Last Words chapter 44 (Patreon)

“That SUCKED,” I spat as I dragged myself out of the back room. My throat was raw from the screaming, and my jaw hurt because after I had screamed for twenty minutes the old man had shoved a leather strap between my teeth and forced me to bite down to mute the noises. It had been, without a doubt, the single most agonizing experience of my life. The reagents had felt like they were seeping into my soul. Except instead of reagents they were acid. And instead of my soul it was every inch of my entire body.

Alexa gave me an apologetic smile. “Yes, we usually don’t warn newcomers. There’s nothing you can do about the pain so knowing just makes it worse. On the upside, you won’t need to do another one until you reach the next tier.”

I felt my soul twitch at that comment, because it wasn’t true, at least if my theories were correct “Well, do you have a mirror I could use? I kind of want to see what I ended up with.”

“Of course,” she chirped, stepping out from behind the counter and strolling over to a cabinet in the corner. Opening up the doors, she pulled out a tall mirror on wooden wheels. Turning around, I pulled off my shirt. Despite having only just been tattooed, something in the reagents had promoted my regeneration (either because of Barkskin itself or just as a side effect) so I didn’t need any bandages or anything, a small mercy after all the pain. Still, that meant I didn’t have anything in the way of me seeing the pattern, and I had to admit that I was glad there wasn’t.

It looked fantastic. Brown ink swirled and looped across the canvas of my back. You would think a brown tattoo would look boring or bland, but strangely, the ink had a sort of gradient shift to it that made it almost move as the light caught it. Dark brown to lighter brown along the roots, with the color catching the light to reveal sparks of green so luminescently emerald I almost thought I was looking at a real plant.

“It DOES look really cool,” I admitted as I stared in fascination. “I need to wait a few days for it to be fully charged, right?”

I didn’t, actually. I needed to wait one day, if that, but I was trying to keep my mana trait close to the chest just in case. I had already tried to buy more mana to fill it, but apparently that concept was a little too abstract. Not a great start, but I DID confirm that I could sell the pattern directly, which meant I could remove and apply them as needed. 

The only downside was that, as suspected, I only had the option to buy one pattern, and that was the one I already had…which meant I had to have them manually applied before I could add them to my potential pattern list. I tried not to visibly cringe at the idea as I remembered the agony I had just gone through, but I’m not sure how successful I was. I’m pretty sure they just attributed it to aftershocks from the application process though, so no one mentioned it.

Alexa looked enthused. “Yup. Those green sparkles you were seeing? Those were trace elements of mana. Nature mana is green, so the more you infuse into the pattern, the more of it you can see. When it’s full…well, you’ll know. And you can just will the connection to your mana regeneration, or even empty out your current mana capacity into it by thinking about it. Give it a try.”

Closing my eyes, I did my best to follow her almost complete lack of instructions. It took a second, but focusing on the concept of my mana did actually manage to do something. Notably it conjured a sort of…connection in my head. It wasn’t anything as concrete as the screen for my speaker skills, but there was something there. Namely, an impression of a sort of…garden. A tree was planted in it now, and I could feel the roots thrusting into the dirt hungrily. Beneath the dirt, my mana waited, a cool blue pocket of water. As I pushed the roots down into the pocket, they drank up the mana desperately.

Once the mana was gone, the roots remained within the pocket, and I could see condensation forming there, being slurped up by the roots as it appeared. I could tell based on the speed that it would be a while, but I knew instinctively I could leave the roots in place so they would continue to drain the mana as it was coming in.

I also realized that my existing point of mana meant that it wouldn’t take the full day for it to fill, because I only needed four points from this point, which would only take twenty hours rather than the full twenty four and change. And that wasn’t even counting the twenty four percent reduction from my Nature affinity, because thinking about it, that would actually bring it down to three point eight, meaning I only needed a bit less than three mana to fill it.

Honestly, I was annoyed at having to wait. I was so excited I almost decided to grab a mana fruit to fill me up, but I had been told in no uncertain terms what a waste that was, and especially with the increased resonance I knew that mana could go to expanding my mana pool, which would pay dividends long term.

Before putting my shirt back on, I did check out the pattern again, and sure enough, the green sparks had increased, twining further down the roots rather than just at the ends like they had been before. I beamed at Alexa as I turned to face her. “Ok, that was cool,” I laughed. “Now I know why you keep this mirror around. I’m guessing that’s your favorite part of the whole process, huh?”

“Guilty,” she chuckled. “Anyway, just take your time and wait for the pattern to fill. I recommend you attempt to use it at least once in a safe environment to map out what it does for you. Everyone takes to patterns a bit differently.”

I nodded along absently, confirming that I’d do as she asked, and then Bran and I headed out. When we got further away, I asked Bran for a favor. “Hey man, can you take me to the Korai stables?” I asked in a low tone. “I had something I wanted to talk to you about. If you’re open to it.”

He raised an eyebrow, but eventually nodded, leading me along the streets until we got to the stables, which were currently blessedly empty. Bran escorted me to the back, where there was a groom shed I hadn’t been aware of, and then shut the door behind him.

“So…you’ve got a thing for Alexa, huh?” I asked bluntly.

He flinched. “I don’t…what? That’s crazy. I mean sure, she’s pretty. And fun. And sweet. And intelligent, and the way her eyes sparkle when she solves a tough problem makes my stomach…yeah.” His shoulder slumped as he realized he was giving himself away at this point. “I’m crazy about her.”

“So why not tell her?” I asked, pretty sure I already knew the answer.

He shrugged. “Because she deserves better. I’m not even mana touched. She’s a mage. And she’s brilliant. She’ll definitely hit tier 2 or even 3. She’s gonna live for centuries and I’m gonna die in fifty years and be forgotten by everyone.”

“What if you could be a mage?” I asked him after a slight hesitation. “Like if I had access to enough mana fruits to push you to tier 1. I’d need you to sign an agreement with me first. Keep my secrets, help me out with some things in terms of Scribing. In exchange, I’ll supply you with mana fruits, which I have access to through some of my…sources.” Bran knew at least a bit about my connection to The Silent Pond, so I figured he’d assume I meant them. Once I had him under contract I could reveal my secrets more freely. Granted I’d only get like a year out of it, but that wasn’t really a problem because in a year, I would have other shit going on.

I could sense his willingness, for the most part. My dealmaking empathy was blazing like an inferno as I processed his eagerness to finally achieve his dream. He stared at me for a moment. I sighed. “Look, do you have some paper and a pen?” I asked.

He nodded then grabbed some out of a nearby box. I started outlining a pretty barebones contract. Nothing too crazy just an agreement to keep my secrets and help with patterns in exchange for mana fruits and reagents. I didn’t want to take advantage of my friend, I just wanted some security so I didn’t get locked in a box in someone’s basement and pelted with delyrans to produce mana fruits.

I passed him the contract and he read over it. Before he could sign though, I stopped him. “Look. It’s important you know. This is legit. If you sign this it IS binding. It will be in effect for one year, and you can’t break the deal. You’re locked into this. So think carefully.”

He snorted, shaking his head. “I don’t think you have a concept of what this means to me, Gus. I’d accept way worse terms than this.” He scribbled his name down. Nodding slowly, I reached into a pocket (just as a cover until I could explain things) and pulled out a mana fruit. “It’s unripe,” I explained as I handed it to him. “I can’t get my hands on any better ones for now.”

Staring at me, he reached out and took it reverently. “You just…had this? In your pocket?”

“Something like that,” I grinned. “Just ask me again when you need your next one. However many it takes, I can make it happen. I just need your help with pattern research and application when that’s done. Can you do that?”

“I’d like to see you stop me,” he said aggressively. “This is…shit, Gus, this is everything. You don’t understand what you’re doing for me here. These are a STRATEGIC resource. You can MAYBE buy one of them if you have the money. But enough to get me to tier 1? Whoever is getting you these must be stupid well connected. There aren’t even that many of those trees around here. The conditions to grow them are absurdly strict.”

I blinked at that. I…may have underestimated the rarity of those things because of the price and how quickly I found them. It was something to look into at least. It also made me curious as to how the hell my power arrived at prices. Like why were the fruits so cheap? Maybe the nobles kept the prices low artificially as some kind of collusion? Was there an exchange of favors to go along with them? It bore looking into.

Bran, meanwhile, was looking at the purple mana fruit like he was about to cry. It was kind of overwhelming to feel how much he wanted that thing through my empathy. It felt like all his dreams had come true. Just to add to his burden a bit, I clapped him on the shoulder. Oh, also, once you hit tier 1, thought you might want to know, I’m pretty sure Alexa feels the same way.”

He gaped at me, and I just laughed, turning to stroll out of the stables as I headed back to the inn. I assumed Bran would want to work out a bit to burn off the fruit faster, and I knew how to get back from here. Next time I saw him, I’d check his progress and we would see how many more fruits he needed. I also needed to send over a bunch of them for my friends to work on their mana bodies. They needed to get them before Bran did, or at least not long after. Once he hit tier 1…well, then the real work would begin.