“How did you cope in that place?” she asked. “You were completely alone.”
“I wasn’t,” Jason said. “There were friends to help me. True companions, life and death. Rufus, Gary, Jory, Humphrey. Did you get to the recordings with Clive yet?”
“You didn’t mention Farrah,” Erika said. “That seems odd given that she clearly was a mentor, even if you were the same age. Did you and her…?”
“No. She was very important to me. A teacher and a friend. Neither of us wanted more than that.”
“That Cassandra woman seems to pop up a bit. You didn’t mention her either.”
“That we wanted,” Jason said. “She dumped me eventually. Spoiler alert.”
“You want to talk about it?”
“Actually, yeah,” Jason said. “I’d like that.”
After Erika left, Jason sat on the top deck, reading from one of Farrah’s more basic theory texts on magical formations. The heat of the day had cooled with the coming of night, but it was still a pleasant evening. In any case, Jason’s bronze-rank body would take a considerable amount of cold to be uncomfortable. His phone rang; he looked at the listed caller.
“Anna,” Jason greeted as he answered. “Last minute scheduling conflict?”
“I wanted to talk about the other outworlder,” Anna said.
Jason sat up in his chair. “What about them?”
“I know that getting them out of the Lyon branch’s hands is important to you. We’ve managed to get the International Committee to agree to pressure the Lyon branch, but the Network isn’t one large hierarchy. It’s an organisation of old secret societies and the International Committee is more like a United Nations than an overlord. The branches are members, not subordinates, so they can only put as much pressure on Lyon as the members are willing to accept.”
“I get it,” Jason said. “You’re looking for a demonstration that my cooperation is valuable enough for this committee of yours to go to bat for me.”
“That’s exactly what I’m looking for,” Anna said. “If you have something like that for us tomorrow, we can get the ball rolling.”
“As it happens, I did prepare something,” Jason said. “I’ll send you a cloud drive link.”
Moments later, Anna had her phone on speaker as she scrolled through a file on the screen.
“Is this what I think it is?”
“Thousands of known essence combinations, plus some basic notes on the general tendencies of those combinations. Very basic; I’m keeping the details for the next time I need something. This is just a taster.”
Jason’s living documents of Magic Society knowledge on monsters and essences wouldn’t update while in another universe, but the information already recorded was more than enough to be going on with. In preparation for the meeting, Jason had Shade transcribe the contents of the magic tablet into a digital document.
“Is that the kind of gesture you’re talking about?”
“Yes,” Anna said. “This will do nicely.”
36
HARDLINE POSITION
Jason woke early, did his weight training and then went through his combat training. Now that Shade was able to exert an amount of physical force, he could leverage his knowledge of Jason’s martial art style to use multiple bodies and spar as part of advancing Jason’s skill set. As Jason’s skills progressed, Shade was moving into more big-picture aspects of the training.
“You need to develop your skills in a different direction to Miss Wexler,” Shade said. “She uses the versatility of the style to develop what is essentially a specialty variant tailored directly to her proclivities and capabilities. There is no way she can remember the vast breadth of techniques that the style includes, but her focus gives her a specialised expertise.”
“She’s been practising since she was a child,” Jason said. “I can’t match that experience with anything but time, skill book or no.”
“Indeed,” Shade said. “Your personal advantage is that you are learning the style more in line with the original intention.”
“Oh?” Jason prompted.
“As should be clear from the skill books retrieved during the Reaper trials, the Order of the Reaper’s techniques are designed foundationally to include skill book use. Developing that many techniques to a useable state simply isn’t possible without the memory-enhancement that comes of a high-rank spirit attribute. At your rank, skill books are the only way. Of course, incorporating those skills requires a specialised training regimen in and of itself, which Mr Remore was serendipitously able to provide.”
“So, I should be leaning into the breadth of techniques, rather than nailing down favourites like Sophie?”
“Precisely,” Shade said. “Versatility and adaptability should be your watchwords. As we continue to practise, I will endeavour to bring out your full range of techniques.”
After combat training, Jason went for a run. His bronze-rank speed and stamina attributes allowed him to set a relatively distant destination like Castle Bluff. Making his way out of town, he was pounding along next to the highway when a car passed in the other direction before it turned around and drove up to him. Jason’s enhanced perception had allowed him to recognise the driver as his old friend Greg, who he hadn’t seen since heading for university in Melbourne, while Greg had gone to Sydney.
“Jason?” Greg asked disbelievingly after pulling over and getting out of the car.
“G’day, Greg,” Jason said. “It’s been a while.”
“Since you left for Melbourne or since you died?”
“Both, I guess,” Jason said. “How’ve you been, mate?”
“Alive. Consistently. What is a dead guy doing running along a highway in the middle of nowhere?”
“Fitness and wellbeing,” Jason said. “I’m bit of an exercise nut now.”
“Where are you going?”
“Just running out to Castle Bluff and back.”
“That’s something like thirty kilometres.”
“Why do you think I was running fast?”
Greg rubbed his temples.
“This is insane,” he said to himself. “I’m going insane. I got in a car accident and now I’m in some weird purgatory with my dead friend and his surprisingly toned calves.”
Jason let out an easy laugh.
“Okay, Greg, just calm down, mate. Take a deep breath.”
“Says the revenant from beyond the grave!”
“Okay, look. I’ve got an important meeting, later, so I need to get going, but let’s swap digits and I’ll give you a call. We can hang out.”
“Oh, we can hang out,” Greg said. “HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?”
“Because of the mystic powers I obtained in a magical alternate universe.”
Greg shook his head.
“I see you haven’t changed. Except for the beard. That does a really good job of breaking the lines of your chin. Or did you have some work done?”
“I did not have any work done!”