes in your capabilities with the tactical department, Farrah,” Ketevan said. “How powerful are you now?”
“Not sure,” Farrah said. “I’ll need a few fights to settle into my new levels.”
“We’ll let you know, as always,” Ketevan said.
“Alright, thanks, Keti,” Jason said.
Oddly, Jason had found that combinations were harder to devise for non-combatants than for adventurers. Farrah had advised him to focus on what the individual was already capable of, thus Erika’s cooking magic set and Ian’s healing combination were right out of the Magic Society common combinations list. Ian’s confluence, ministration, was one of the most healing-focused confluences on that list.
The living document couldn’t get updated from a universe away, but the existing archive was intact. Jason and Farrah had been parcelling out chunks of information on known essences in return for various concessions from the Network. On Anna’s advice, much of that had been with the Americans and the Chinese, helping to smooth some ruffled feathers.
Both factions were maintaining a presence in Sydney, as between them, they had finagled some forty percent of the spots in the International Committee’s training program. Jason, but mostly Farrah, taught the Network’s young new essence users to fight like adventurers. They also spent time helping existing teams adapt their tactics, giving them a stop-gap until the young ones came into their own.
Jason found preparing the rest of his family to be less straightforward. They wouldn’t have the training, which made picking out essences all the more difficult. Jason found himself paying attention to the technology essence, which seemed to be analogous to the magic essence in that it was common but highly regarded.
Also like the magic essence, it often defined the nature of someone’s powers. Where magic would often lead to a skill evolution towards spells, the technology essence promoted conjuration abilities.
Technology was an essence that the Magic Society records had no insight on. That left them relying on the Network's knowledge or experimenting with them on the parts of his family he was less enthused with. Farrah, thus far, had steered him away from that course.