Country of Champions 13

Justice looked at Orison in confusion as the young mage hesitated to walk off the floating platform onto the dock. To compound the matter, not only did stepping onto the dock feel like a prelude to death but staying where he was slowly starting to feel just as dangerous. The young mage scanned through option after option, finding no release from the imminent crisis.

Orison turned to his conduit, wondering why the Keystone wasn't responding to his need. It stirred sluggishly from his intense focus on it. He picked up a flash of his agave plants and the tumbler glass a certain booze loving fallen angel had handed him once.

"You want me to make tequila!?" Orison thought with no answer.

With the feeling of impending death from either side seeming like a mere couple of seconds away, the young mage reached through to his plane intending on pulling one out. With little left but a mutual death retribution by withdrawing the miniatures sun of his plane, he hoped dropping an agave would give him enough time to ask if anyone knew how to make booze with it, because he sure didn't.

With his will firmly wrapped around the plant, he yanked only to find it gone. Turning his attention to the outside world, the imminent threat of death had disappeared as well but it was replaced by several dozens of Dr. Odd induced timeline echos of himself rushing to join him. Among them was one that was extra bright and real looking enough that he was sure others could see it. And they could, for the tenth of a second it took before it fused with him.

That wasn't the only special thing about the bright echo. It carried memories as well. Despite Orison's soul taking the brunt of learning, his mind still almost broke down trying to process a little over three years of additional memories.

Most of the unimportant and repetitive stuff was lost but he'd apparently taken a little vacation with Sammy to learn how to make tequila. At least, a version of him did. And wherever it was that she had taken him, that place wasn't affected by Dr. Odd's time reversal even though the young mage himself was.

He decided to not even bother trying to figure out what low dimension BS happened and focused on absorbing as much as he could of the time he spent under Sammy's 'fallen' wing. To make her special brews wasn't easy. It took a sliding scale of knowledge from multiple disciplines. From mundane chemistry through esoteric alchemy, it even had touches of potioneering and medicine making added in.

Insisting on making extra anejo or nothing at all, Sammy took all but the scant immature agave Orison had and prepped it all into a couple different unique batches. While they waited the three years it took, the fallen angel walked him through all that she had done, throwing a lot of extra knowledge to fill in the bases around whatever skill was needed from this discipline or that. There were a few fuzzy patches here and there but considering the amount of time three years actually represented, it's a wonder he hadn't lost a lot more in translation.

The Orison she had was almost machine-like in focus and seemed to have little desire out of completing his 'debt of service' to the cigar loving supernatural. He had a sneaking suspicion he'd been 'used' for a whole lot more but being that it was some kind of spiritual doppelganger with little life of its own, he didn't mind. He had gotten a lot out of it.

Towards the end of his tenure in her special 'elsewhere', the young mage had even done a little DIY that, sure enough, was sitting on the open part of his space. It wasn't much, just a cabin with standard fixings, bookshelves and some parts for housing bathroom, stove and sink. Somewhere along another fuzzy part, the place was finished to an amazing degree with enchanted features he had no idea when were added.

All the alchemy work he'd put in during that time, along with some 'attaboy' rewards, were neatly stored into a locked pantry. He hadn't had such a robust collection of potions, medicines and alcohol since before he'd left Amoril. He also hadn't felt so confident in his alchemy craft since he left that willful world either.

As the memories finished pouring in, he realized why Sammy had been so kind and generous with him. The supernaturally touched agave may have gotten her attention but what opened the doors to some private tutoring was the theft of a gold coin. Of the three things his conduit managed to grab for him, it had been the most powerful feeling although he'd never figured out what it did. The fallen angel's own dice cup conduit had snatched it up before he or Sammy could stop it.

He wondered if the gold coin had been picked up by the keystone for that very reason. If so, it was terrifyingly powerful but Orison wondered how much of that would translate into the mid dimensions. The Danann Key had also been powerful beyond belief but had suffered a fairly grim downgrade in abilities to affect things up there.

A sudden ruckus, knocked him out of the memory absorbing reverie. Before he could focus on that, however, a wiff of all too familiar cigar smoke wafted past his nose.

"Now don't be givin no guff bout dem doin their jobs. Dey didn't mean no real harm to ya. Yo death revenge carries a wallop an dey wanted to find a way to deal with dat. Because dey did, dey don't have to pack you away to use as an ace up da sleeve, if you feel me... Dat gif box is fo dem," a rough sounding woman's voice and cigar smoke scent faded together.

Orison thought, "I suppose trying to find out how to deal with an exploding basketball sized chunk of pseudo-sun that my plane uses wouldn't be an easy fix. It speaks well of the Truimverate for not defaulting to turning me into a disposable one time problem solver and doing this multi-death tester strategy instead. Then again, it's not like I plan on bending over for them and becoming a disposable tool of any kind."

A somewhat familiar gravelly voice said behind him, "What gives? I thought you said I could kill him once and it would be alright. I still haven't paid him back for popping one of my grapes... I already cut back on the cursing ain't I?"

The young mage turned around to see a hulking blue skinned man treading water not too far behind him with Justice standing between them.

He smiled in bittersweet nostalgia and said, "Gravat, of all the people I could have ran into elsewhere, you would be very low on my wish list but I'm glad to see you made it out of that soul trap of a place. You're welcome for helping Pelenel get you out of there a little faster. How is he?"

Gravat snorted and trudged out of the water. "Your kissing cousin and that little limp-wristed bunny boy who started hanging on his apron strings took off to somewhere else."

Orison sighed. "I got the impression that Theo likes anybody who likes him. I doubt what equipment they have has anything to do with it. If Pelenel took him with, I'm sure there's an explanation that's a lot more flattering than the one you're trying to paint but whatever."

A naked middle aged woman cleared the treeline along with a very tired and slightly older looking Dr. Odd in a white linen shift.

She said, "My big blue boy, the way you speak your personal truth so generously and with an unclouded heart is so beautiful. Don't smear it with the ugliness of trying to speak other's truths with such a clouded heart."

Seeing Gravat's transformation from chest beating prick to chastised kid, Orison thought, "Someone can actually reign in that walking colon cancer of a testosterone factory!?"

The woman walked over and ran a hand down Gravat's arm in a motherly display of affection and said, "Underneath that rough outside is a diamond just waiting for the whole world to admire."

Despite a slight sense of illness at the thought, Orison said, "Duran thinks highly of him as well and he's got a fairly reliable spiritual advisor. I have a hard time seeing it but I trust that."

"How is the little guy doing? Did he find himself a girl that's down with scratching his hard to reach places?" Gravat curled his pinky finger and wiggled it with a lewd grin.

"Better off than we are. He's already in the mid dimensions. His girlfriend's more foul mouthed than you and pretty powerful from what little I can gather," the young mage said.

The middle aged woman frowned and Dr. Odd said, "Now, Aurora. The phoenix lady solved more problems than she caused in the end. With a little generosity, we can consider her one of the good ones."

Gravat looked between Orison and the two triumvirates in surprise. "Stinky pinky landed the phoenix lady!? Maybe I should have been asking him for advice."

While Aurora gave the shambling parody of hyper-masculinity another self positive pep talk, Orison handed the gift box to Dr. Odd and said, "Sammy told me to give you guys this."

While Dr. Odd and Aurora were pawing through the box that contained three bottles of 'Doc Agave' and a small share of medicines made from resources primarily obtained from his plane, Justice stood beside him.

In a bitter, almost accusatory voice, the gray eyed man said, "Hinting around at secrets without saying anything, my attempts to help a youngster through this must have seemed pitiful to you. You probably know more than me."

Orison shrugged helplessly. "It's not so much a matter of what I know, it's the things I don't but need to that scare me. And believe me, Justice. You and your sister are the only reason I could make it this far. I can't imagine the hardships I would have had to endure otherwise."

Dr. Odd came up to them and said, "Do you know what the items in that box can do?"

The young mage nodded while he said dramatically, "Nooo. Of course I don't."

The old magician sent Justice on a quick errand and then said, "New life extension items are a gift precious beyond counting. No one can know about them. Institutional dinosaurs like Aurora and myself have built up a resistance to just about every known and available ones there are. We aren't the only ones.

"If, by some chance, Sammy gave you some as well, find some covert way of dolling it out if you are so inclined. Once anyone notices the effect, tell them that you slipped them some 'Triple Seven'. It's a relatively well known, recently made unavailable booster medicine that almost everyone beyond a certain level has already built up a tolerance for."

The young mage readily agreed and thanked the old magician for his advice. After which Dr. Odd excused himself to share a toast with Aurora to wash the medicines down with. Several fully equipped personnel appeared from the woodwork to look after the two Triumvirate members as they sunk into a temporary stupor. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Orison asked Gravat how everything had turned out on Osomo.

Through the long winded brag that followed, Orison managed to piece together a decent idea. Not much of anything changed. In a dramatic play of events, the four sisters and a few select First Family were sequestered in their floating city continuing to let the heart of Osomo keep the status quo. They were pouring over what Osomo's drag net had collected over the years and were focused on becoming climbers.

To the small group that had helped them personally, the sisters handed out some of the less desirable legacies and boundary items. The rest of the discard stash had been placed into the Osomo reward system. Since none of the remaining First Family had any particular desire to stay and the Heart of Osomo wasn't something they had the ability to claim or even tamper with directly, they adopted a few of the surviving 'loyal' from among the fallen families to act as custodians of the planet.

Since Orison wasn't there to receive any gratitude for his assistance to the sister's plans, that gratitude trickled down to people like Mo and Mylar. The greater amount of Draconos adoptions might have had a little to do with it as well. Even the Nunnos family that had been stripped of a great deal of it's glory, still hung by a thread because of Aiden and Bran Nunnos being spared the royal status purge. All because they had positive interactions with the young mage once and actively spoke against the pursuit of Stag and Orison.

He thought to himself, "If they had any idea of the sheer amount of climber wealth we had ripped off from them, I doubt the sisters would have felt the same way. Thank you, Duran. And thank you, Wick!"

Orison was thinking that he and the blue man might actually get along until, as if musing to himself, Gravat said, "I really looked forward to smashing you greasy once, maybe even rubbing one out with your guts while I thought about that Rino girl. She could really take it all, if you know what I mean. What am I saying? Of course you don't."

As the storm clouds built up in the back of Orison's mind, Aurora said, "Oh, you did, sweet child. Not that last part but you did kill him three times. You didn't survive long after. The strangest thing was that he seemed to adapt and his actions became more complicated, harder to predict with every new time. The fourth through the eighth times he managed to kill you before suicide to get the rest. If you believe yourself strong enough to relive the trauma of burning into ashes, erupting into radiation filled blisters and a litany of other more painful things, I could show you."

The blue man looked a little pale for a moment before he said with a smirk, "No. That's all right. Like you say, little mamma. I should just live my own truth and not worry about how I measure up. I am my own greatest opponent, right?"

Aurora smile brightly and patted his arm before sauntering off, filled with satisfaction. After pulling off what little he had on and proudly swinging around his 'personal truth' a couple of times, Gravat walked off deeper into the island with a satisfied look of his own.

Orison rolled his eyes and as he turned towards Justice. "Jumping clown."

Gravat's parting superiority jab may have slid over the young mage but had found a susceptible target in the gray eyed man. Personal confidence was a private hell that didn't want visitors. With no other reason to be there, to attempt emotional damage control in the only way he knew how, Orison was about to suggest they leave. He didn't have patience left for any elbow rubbing time with the top brass and whoever else was frolicking about further inland anyway.

A lavender eyed waif of a woman with a purple highlighted curtain of black hair that matched the drapes, distracted him from that thought. "In all the revelations and libations, Triumvir Aurora forgot to induct you into The Weird. Just think of it as the mystical, psionic equivalent of the UTF internet... Place your hand here and let me feel a touch of your... potent... spirit essence and I'll show you how to... connect."

The woman held Orison's hand and moved it to her sheer, hides nothing, fabric covered chest. There was something predatory about her eroticism that kept Orison's mild curiosity from becoming anything more. Still, he followed her directions even as her hand moved his to lower destinations. In the brief moment he felt his weak psionic talent touch a trembling web of other essence lines leading to a dense bundle of stored information, a third hand joined theirs.

Pulling his focus to the world around him, the young mage saw that Justice stopped the woman from sending one of his fingers on an interesting but not entirely wanted journey at the moment. "That would count as an unprovoked supernatural assault, Juniper."

Releasing Orison's hand, she replied, "Not today. Not here and it never really has. Besides, in case you didn't know, both he and I are 'scratch and sniffs'. Who knows if it even works on him?"

Starting to get the idea, Orison looked down at his hand to see a small drop of clear liquid starting to seep in and under spirit vision, he could see that it was slowly infiltrating his capillaries. With no clear idea of what it was or what it could do, Orison brought out his trusty but slowly disintegrating dagger that hadn't quite managed to survive the second boundary crossing. With a decisive swipe, he cut off the majority of a finger pad and part of the tip.

While he worked on stopping the blood flow and cleaning the cut off piece of finger, a little nauseated from the sight of the wound, Juniper said, "I-it wasn't that serious, alright! A little year of fun and I'd be out of your system. You know what... Have your your herm friend and his just as surgeon butchered sister show you the ropes. Since you're such a prude like them, it would probably be just as boring a time."

Summoning up a custom built block of character attacking vitriol to sling at her retreating back, he swallowed it down when he saw the hurt but still sympathetic look Justice gave her.

"The sad thing is, I think I would have kind of liked the scene but with toxic people like her and the grape ape a part of it, I'll hard pass. Please get me out of here, Justice," Orison said, feeling a little defeated for some reason.