13 TWLA 13

In light of their newfound knowledge and possessions, the three brainstormed best use of it all until King came to join them. Entering the cistern to find them throwing around information and ideas, the man looked on edge and wary. Thinking it best, Rainmaker stepped up to inform the tyrant of their discoveries and made some suggestions.

King said, "So, with nothing more than Blue Bird's word, you came up with the idea to shack up here for as long as we can to learn magic and let him 'fix' what the operators may have done to us?"

With a sour expression, Rainmaker said, "I fact checked what he was saying against my own senses, King. I checked it against the fractured stories that Rust and some of the other mentors have told us too. He doesn't know enough about this world to lie convincingly and he knows too much about the wrong things to be an operator spy."

The tyrant, not cleared of doubt, suggested, "There are others that might have found out about this place. We know he has connections to a family we don't know that much about. He could be a spy for them."

Rainmaker came dangerously close to blowing the argument my snorting. "And they sent him!? Please... I have a suspicion that he's a soul memory inheritor like you. I don't know how things went with you and Rust in those last moments before he died but I see the same signs. Knowing things but not knowing how or why, confident and sure one moment and completely confused the next, what does that sound like to you?"

"Dementia?" Caesar offered helpfully.

Two sets of withering gazes had him playfully hiding behind the 'boy' in question.

Jeremy said, "I know I'm asking for a lot of trust when we haven't even gotten past honesty yet but our real inner natures haven't just been twisted by this place. Things have been added in that don't belong.

"You were a lot earlier in that. I believe I can see the lines more clearly in you. It might not make you better or stronger but it would be yours. You could...I don't know how to say it better than 'grow'. I've already verified my guess with Caesar. He shouldn't have what he does and it's choking his potential.

"But... the divides aren't nearly as clear as they are in Rainmaker. Yours are practically dissolving on their own now. I mean, your little antler nubs are actual antlers and not some woody weird stuff. Before it's done, the corruption will stick the grafted crap back on without help, though.

"The problem is, I'm too new at this. I don't want to unleash my talent into Caesar until I know how things that don't belong were grafted on and over what should be there. You have animal, plant and even a touch of elemental stuff stuck on you.

"I almost did it for you already. But, if you let me 'see' what I was doing a little more clearly while I finish what I accidentally started... If I can see what they did to you, I can pry the fake off of Rainmaker with more confidence. She'll help me understand the much more delicate and sophisticated work they did to Caesar."

Rainmaker said, "I believe him. It makes too much sense. Remember what Tin Man said? He claimed that the only reason you didn't fall apart was more accident than design. Whatever you are could accept such a strange combination without killing you. You saw what happened to the rest of your drop. The only two that survived adaptation, nixed out while they were still young inside... They were the weakest nixed anyone had ever seen."

"Stop. I don't have a problem with my memory," King said bitterly. "Why would they do that, the grafting?"

Rainmaker said, "It's fairly simple, actually. The right combinations help them to awaken the talents they want, give faster maturity and limit future potential... They want us strong, fast. But, they don't want us growing beyond their ability to control or threaten."

She added, "Strictly speaking, handling that wouldn't require us to stay here but it would be easier and less risky. But, studying magic? It's going to be multiple times harder to get a feel for casting outside and we'd dare not do that in a base. "Picking up a few bread crumbs here and there is one thing. But, if the operators got wind of us learning magic, real magic, I-I don't know what they'd do but I doubt it would be anything good."

King's eyes grew stormy. "... That might be the biggest understatement I've ever heard."

Jeremy started meekly but gained momentum as he spoke. "I have something else to add for the reasons the operators do what they do... My inner nature was weak. It was so weak that the graft overtook it completely but it still expressed itself in my stigma.

"If it wasn't for what they did, I wouldn't have survived coming here. You see, they're starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel. I believe the talents they're finding are barely gifted enough for them to graft, much less send here. Instead of slowing down to 'breed more stock', they're actually speeding up. Caesar gave us a heads up that drops are becoming more frequent but the talent and training aren't that good."

The leafy headed young man said, "They're crap. They got poop resistance to corruption and dumpy ability... I know you're crouching barbar, hidden bada** but come on! You chewed through almost half a camp without hardly breaking a sweat!

"The operators are a lot more willing to work with nixed and nightmares too... Scamp thinks they're getting ready for something big and that they might be closing up shop soon. They've been dropping the 'glass beads for gems' tactic and been going straight for 'getting what they can get and glad for it' deals, left and right."

With a frustrated growl, King said, "Alright! I've heard enough. You've got two Hushes to convince me losing the opportunity to give this place up to the operators for rewards isn't worth what we'll get for using it til we're discovered or done with it."

It didn't take more than one. Jeremy had been right one one side but wrong on another about King. The man was shaking off the grafts but he wouldn't have needed any help to finish the job on his own. It would have merely taken more time.

When the last of the earth elemental rolled away, purified and reabsorbed into the mossy antlered white stag of King's inner nature, a sense of wellness and wholeness radiated out of him. A small welling of inner generated essence started trickling out of that symbolic place as well. Slow improvements to his supernatural senses let Jeremy identify it as spiritual essence, the most potent and useful beside eldritch.

After a half day of rest and magic study, the youngest member of their team turned his eyes to Rainmaker. In the beginning, he'd had high hopes it wouldn't be much more difficult but by the the third Hush they had spent there, he was beginning to understand the gravity of his choice. It was hard.

She wasn't just more complexly grafted. Rainmaker was damaged and fused in parts like ugly scars. In a burst of inspiration, he talked King into sacrificing a part of 'Blue Bird's cut of the spiritual and life bolstering chalcedony to the cistern's pool. Submerged in her element of affinity that was charged with with healing essences, her inner nature joined the fray in a bid for freedom.

Locked in a state of agony and ecstasy, Rainmaker writhed and moaned in Jeremy's embrace. It was incredibly distracting and difficult to deal with alone. It was a struggle for King and Caesar both as well. Oddly resistant to the pleasant side of the chalcedony's influence, 'Blue Jay' wondered why his two male companions had to switch out so often.

He became all too aware when King had to forcefully drag Caesar out. The leafy headed guy had stopped helping and started employing his hands to other self assisting activities. With a dark look on his face, King dragged Caesar out in an arm lock to keep from being the new target of overly affectionate skinship.

Challenges and interruptions hadn't stopped him from seeing it through, however. Dizzy and muddle headed, Jeremy only managed to get a peak of a fuzzy outlined, scarred and wounded black horse before he was kicked out of her deepest spiritual place. Nearly another Hush passed before he could keep clear minded enough to learn magic, much less think about starting on Caesar. But, time rolled on ceaselessly, even in such a timeless place.

Surprisingly, despite his consistent business and recovery periods, Jeremy wasn't falling behind his teammates in studies. While it was all new to them, it felt like he was remembering things at times. Still, with ever increasing urging from an anxiety ramping King, Blue Jay finally turned to his most difficult case yet. Except, it wasn't.

After the difficulties encountered with Rainmaker, Caesar turned out to be much easier than Jeremy could have possibly hoped. Experience, environment and still active supernatural resources played a big part in that. But, the leafy headed young man hadn't been in the twisted lands for nearly the same amount of time, either. The graft connections were definitely more complex but weren't anywhere near as settled as Rainmakers. They weren't anywhere close to as tangled and fused either.

Strangely, Caesar's inner nature was completely hidden from view. Under a dazzling brilliance, Jeremy could merely make out a faint humanoid form. Perhaps it was because of the symbolic nature of where he had been but Blue Jay came back into himself with a bouquet of wildflowers, honey and wine lingering in his nose and on his tongue. Unlike with the other two, he parted ways with Caesar's inner self feeling refreshed and invigorated.

Not so for Caesar. The poor guy looked pale and fatigued, like a person whose three day fever just broke. The water was fouled greatly and took Rainmaker nearly the entirety of a day to return it to clarity. The remaining chalcedony in the pool was completely gone.

Seeing Jeremy's confusion as Rainmaker carried the limp and deleafed guy to a pallet, King said, "You should have an idea of what happened. You don't remember the dark splinters, the foulness of the day we first met? It was a sight more pleasant purging than we hacked through. Just as well. He probably would have died from shock. We made it look easy but I can't even tell you how much that hurt."

Four more passing days of The Hush later saw the end of their stay in the safety, comfort and security of the underground shelter. King looked like he could walk the walls, he was so jittery. Rainmaker wasn't doing so well either. She looked a moment's thought away from forcing herself through to the other side of the Purity Gate.

The tyrant suddenly released his nearly bruising grip from Blue Jay as he felt The Hush officially end. "Any life threatening reason why we need to stay here for another breath?"

"If we don't leave soon, I may never. The call of the water on the other side is driving me mad," the lady of the party confessed.

King nodded. "No more reasons are needed for me to want to leave. It feels like this place will close in and crush me any moment."

"Aww, he didn't mean it, lil' Miss Shelter. You're a cozy little love shack," Caesar said, caressing a wall affectionately.

Although he seemed a great deal more resistant, Jeremy realized that the growing concentration of essences in the place was affecting them each in a different way. Then it dawned on him... The essence WAS getting thicker. King's instincts were warning him that staying was dangerous. Why Rainmaker's were driving her to an almost certainly suicidal act, Jeremy had no way of knowing but Caesar was simply acting like he was intoxicated.

Once they were back above ground, King had them double-timing away from the place like it was a missile strike target. No one missed Rainmaker's occasional longing glance back as they put as much ground between them and the place as King could safely push them to.

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