Chapter 4: 3 Days To Capital

It's been an hour since we started traveling. I got one of Amali's books to keep me distracted for the day. Hadiza wasn't making much progress in learning the Empire's language yet the focus in her eyes as she listened to Bitrus and Ola, was much the same as when she started learning it.

"Why do you try so hard, there isn't much you can do in 5 days?" I asked her when Bitrus got tired and decided to take a nap. I could feel Ola paying attention even though she feigned being in deep thought watching the passing scenery.

"Well, big man, most kids that survive the slums learn one lesson pretty early on; how to hoard the resources luck places in your path. I, on the other hand, learnt that wasting opportunities and hoarding resources, waiting for ideal conditions keeps you in the slums. 5 days isn't ideal but I'd rather swallow a bucket of needles than use that as an excuse not to learn. Especially since they never asked for compensation to teach me." Hadiza said as she cracked the knots in her neck and back formed from sitting too long.

"Why engineering though?" I asked suddenly losing interest in the novel.

"A friend of mine owned a shop in the industrial area. People would bring over random stuff to be fixed and overtime, I picked up on a couple of things. Started helping out for extra cash. That was until miss driver over there brought her busted watch for me to fix it and asked if I was willing to accompany her to the capital. She said something about destiny and what not but I only paid attention when she said she would get me into the engineering society… I liked the old name better; steam and machinery society. Anyway, wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I took her up on the offer."

My 6th sense only showed that there was a pale lingering 'scent'. A blend of Γ Worry ˩ and something else. Probably a sentiment that would only be understood by someone that's scraped for every inch they have. I wasn't confident in projecting any type of sentiment to her because of it. So I chose to feed the Γ Worry ˩ 'scent' on her.

"She might have lied." The Γ Worry ˩ sentiment became more pronounced and overwhelmed the foreign sentiment. I took advantage of that narrow window of opportunity and projected a blend of Γ Hope ˩ and Γ Pride ˩ that smothered the Γ Worry ˩.

"Well, even if she did. I'll be in the capital. I'll figure my own way in. Besides, I can always crash at your place till I figure things out. Don't worry big man, I'll make it up to you when I can." She said the last part with the same casual air that she spoke about everything else, like it didn't matter if I turned her down. But I could feel her Γ Worry ˩ flare again at the thought of not having a fallback plan in case things don't go well. I smiled at her and projected a blend of Γ Confidence ˩ and Γ Resolve ˩. "I'll give you my address once we get to the capital. Stop by anytime." Then winked at Ola who looked like she just swallowed a bug but otherwise said nothing on the matter.

As Γ Relief ˩ flooded her, like clockwork, my mind flexed, a bright point of light snapping into existence within my mind.

[The probability that the mysterious driver brought her all the way to the capital just to leave her high and dry are pretty low. I most likely won't be seeing her again.]

I didn't feel an ounce of guilt in using these people to satisfy my curiosities about my strange abilities. Everyone has a story; some are hopeful and some are not, all depending on who's telling it. I don't necessarily believe that the end justifies the means but sometimes, it's just so hard to care about the 'Why' we do things. I resolved or eased some of these people's issues and collected a wonderful amount of data that helped me understand my abilities a little bit more… and that's all that mattered.

Bitrus woke up and continued the lessons with Hadiza as I got back to reading Amali's novel. At the back of my mind, I schemed on getting Kito's point of light. I had a gut feeling something interesting might happen if I got the entire party's light points.

[ His lingering 'scent' is stronger than Hami's. I projected sentiments to both him and Hami last time and didn't get so much as a stir from him. I have no idea how it feels losing a sister or being in limbo over her safety. Maybe that's why I can't resonate nor resolve it on them. But Hami did say 'he secretly enjoyed it, he wants to be a doctor' when he was talking about treating me after I passed out. His strange proclivities could be what I need right now. Well, the light point will be pale compared to the rest but… I don't really care about that now, let's just see what happens when all light points form.]

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Evening came by pretty fast when reading a good book. It did trigger some inconsequential memories so I was grateful for it. I would thank her before heading to bed but right now, I had a different agenda to take care of.

I went up to a jaded Kito and asked to speak with him in private, leaving Hami cooking. I handed him the leaves I had bound and waited for him to open it.

"A day remains till we get to the capital. I suspect these are what I may have swallowed when you helped me. Could you identify them for me?" I asked once it seemed the knot was loose.

There was a gleam in his eyes when the prospect of putting to practice his medical knowledge came to play. Most of the leaves were withered while a single one, that still had a bite mark imprint, still hard strong vitality in it and even showed traces of guttation.

After a moment of inspection under the light of the camp fire, he said "The dried ones belong to 'nightshade', The STEM of bittersweet nightshade is possibly safe to eat, the leaves and berries, well you being alive is a medical mystery. As for this green one…" he trailed off before speed walking to his tent and coming out with a thick hardbound apothecary book containing a lot of plant pictures and descriptions. After flipping through a couple of times, a distinct Γ Mystified ˩ sentiment was felt from him.

I wasn't really concerned about the leaves. I was going to throw them out after using them to break the ice with Kito but changed my mind after seeing the frenzied look on his face. I took the fact that I may have eaten something toxic in stride. I thought it didn't matter since I lived and often, that's all that mattered. But as I looked at Kito flipping the book over and over again, I decided to keep that particular specimen and look into it myself when I got to the capital. It may be what caused the manifestation of my abilities or what purged the poisonous leaves I ate with it… or both.

I left him to his own devices to keep searching until he either found a lead or bedtime approached.

[His anxiety, caused by the tight deadline together with his agitation at interacting with something foreign to his medical knowledge should create an intense blend of ΓLonging˩, ΓDesire˩ and ΓFrustration˩ sentiments.] I thought it wouldn't be as pronounced as the mysterious 'scent' that lingered when his sister was brought up but it would suffice for what I needed from it.

After having my meal, I went back to his tent to get the leaf and form the last point of light. These points of light form when I establish a sentiment bond between a target and myself. Bonds can be caused by Resolving a negative sentiment; 'complete resolution' results in a strong bond, 'partial resolution' results in a weak bond. Causing a sentiment to manifest in them also achieves a bond, whether positive or negative doesn't matter, here, the strength of the bond shall be determined by how much impact it has on the target. I also suspected I could form a strong bond by turning strong positive sentiments to strong negative sentiments for instance causing ΓLove˩ to turn to ΓHate˩.

I absolutely underestimated how strongly he felt about not being able to identify the leaf. The earlier sentiments had festered over the time I was away and resulted in a strong flex that made my eyes blur for a sec when I got to his tent and asked for the leaf back. I felt sorry for doing this to him but a couple of sleepless nights and he'll get over it eventually. No harm done.

I went over to Amali's and thanked her for the book then went back to my tent. I could feel the light points pulse, slowly but surely achieving resonance. I quickly lay down, calmed my racing heart then closed my eyes and cleared my mind.

As minutes turned to hours, the quiet of the night grew thick. The six light points synchronized and pulsed in time with one another. I felt my existence grow stronger with every pulse, like a sponge growing heavier with every rain drop that soaks it. My body temperature rose as it strained against what I was starting to believe was my soul. I struggled not to lose consciousness as the heat turned to pain. I could feel it, if I lost consciousness, the process would stop. After what felt like hours, the pulsing reached a crescendo. I felt my awareness suddenly expand then a humanoid projection formed in my mind. The pulsing gradually slowed and lost its harmony. When I was certain the process was over, I gave in to the pain and lost consciousness. I woke to the lulling motion of Hami trying to wake me for lookout duty.

[This is getting embarrassing.] I thought to myself as I sat up and apologized to him.

"How long have you been trying to wake me?" I asked as we walked out of my tent.

"15 minutes. Did you pass out again?" he asked in a casual tone but I could feel the concern that radiated from him.

"Sort of. Go get some sleep, I'll sleep in the carriage." He looked me over debating whether to take my shift or not. I reflexively projected ΓResolve˩ to go through with the night watch. He still looked troubled so I told him I needed a bath. I walked him back to his tent and then went down to the stream. How the driver kept making camps close to water spots was an appreciated mystery. After cleaning up, I went to sit by the camp fire waiting for sunrise as I took stock of what happened to me. For one, the awareness expansion not only fixed my memory problem, it enhanced it. I could remember every bit of information from my birth. I would rather not have recovered those, birth was not a picnic. Awareness expansion also granted me control over every inch of my body. I could feel the blood within my blood vessels, hear my heart beat, understand the obsessive repetitive dedication of each organ, see the birth and destruction of every blood cell. Even the subtle changes between the old and new cells. I had my memories back so I understood that these subtle changes were most likely mutations that resulted in aging. Having control over this particular change promised eternal youth… or cancer. I wouldn't be messing with my DNA composition unless I have one foot in the grave. I reviewed my memories and the only thing that was certain was that I did not belong here.

[The only hypothesis I have as to what happened is this: The owner poisoned himself by ingesting the leaves. The poison killed him and the strange leaf played a role in dragging my soul from wherever it found me to replace the extinguished one. Where this is, or 'when' this is will have to wait until I get to the capital's library.]

I kept tinkering with the humanoid projection in my mind until sunrise.