Legacy of the M'Zee Chapter 14

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Two chapters this week. Might have been three, but I concussed myself on Wednesday. Always watch where y'all're sitting folks. 

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

I followed the bite, from the actions required to chew it up to the Aether that flowed down my esophagus before it entered my digestion meridian. The Light Aether, glowing brightly in my internal sight, burned everything it touched. My meridian flexed in agony, and I found myself collapsing onto my side. I ignored my physical body, focusing on the Aether system inside me. I guided the Aether away from my stomach and into my center, feeling something change as the brilliant white energy soaked into them.

There was no sense of imbalance, only a feeling of completeness. I felt whole, even as it felt like my center was dissolving in acid. I held on, the Aether buffeting my consciousness, leaving me feeling lightheaded and dizzy. I held on, knowing it was strengthening me, and refused to fall to whatever the Aether was trying to do to me.

After an indeterminate amount of time, my mind consumed by the pain and dedicated to holding on, a wave of Wood and Water Aether flowed through me, giving relief to my center and reducing the pain I was under to a more manageable level. A few subjective years, but probably only a couple of minutes in actuality, I came to. I was laying on the ground, Vaya had her hands on either side of my face and was looking at me with a worried expression.

“That was very, uh, interesting,” I said, smiling up at my girlfriend. “No idea what happened, but.” I focused inward, and felt the tiniest boost to my center’s ability to accept Aether. “I think it made me stronger. Hopefully it’ll compound as I eat some more. The other berries took ten before we hit diminishing returns, so hopefully this one will reach the same point.”

She looked at me with a stern face. “Are you sure?” She asked.

“Yeah,” I took a deep breath and let it out. “One more.” I sat up, then threw another of the berries back. The pain didn’t lessen at all. Another wave of burning, cleansing Light shot through my center, ripping apart any impurities or mistakes I’d made when expanding it. My pool grew stronger, both stiffer and more elastic, and my Core’s facets seemed to glitter more brightly. The surge of agony stilled after a few more minutes, and I was able to focus on Vaya’s horrified face.

“Please, stop,” she said. “That seemed horrible.”

“It was,” I said with a grimace, “but it’s making me stronger. The pain wasn’t any less, but I’m sure that I can gather faster and hold more now than I could before taking these. It’s a tiny change, but anything we get now will compound as we grow. We need to go back and harvest every single berry from that bush, and then eat them until we get no more benefit from them. I want to save some to try and plant, even if no one has been able to do so before now, but we need to give them to our friends too. I don't want to leave any of them behind.”

“And we need to grow stronger,” Jon said tiredly from beside him. “Should we take a healing powder first?”

“Might help,” I said with a shrug. “I’ve got plenty, and we found enough herbs to make more just on the walk here. This territory is chock full of Aether-filled plants.”

“I’ll watch over you three,” Vaya said. “We will finish tempering ourselves before we collect more berries, unless we run out.”

“Thanks,” I said. I dug out a healing powder and poured it into my mouth. A swig of water, soothing my aching throat, helped wash it down. After a few seconds, letting the powder kick in, I ate another one of the berries. This time, I chewed it slowly, letting the juice and pulp dribble down into my belly, rather than gulp it down quickly. It didn’t help. The healing powder seemed to amplify the pain, making the cycles of destruction and renewal happen even quicker. This did make it so the end of the pain came quicker as well.

I looked over to see Vaya crouching over Jon, who was laying with shoulders and hips touching the ground but the rest of his body was arched in agony. Bridget was still as a statue, but sweat was dripping off her face. Her teeth ground together, but she stayed sitting. Vaya shifted over to her and performed a quick scan, then noticed I was struggling up. “Any better?” she asked.

“No. The powder made it hurt more, but it took less time, so I guess it’s a wash,” I shrugged. “Probably need a dozen more for full benefits. At least.”

She gave me a worried look, “Should we split it up then? Take five then give everyone a break to recover?”

“I don’t know,” I said, looking down at the box of berries in front of me with a shiver. “I’m not sure I’ll have the courage to keep going after a break.” I took a deep breath, then picked up two. “Go quicker at least.”

“Wait,” Vaya said, but I threw them back and swallowed them.

The burning didn’t become more intense, the pain stayed where it had been. I was able to successfully process both of them. Eating more just increased the amount of time I was in pain, not how much pain I was in.

Vaya occasionally sent a burst of healing Aether, giving a few moments of sweet relief. When I came to, the others were all watching me. “Did it work?” she asked.

“Eating more, well eating two, only increased the amount of time the process took, not how strong it was,” I said. “So I’m going to take another ten and see where I am at that point.”

“We are all going to watch,” Jon said. “Bridget will have a healing pill ready to shove down your throat, and I will attempt to keep your body cool, since you seem to be almost radiating heat right now.”

I felt myself, and realized my body temperature was significantly higher than it should be, though it was quickly dropping. Huh, I guess a massive fever won’t kill me anymore, I thought. Well, nothing for it. I picked up a handful of the berries. Maybe once you don’t hurt so much, you’ll taste better. Thought I might be traumatized away from sweet things for a while. I ate quickly, then lay down on the ground.

The white fire seared my insides, and I lost track of time for a little while. I focused on trying to guide the Light throughout my center, sweeping over each section multiple times before the pain lessened immensely. It’s done with my center! But there is so much left. Aw, this is gonna suck. I directed the Aether through the openings of my meridians.

My muscles cramped up as the waves of energy flowed through my meridians and into the rest of my body. The cleansing Light burned away the innermost layer of my meridians, directly increasing their size in the most painful way possible. Hundreds of tiny blood vessels were annihilated in an instant, and then immediately healed. Unconsciously, I turned my head to the side and spat up the blood, my body ejecting it in the quickest way it had. I was just happy it all went up.

I vaguely heard noises, but I couldn’t afford to move my focus outward at all. The energy flowed up, tempering and recreating my heart and lungs, then my esophagus. It was the worst pain I’d felt yet, but I couldn’t scream even if I wanted to. It’s going for my brain. This is gonna be bad!

The Aether reached my brain, and there was no pain for a bit. A sort of white noise, buzzing through my thoughts like a mosquito around my ear, engulfed me for a bit. Then the Aether drove ice picks through my eyeballs. After that, I truly lost track of time.

Finally, the Light petered out. I opened my eyes with a frown. “Aiden!” Vaya exclaimed, sending another wave of healing energy through me. “Are you okay?”

“I need another two berries, please,” I said softly. “I’m almost done, but I can’t move my arms very well right now.”

She looked at me sadly, but pressed her lips together and nodded. I ate the proffered berries, then focused on the last bits of my legs. It was done. I came back out of my center, and just lay there shivering for a minute.

“I’m not so sure I want to go through that,” Jon said.

“If you think you can keep going after a break, you don’t have to,” I said. “I didn’t think I had it in me.”

“I promise, if I do not eat them myself, I will not complain too much when you and Bridget force me to eat them,” Jon said solemnly.

“What is too much?” Vaya asked with a laugh.

“Uh, for an hour?” Jon said questioningly.

“If I could reach up, I would smack you,” I said with a mock glare.

“Yeah, not making me excited about this,” he shook his head. “But fine.”

“Take a healing pill,” I said. “It’ll make the pain worse, but it should hopefully make it work so much faster. That was the worst part, I think. That it just seemed to go on and on.” I shuddered again. Blarg, don’t need to have an aversion to powerups. It sucked, move on, I told myself, knowing that it didn’t work that way.

Jon nodded, and Bridget pulled him into a hug. “We will all be watching you,” she said. “Vaya can show us how she helped Aiden, so you will be safe too. Got it?”

“Yes dear,” he said, only slightly sarcastic. She whacked his head, then gave him a kiss on the forehead. I handed him a healing pill, and he threw it down before dumping fifteen of the berries down his throat. He sat, then lay back.

It took ten minutes before he arched his back in pain, and Vaya put her hands on his chest. “Watch me, first,” she told us.

I forced more Aether into my eyes, enhancing my Aether Sight to observe as she sent just a wave of Wood and Water Aether into his center. She deliberately targeted areas just behind where a line of Light Aether was scrubbing away at his Core. “Healing doesn’t really do anything useful, but supporting the recovery of the damaged areas with Aether reduces how much must come from him,” Vaya said. “I tried several different techniques, but they were not helpful. This is all I have figured out.”

“What about using other Aether’s?” Bridget asked.

Vaya paused, then focused on Jon some more. Rather than just Wood and Water, now Earth and Ice joined in, and Jon relaxed some more. He was still obviously in pain, but it had reduced a bit more.

I reached forward and joined her, pushing in Metal, Fire, Lightning, and Air Aether. It helped a bit more, reducing his grimace to a bit more than what he wore last time we tempered with Fire.

Fifteen minutes later, Vaya had to pause, “I am down to less than half of my reserves,” she said. “Bridget, can you take over?”

“I’ll take over Earth and Wood,” I said. “Bridget can take Air and Lightning from me.”

“That fits my Affinities better, sure,” Bridget said. I switched up what I was using, and checked my reserves. Ten more minutes, then I’ll be down to a third. Probably should stay over that, just in case something attacks, I thought. Wait, what about Sia and them? “Hey, Sia. Do you think you’ll be able to help out with this?” I detailed what we were doing.

“Yes, I can do that. For every Element too,” he told me smugly.

“Ask the others? I’m going to run out of Wood and Metal Aether in eight minutes.”

“Yes.” He paused for a few minutes, while my reserves dwindled. “Kami and I will replace you. Gather back to full. Lampart is on watch.”

“Thanks buddy,” I told him. He flashed down, landing on the ground in front of me. He hopped onto Jon’s chest, and I felt a small flood of Aether spring out of him. The amount varied wildly until it stabilized just below what he started at.

I stood and stumbled a dozen steps away and crossed the edges of the Aether pull I felt from both Jon and Vaya, then plopped to the ground. I was too tired to try and use the Eight-by-Eight to speed up my gathering, so I threw down a gathering powder and fell into my center.

A surge of Aether flew into me. Whatever the berries had done compounded with the pill we’d won, and my gathering technique felt even more powerful. My pool filled quickly. Well, relatively quickly. It still took nearly ten minutes to reach the entrance to my meridians. Once it started to spill into my meridians, the enhanced size provided by the berries and my advancement meant it took another twenty minutes before I was approaching full.

I opened my eyes to see Vaya, Lampart, and Sia crouched around Jon, who was still in the throws of the berries, while Kami and Bridget were gathering. Zimnodlot flew overhead, watching over us. I stood and walked over. “Who can I replace?” I asked.

“Take my spot,” Sia said. “I am providing Ice through Fire.”

“Got it,” I told him mentally. I followed the others, who were healing an area in his left leg. Almost done, I thought.

I was right, and he finished not five minutes later. “That sucked, but not as bad as you said it would,” Jon said. “Guess I am just tougher than you.”

I poked him in the chest, “Nah, we just figured out how to help better.”

After a few seconds, though, he got a frown on his face. “I feel something is off,” he said. I looked worriedly at him, but he was looking internally. “The changes do not feel like they are mine yet.” He grimaced. “I need one more, but you cannot help me this time. I think. I hope.”

We stood back, and he took a deep breath before eating one last berry. I wish I knew what these are, I thought. And why they do what they do to us. We need to harvest everything from the plant. Light, maybe we should figure out how to take the whole thing with us!

It took him only a few minutes to finish processing the berry, his jaw clamped shut to hold in the scream he had building in his throat. After he relaxed, he turned his head to look at me. “Five minutes, then Bridget?” He asked.

“Twenty,” Vaya said. “Let me get full first.”

We took a break to gather, Sia taking over for Zimnodlot on watch. I could feel the difference in Jon’s gathering, the barely perceptible whirlpool of surrounding Aether flowing into him bigger than it had been even that morning. When he finished, I asked him, “So, was it worth it?”

“Yeah,” he said glumly. “I just wish it was easier.”

“Me too, my friend, me too,” I pulled him into a side hug, then looked over at Bridget.

“I am ready,” she said stoically. “Fifteen to start, then one to solidify.” We set up, Vaya and Jon taking the first shift. Forty five minutes later, Bridget was ready for the last berry.

I looked over to see Jon flexing his right hand like it hurt. “My meridians are getting strained a bit,” he said. “Too much Aether flowing through too quickly.”

“There is very little I can do to help meridian injuries,” Vaya said. “Rest and recover.”

“Okay, but I will be ready to assist if needed,” Jon said determinedly. “We will not let you suffer either.”

Bridget cried out at that point, her back arching in pain. Vaya rushed to her side and pressed her hand to her forehead. “I wish I knew why our assistance prevents full assimilation,” she whispered, a stressed look on her face.

“It is almost like the berries are a trial, and we have to succeed on it to get the full benefit,” Jon said.

“This place is a trial ground,” I said with a shrug. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the berries were designed this way.”

“Well, it is my turn next,” she said, taking a deep breath and visibly steeling her nerves.

“So far, no permanent damage done,” I said. “Just a lot of pain, and then a massive increase in gathering capability. Plus, who knows what other benefits?”

“We will have to ask Librarian Narwan to look over us when we get back,” she said. “Okay. I am ready.”

Vaya’s tempering went as smoothly as Bridget’s did. Afterwards, she took the one berry to finalize the effects, laying down and holding in a whimper right before she ate. I held her hand, and almost immediately she attempted to crush it as her body tightened in pain. Two minutes in, she screamed once, and then closed her mouth, teeth gritted, determination shining through her expression.

“Something is coming!” Sia’s alarmed mental shout made me leap to my feet. I turned in the direction he had indicated, our mental connection showing me a picture of bushes being disturbed as a body shoved through them.

“Get ready!” I yelled, drawing my weapons.