Chapter Thirty - Part Two: Side Effects

Leta's head was thrown back as her body locked under the pressure of the downloaded skill. She could hear Allister shout her name but could only pray that she hadn't bitten her tongue under the pain.

[MONOARCH'S AUTHORITY HAS BEEN DOWNLOADED. HOST HAS ABSORBED 2,501,989 UNPROGRAMMED NANITES. NOW DOWNLOADING ELECTRIC EYES.]

Her head went back a second time, her mouth open in a silent scream as she felt something warm dripping down her face.

A moment later it was over and Leta's body went lax with exhaustion, nearly falling into the rapidly decaying troll body.

"Gods, lass!" Allister's bellow of shock reverberated through the room, making Leta wince at the painful echo.

"I'm good." Leta groaned, trying to get to stand on shaky legs. Allister saw her struggling and took hold of her arm to hoist her to her feet. "Yer bleedin' there."

She whipped her nose with the back of her hand and saw that it came away with a streak of blood.

[DOWNLOAD OF ELECTRIC EYES SKILL SUCCESSFUL. UNPROGRAMMED NANITES AVAILABLE, 114,684.]

'Jeez…' Leta was surprised at the red smeared across her hand, 'Gada, why am I bleeding? This hasn't happened before.'

[SOFTWARE DOWNLOADS CAN CAUSE STRAIN ON THE HOST'S ORGANS AS CELLS ARE REPROGRAMMED AND ADJUSTED. THE MONARCH SYSTEM WAS DESIGNED TO SLOWLY INTEGRATE SKILLS IN ORDER TO PUT THE LEAST AMOUNT OF STRAIN AS POSSIBLE ON THE HOST. MULTIPLE SKILL DOWNLOADS IN QUICK SECESSION CAN HAVE ADVERSE EFFECTS, SUCH AS NOSE BLEEDS, NAUSEA, VOMITING, AND IN EXTREME SITUATIONS, ORGAN FAILURE.]

'Gada, why the hell has it taken a week for you to tell me that I could die if I got too many skills at once?'

[THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF MULTIPLE SKILL DOWNLOADS WAS EXPLAINED IN THE INITIAL INTRODUCTORY TUTORIAL, WHICH THE HOST CHOSE TO SKIP DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS.]

'Awesome. Okay, put a reminder before I sleep to go over everything in the tutorial and more.'

[A REMINDER HAS BEEN SET.]

Leta looked up to Allister with an apologetic smile. "I'm okay. Sorry about that."

"The hell happened there, lass?" He frowned as she tried to whip more of the blood from her face.

When she saw that it had stopped bleeding, she responded, "It's complicated, but the short answer is that when I absorb vitality I can turn that vitality into a stepping stone to refine my talents and get better at using them. It's basically like learning a new skill immediately, which is very helpful but the downside is that too much at once can be bad for my brain."

Allister looked concerned as she cleaned the last of the nose bleed up. "Yer sayin' too much of this could kill ya?"

"Yes." She shrugged, "But… well, again it's complicated. Think of it like a cup. I can fill it with water, but eventually I can't fill it any more. I can use the water to heal cuts and bruises quick, but I can also use it to water the garden, so to speak."

They looked down at the two bodies that now looked more like mummies than monsters that they were a moment ago.

"Reminds me of a Plague."

She frowned, "Huh?"

"The Blessed version of a Healer is called a Plague. Boney creatures that looked like tall skeletons covered in flesh with no lips or eyes and sharp teeth. Every step they take steals the life from around it. Crops fail, people get sick with strange diseases, and livestock will suddenly drop dead in the field."

He shrugged with a bewildered expression on his face, "That or a Reaper. Those be the Blessed equivalent of an Assassin. Truth be speakin, I've never seen a Reaper, but from what I'm told they look like ghostly wraiths an' can kill with a touch."

Leta scowled, "Well, that's gross."

"Aye, they are. Let's be thankful that more often then not both of those fiends end up killing themselves with their powers early on in their infancy, or the world population would be a lot smaller."

They headed back through tunnels towards the rest of the team.

"Out of curiosity, what improvement did you make" Allister asked sheepishly.

Leta smirked, "The persuasion skill that I used on the thrall got better. Can't use on most of the Arisen, but for most human thralls I should be able to change their… operator?… to me. I can just change the beguiling to something like get a good nights rest and send them on their marry way."

The sudden lack of footsteps on the concrete floor had Leta turning around to see that Allister had stopped to stare at her wide eyes. "You can remove beguiling?"

She shook her head. "No. At least, not right now. I can touch a thrall and look it in the eye I can change it's master to me. Eventually, I should be able to get it so that I don't have to touch them. I think."

The giant looked at her with an expression close to awe. "Only Priestesses can do what yer talkin' about. What are ya, Leta lass."

Leta licked her lips, thinking for a moment about giving a sarcastic answer, but Allister had been hard yet kind, always pushing everyone to do better.

She didn't want to brush it off, but she didn't want to face the consequences of giving him the truth and rewriting his entire belief system that he'd held onto for probably centuries.

"I'm not going to ask you to keep this a secret, but can you try to keep what I'm going to tell you close to the vest for a while?"

He paused at the serious look on her face. "Aye, lass. I swear I will keep this conversation between us until it becomes absolutely necessary."

Leta nodded, kicking a concrete pebble as she through about how to best start this conversation. "You know the vision we see when our Talent's manifest?"

"Aye…" He said slowly, cautiously.

"When mine happened, I saw things that told me exactly what I was and what I'd become. At first I didn't really understand it's meaning - I was so new to this and I had no idea what to make of things. Then the attacks, meeting you guys and… well, it's been a heck of a ride. But the more I learned about the Chosen and Blessed, the more I came to understand what I am…"

Leta took a deep breath and squared her shoulders as she looked Allister in the eye. "You guys are right. I'm unique. There's literally never been someone like me in existence. I'm like the Crowns in terms of power, but my talents are completely different."

Allister's brows furrowed, "Get on with it, lass. What's what are ya."

She took a breath. "My class is called Monarch. I'm a Crown, and yet I'm not. I'm… something more."