The Way Ahead - Chapter 129: The Way Ahead

Edwin woke up with a splitting headache but an odd lack of pain anywhere else in his body. It was also rather pleasant remembering what happened all the way up until he passed out, for a change. He must have been out for a while, for Sleeping to have swept all of his normal aches of using Overcharge away.

That probably wasn’t fantastic, buthe had control over his body again! That definitely was good. It meant his plan must have worked, but just to be sure, he delved into his internal body structure with Anatomy.

There was essentially no physical damage left. Instead, lingering life-enhancing magic lined his veins and gradually swept away the last few remnant scorch marks as he ‘watched.’

The potion he’d made had worked brilliantly, it seemed. With Overcharge flooding his body, Niall’s blood, coursing with mana-absorbing potion lapped up nearly all of it. While that would have been damaging enough- whether the black gunk that came as a result of using the Skill was poisonous or the direct result of burning parts of the body didn’t matter, because either would weaken Niall immensely. But that was only the first stage of his potion, because under the extreme magical saturation, his potion became exceptionally flammable, and even the slightest disturbance would light it off. What exactly the disturbance was didn’t matter too much, but the backup was Rillah directing a tiny scrap of fire mana into her blood. Regardless, it would then ignite and burn Niall to a crisp in mere seconds.

That by itself was unlikely to take out the rogue blood alchemist, given his tenacity, and if it somehow did, it would result in countless casualties. But that was where Inion and Rillah came in. Both possessed water-based magic, and were excellent counters to being burned alive. But what was even better was the secondary impacts of their mana. Inion’s fostered life, and Rillah’s directly grew it. Combined, they managed to chase away the tenacious rot that Niall used to return by replacing it, growing in the fertile ash left behind in the wake of his incineration. Choking out the weeds with flowers, essentially.

He’d had his doubts, but maybe, just maybe, it was all over.

With a deep breath, Edwin cracked his eyes open. He was in an unfamiliar stone room of some sort, wearing relatively plain clothes, in a bed that felt absolutely phenomenal. There was a window in the wall to his left, and in front of it…

“Hey Inion.”

“Edwin! You’re awake,” the fey whipped her head around at his voice, floating over to his bedside.

“I really wish this would stop happening.”

“Do you want me to not wait by your side while you sleep?”

Edwin blinked, “I mean, when you put it like that, yeah? But I mostly meant I wish I wasn’t always waking up from grievous injuries, sometimes in strange locations.”

“Mh. Well, maybe if you didn’t keep almost killing yourself as a first resort in a fight.”

“Hey, it’s not a first resort! Or any level of resort. Besides, it’s happened like three times tops.”

“Panther,” she counted on a finger.

“Last resort.”

“That one bandit.”

“Who?”

“You punched his head off.”

“Ohh, right. That guy. That was just Overcharge overuse, it doesn’t count.”

“The first time you escaped from Niall.”

“I hurt myself while escaping, that doesn’t count.”

Inion reached to count off another finger, but hesitated, “Huh. Maybe it hasn’t been that often?”

“It really doesn’t matter,” Edwin sighed as he sat up, “What happened after I went out?”

“Well, we dropped you and flew off. Don’t give me that look. After that, Rillah fell to the ground screaming in pain.”

“I really wish you wouldn’t look so pleased by that fact.”

“Ha. Anyway, at the same time the bit of blood I had started to boil and burn a little bit, so then I did my part, you’re welcome, and put it all out. It only took a minute for Rillah to stop screaming, and she used her little magic to do the thing and grow invigoration instead of Niall and stuff. It turned the blood really crystal-like, something like liquid rubies. Really neat. But then, however it worked, Niall’s body came out to try and do something. It was kinda strange, his Skills had this massive hole in them, like you literally burned out the effect from him.”

“That’s possible?”

“No. It’s not. You can’t lose a Skill. I just said it looked like that was what had happened.”

Edwin glared at his… friend halfheartedly.

“Anyway, once that happened, Tara came out and sentenced Niall to death for harm, forbidden Skills. Assault on people, all that fun stuff. Chopped off his head and it actually took. Then she had the body burned.”

“Oh, just like that?”

Inion nodded, “Just like that.”

“Feels weird. Like, I’m glad he’s gone—he is gone, right?” he pointedly asked the fey, who just shrugged, “Whatever. I’ll see if I can’t run some tests, but it just seems strange that he is gone, and that I wasn’t there for it or anything. It just feels… unsatisfying.”

“That’s life.”

“I guess so. So where is Tara now?”

“She left, heading back to Vinstead after the execution.”

“Still feels weird. And then we’re…”

“In the old medical clinic. It’s been a bit disused, but now that Niall isn’t around to block it from being used, we made sure you were somewhere secure while you slept. Rillah especially made sure you were safe and healthy.”

“You called her Rillah? Not ‘her’ or ‘that problem’?”

“She might not be all that bad,” Inion admitted, “She seems nice enough, after all.”

“Not three days ago you were telling me how she was the most suspicious person you’d ever met.”

“Okay, first off that was three weeks ago, not three days ago, unless you only want to count all the time since you learned about the Blood Alchemist as one day, and secondly, why wouldn’t I trust her? She’s been nothing but nice to you, why would I be hostile towards her? She just wants to help, I figure I should give her a chance.”

Oh.

Oh.

It really wasn’t that easy, was it? It never would be that easy.

Edwin’s heart began to race, his eyes darting around the room for other signs of unreality in the world around him.Had Niall’s Skill evolved again, into something which threw him into an illusionary world that he wouldn’t put up resistance in? He couldn’t spot anything out of place in his surroundings, but there was bound to be something.

Almanac wasn’t returning anything strange, but that didn’t mean anything. None of his senses could be trusted. Depending on how insidious the illusion was, his entire mind could be suspect, including his own thoughts. The only saving grace was that Niall hadn’t shown anywhere near the sort of power or control needed to create such an insanely detailed illusion on the fly. Maybe he could overload it? But how the heck would he do that?

He kept his breathing steady, but it was all he could do to not start panicking as he tried to figure out what weaknesses there were in the grand illusion he was living in, other than Inion’s unusual behavior.

Okay, just something that only Inion would know?

“Where am I from?” he narrowed his eyes at the ‘fey,’ “I need to know you’re real.”

“Where are you from? Edwin, you’re from Earth.” she lowered her voice for the last word, “And of course this is real, we won! I’m just glad that you’re safe after all of that. Are you feeling alright? How can I help you?”

No. No, this wasn’t right. Inion was way too calm, she wasn’t… no, it was all wrong. Edwin flung out his arm, unleashing Unbound Tether to push Inion to the far wall as he sprang up from his bed, flying out of the room and nearly running into Rillah herself.

“Woah! Woah there, Edwin! You seem to be doing well!”

“Rillah! I need your… no, how do I know you aren’t just part of it?”

“Part of what? Edwin, you’re really stressed and freaking out, and you need to calm down. Give me your hand, and you’ll feel better.”

Edwin backed away. Yes, she could be talking about Calming Touch, but what other insane effects might be transmitted through contact? No, he needed to be safe. If he really was trapped in some grand illusion, it was critical he found the limits and….

“There. Feel better now?”

Edwin mutely nodded as Calming Touch slowed his panicked thoughts to a reasonable speed and allowed him to look at them objectively. No, it was really unlikely that Niall would know Edwin was from Earth and not know that Rillah and Inion shouldn’t be getting along. The same thing went for any automated effects based on his own expectations. And if Niall had needed Edwin to touch something, he could have disguised it as a wall instead of having Rillah conspicuously reach out and grab his hand.

“Are you alright, Edwin?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I am. I was just worried that all of this was a lie, that I was still stuck inside of some kind of illusion, that we’d lost and—” Rillah gently squeezed his hand, pulsing Calming Touch once again. “And that you were some kind of trick.”

“How can I persuade you I’m not?”

“I’m… I’m good now,” Edwin allowed his brain to succumb to the numbing that Calming Touch brought. He was safe, he was with friends, he… didn’t know how to handle this, actually. But his mouth just kept running, “I just needed to really think through everything and let my mind do something. Part of me still can’t really believe that it’s over, you know? And there’s a part of me that wants to forget it ever happened, just go about my normal life without ever acknowledging the amount of faith I had to put into you guys, that my wonderfully sleep-deprived brain resolved to…”

He trailed off as he finally got his mouth under control, glancing awkwardly at Rillah, then looked around to see that Inion had also joined them at some point. Fortunately, he didn’t have much more of an audience than just that, but all of his declarations that he was going to open up and be more friendly with his friends seemed way less certain now. They weren’t that good of friends, after all; he had only known Rillah for a few months, and Inion a few… years. Well they weren’t close friends! He hadn’t told them anything super personal about his inner life. He was still waiting for one of them to take an interest in his wellbeing.

Like almost literally walking through fire? Heck, not walking through fire, letting themselves belit on fire. What about waiting at my bedside for me to wake up? Calming me down?

“Uh, I don’t know, I just need…”

“I think I know exactly what you need.”

“Really? I’m kind of uncertain between a long day of just-”

Edwin was cut off once again, but he couldn’t really bring himself to complain about it this time no matter how he spun it.

It was honestly really, really nice.

What do I do with my arms? Am I allowed to return the hug? What’s the proper procedure for this?

Shut up, me.

Edwin forced his concerns off to the side, eventually settling into the embrace as he wrapped his own arms around Rillah’s back, and rested his own head on her shoulder, blinking away a few tiny tears that somehow snuck into his eyes. They stayed there for what felt like forever, but he certainly wasn’t complaining. Really, all but one of his stray trains of thought faded away.

Are all hugs this nice?

Further testing was clearly required.

Rillah’s telling of the events that unfolded matched up pretty well with Inion’s, though she made sure to include one extra tidbit that Edwin found particularly interesting.

“So yeah, everyone who was part of the whole thing? Yeah, they all unlocked various magic-related Paths and Skills. The local Registrar has been busy essentially nonstop since then, trying to get everyone sorted out.”

“Who would have ever thought that dumping mana directly into people’s bodies until they can’t feel it anymore might possibly result in them getting magical powers? Truly, I have never had that exact situation happen to me or anything.”

“You’re not as funny as you think you are.”

“Awwwww.”

“You’re still a bit funny,” she relented, and Edwin pumped his fist in mock triumph.

“I’ll take it! But I seriously wish I could see everyone’s face who said I was crazy for suggesting that people could awaken magical talent with their own effort rather than just being born with it.”

“Well, you kind of were.”

“Oh come on, I unlocked Basic Mana Sense through simple exposure and got the Mage path through that. I wasn’t crazy.”

He paused for a beat.

“Okay, maybe I was, but not about that!”

She laughed, a sound which still made Edwin’s heart melt despite his best efforts.

He smiled slightly, “There’s a part of me which kind of wants to stick around and help them figure out magic, like how you helped me, but overall I just kind of want to… well, not do that.”

“Oh, let me guess. People?”

“People,” Edwin agreed.

The night sky was just as stunning as the first time Edwin had ever looked up at it and properly enjoyed it. Fantastic colors played across the tapestry far above, the crystal moon shining down on them all. There was a tiny amount of spring chill to the air, but between Adaptive Defense and his drink, Edwin barely noticed it.

There was a slight rush of air as Rillah joined him, her wings flaring out as she came to a stop. The Skill powering them switched off, retracting the wings as it went dormant.

He nodded to his friend in greeting, and offered the mug to her. She accepted, gently sipping at the steaming liquid. Rillah’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, that’s good! What is it?”

“Oh, just something I mixed up earlier. Dried talsanenris leaves, a bit of crushed riststalk, and firevine-dried cordicyle, mixed with a bit of spicenut for good measure.”

“I know talsanenris from what you’ve talked about before, but what are the others?”

“Niall had them in his lab. Riststalk soothes aches while tasting really rich. Combined with some cordicycle and sweetened with talsanenris, it doesn’t cause drowsiness and almost tastes like chocolate. The spicenut is just for flavor, and Arcadian Elixir does the rest.”

“How did you figure this out? There’s no way you did all your sciency stuff at it, not this fast. That takes you weeks most of the time.”

Edwin shrugged and chuckled, “I had a craving for hot chocolate, and a hundred and ten levels of Alchemy did the rest of the work.” He toasted himself. “World’s best alchemist! Probably, anyway. By raw Alchemy skill level. And here I am, using vast cosmic knowledge to recreate a kid’s drink from back home.”

Rillah snagged the mug from Edwin’s hands, taking another deep drink from it.

“You know, I might be able to alchemize myself some sort of peppermint-equivalent from pepper and mint.”

“Is that how that works?”

“Heck if I know! But it would be fun to try.” he snagged the hot chocolate back from Rillah and took another gulp before she could drink too much. Edwin eyed the half-empty mug warily. He’d been drinking a lot, it seemed, given how big the cup had ended up being thanks to Improbable Arsenal.

The hot chocolate had other effects, too. In addition to being delicious, the firevine-drying of the cordicycle meant it had genuine warmth potion effects, and allowed one to partially rest without sleeping.

But most importantly of all, it tasted like hot chocolate.

They sat in silence for a little while, stealing the mug back and forth until it was almost empty.

“Are you doing alright?”

This isn’t how things go, people don’t just… ask me how I’m doing, they don’t care about my feelings or about what I’ve been up to or what I’ve been doing. Not while meaning it. They’re just polite. So then why is Rillah asking me about this? Is she trying to manipulate me, like Inion said? a part of Edwin protested before he just gave up.

All communication is manipulation. Inion said that Rillah was fine. And I’ve always said that I just need someone else to take the initiative. Can’t I actually do that the one time it actually happens? I just want…

Maybe… maybe he could do this.

He took one more sip of his drink and sighed, “Where would you like to start?”

“How about you start at the beginning?”

“Oh, I don’t know, I’m not really that interesting. And do you mean the beginning of my life? The beginning of me being here? The beginning of this whole crazy end-the-blood-plague thing? I don’t know what I would say, what can I….”

“Edwin. Are you uncomfortable?”

“Yes! No. I—” He let his head slump back so he was looking into the sky before responding. “I don’t know. I’m not good at this.”

“I know. I know, Edwin. That’s why I’m doing this. Come on, Edwin. You don’t have anything to distract you, you can talk to me. It’s alright.”

Edwin shrugged. “It was all so… fast. I think I’m okay, though. Better than I have in a very long time. Having… having friends is nice?”

“Yes Edwin, I’m your friend.”

“Okay, good. I’m really glad you reciprocate, because I had this whole epiphany during the whole thing and it would have been really awkward if you didn’t reciprocate feelings of friendship and…” he hung his head, “I don’t know, okay? I just don’t know how this works. I haven’t had a friend in so long, it’s….”

“How are you feeling? Let’s start there.”

“I feel… well, good. Not perfect, I’m still too worried that none of this is real, that I’m going to blink and suddenly I have no friends again, that I chased everyone away, and I don’t know if sharing this is actually helpful, but I’ve read that you’re supposed to be open and vulnerable to make friends, and I just kind of have to hope that this time it’ll work out. And now I’m worrying that I’m talking too much and that that will be seen as a negative. And I’m going to stop myself now.”

Rillah patted his back, lightly rubbing his spine in a way that felt absolutely amazing, “So, is this mysterious lack of friends related to your ever-mysterious origins?”

“What? No, even back on Earth, I hadn’t had a friend for years. Not… No, I’m going to keep myself on topic.”

“If you insist,” she replied, clearly amused, “So then, where’s this ‘Earth?’ Should we visit?”

Edwin steeled himself. “I don’t know. And I don’t think anyone does, really. See, about two and a half years ago, I woke up falling out of the sky…”

By the time he finished and Rillah was done with all of her questions, the moon had very nearly passed back to the horizon, and dawn was beginning to lighten the other side of the sky. The first mug of hot chocolate was long gone, and Edwin had been forced to pull out some backup makeshift drinks, heating them with his Thermokinesis.

“That’s quite the story,” Rillah noted.

“You don’t believe me, do you?”

“What? No, no. Of course I do. It’s just kind of hard to believe, you know?”

“You can just tell me that you don’t believe it.”

“But I do, Edwin. It honestly answers so many questions I had about you. Where your alchemy knowledge comes from, your completely unknown language behind Polyglot, why you get so confused about lots of standard things, what’s up with your Skills, and more. It’s just also a lot to take in.”

Edwin didn’t really know how to respond to that, so he just took a sip of his drink—a sweet drink made from a fruit that tasted remarkably similar to black currants—and waited for a question.

“So then, when you say that I and Inion are your only friends…”

“Wait, did I say that out loud at some point?”

“You sometimes whisper to yourself when you think.”

Edwin’s eyes dilated, and he desperately tried to think about any possible incriminating thing that he might have said at any point which apparently people could sometimes hear.

Rillah noticed his reaction and laughed, “Edwin, it’s alright. You’ve never said anything bad- though from your reaction, do you think insulting things about us that you don’t want us to hear?”

“Um….”

“Relax! I’m kidding. Look, that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that this apparently means you’ve never seen some truly spectacular places. We’ll see the flying city of Vis’Daric together! And it will be amazing. Oh actually, you mentioned your home was pretty advanced, is a flying city less impressive for you?”

“Ha. If anything, it’s probably more impressive to me, because I know all the more just how utterly impossible something like that should be. But then you toss magic and Skills into the mix and… well, I’m looking forward to seeing what the expanded rules of reality are like.”

“I still don’t get how you could not have magic. What did you use to cook things?”

“Huh? I mean, fire isn’t magic, it’s just a chemical reaction. We had fire.”

“So did you have wind? Or weather? Storms?”

“Of course.”

“Driftslides?”

“I have no clue what those are.”

“Oh, that’s just when rocks fall off a mountain but instead of hitting the ground they just sort of float around for a while.”

“No. That’s very much magic.”

“But fire and storms aren’t? I thought you were saying that magic is about energy, or something like that.”

“No, it’s more about free energy? Energy that can be controlled by a creature.”

“So then how did you move? I can feel the lightning inside of me on a good day, I know it’s what makes me able to do stuff.”

“What? Oh, um. I don’t actually know that I have a good definition for magic, now that I think about it. I’ll get back to you on that. But no, we still had electricity, it’s just not actually magic. You see, electricity is the flow of electrons that….”

Neither of them got any sleep that night, not that they particularly minded. Some things were more important than a bit of rest.

The wagon was almost fully packed. The closest thing to an actual payment he had gotten out of the whole thing was carte blanche to ransack Niall’s former laboratory, and while he wasn’t complaining about being able to restock on materials he was missing or had run out of—of which there were many—it still felt inadequate for all that he’d gone through. But at least according to the new magistrate, it should count as all of their “adventurer’s duty” service tax for at least a decade, and they’d also gotten Inion an adventurer’s license, so she should be able to legally enter towns now.

That didn’t matter, though. It wasn’t about the stuff, it never had been. It was about the experiences he’d made along the way, and even putting aside the bonds of friendship forged in incendiary potion injections, Edwin had no complaints.

Level Up!

Skill Points 1241→ 1322

(Alchemy: 110; Stamina Manipulation: 38; 19/25 60-point Paths)

Adaptive Defense Level 61→63

Alchemical Analysis Level 53→60

Alchemical Dismantling Level 58→62

Alchemy Level 101→110

Anatomy Level 52→56

Arcadian Elixir Level 41→45

Basic Thermokinesis Level 45→48

Fey’s Caress Level 49→50

Fresh Air Level 48→49

Improbable Arsenal Level 46→47

Longstrider Level 56→57

Mana Infusion Level 93→94

Memory Level 69→70

Numeracy Level 57→58

Outsider’s Almanac Level 141→143

Overcharge Level 36→47

Polyglot Level 75→76

Prototyping Level 48→49

Refining Level 47→53

Ritual Intuition Level 58→62

Sapper’s Apparatus Level 69→70

Skillful Assessment Level 58→63

Stamina Manipulation Level 32→38

Unbound Tether Level 41→43

Watchful Rest Level 46→47

Congratulations! For ending a magical contagion through alchemical means, you have unlocked the Plaguebalm Alchemist Path!

Congratulations! For bestowing magic upon another, you have unlocked the Archmage Path!

Congratulations! For igniting your own blood and surviving, you have unlocked the Fireblood Path!

Congratulations! For igniting over a hundred and twenty individuals on fire with an alchemical potion, you have unlocked the Pyroalchemist Path!

Congratulations! For surviving extreme levels of raw mana exposure, you have unlocked the Physical Arcanist Path!

Congratulations! By manipulating your own blood via alchemical means, you have unlocked the Blood Alchemist Path!

Congratulations! For ending a moderate threat to the Lirasian Empire, you have unlocked the Imperial Ally Path!

Rillah had also gotten the Archmage path, and while Inion remained as tight-lipped as ever about her Status, they were fairly certain she’d gotten it as well. Not that it really mattered- at 120 skill points, it would be a long time before any of them were likely to take it. But it was still a really neat reminder of what they’d managed to do.

Unfortunately, Yathal was still missing without a trace, and none of the local trackers were high enough level to have any clue where he went. All they could really do was hope that the boy was alright, wherever he was, and that he’d be able to take care of himself.

At least he’s familiar with the area.

Rillah and Inion were chatting like old friends, which still felt phenomenally weird, but Edwin was happy for the change. He only had two friends on all of Joriah, and that he wouldn’t have to choose which he had to spend time with was such a relief.

After all, it wasn’t like anyone else was liable to pretend that-

Edwin ground his thoughts to a halt. No. They weren’t pretending to like him. He trusted them. Most importantly, he trusted them to be honest with him. If they said that he wasn’t a tremendous pain to be around, then he wasn’t to them at least.

But what about other people?

Other people didn’t matter. He had two good friends, who would risk their lives for him. Who had more trust in him than even he did. He had friends. Whatever other people said or thought did not matter. Why would it? It was their problem now, not his.

He had friends.

For real, this time. It wasn’t some trick he was telling himself to make him feel better, not some ‘friends for a weekend’ that would just leave him feeling more alone afterwards than before, not fake friends who would just laugh at him when he tried to be vulnerable, or any combination thereof, but actual friends.

He had friends.

Friends he could travel with, friends who he could depend on, friends who would just be there. Friends were fantastic.

“And that’s the last of it!” Edwin called out to the pair, floating up to join them. Rillah was resting against a perch on the building’s roof, while Inion simply hovered midair.

“—hear about the- oh hey Edwin.” Rillah broke off her point about… flowers? It sounded like they had been talking about flowers. “Everything all ready?”

“Assuming you two are packed? Yeah. The shatterstalk was really tricky to do properly, but I managed it by encasing each one in apparatite, then wrapping that in moss and submerging the entire thing in water, which I of course put in an Improbable Arsenal bag. Then there were the cinderdust moths—”

“Edwin, while I’m sure that all of those things are absolutely fascinating—”

“Oh, they are. Since Alchemical Analysis hit level sixty, it’s now showing me basic alchemical facts about new things I find, so long as I’ve registered that alchemical nature for something else. It means that—”

“Edwin. Fascinating stuff, tell me when we’re on the road. Okay? Unless you changed your mind about leaving by noon.”

“Nope, still the plan. Let’s get going.”

He dropped down to the driver’s seat, and the faintest flick of Bill the pony’s reins set them on their course. First up, Rillah’s hometown. She’d be able to see her mother, Edwin might be able to get some unicorn horn, and Inion was just happy to be coming along.

After that?

Well, who really cared? There was always more to see, more to learn…

And above all, always further testing to be done.