Chapter 91 – Seismic Shift

Tom’s mind interacted with the wood in his hands. The nature of the two different sections was clear to him, and he could see the paths that would let him alter both.

For almost a minute, he sat still, feeling out the exact quality of the changes that Baptiste had made. Using every aspect of the skill he could, he probed the sections and zeroed in on the underlying biological cells. It was, he discovered, exactly like what Baptiste had suggested it to be. It was the magic of the find-and-replace type rather than the transformation method that his skill naturally tended toward. The previous ironwood cells had been switched to becoming pine en masse. Even the leftover out of cell detritus had been replaced completely.

To his senses, half the wood had always been pine. This was not a cheap alteration to make the ironwood look like pine. It had been transformed into the softer wood at a fundamental and absolute level.

“Fascinating,” Tom muttered as he focused his attention on where the two woods merged, as well as at the sharp transition between the two cell types. Then he cycled through what his own ability could do. It couldn’t transform, but it could grow new cells, could impact the structure of dead cells and alter the existing ones. It wasn’t clear if he could do what Baptiste had asked him to, but he searched for a workaround anyway.

Another five minutes passed as he explored the various available options before finally settling on the type of adjustment he needed. While Baptiste’s talent had altered the nature of the cells, that was not what he could do. He could grow new cells, alter the expression of existing cells, and influence the pattern of the constructed fibres, but that was the extent of his abilities. He couldn’t just make a wish and then suddenly have an entire section change to pine. Tom set about duplicating the pot plant’s efforts with his inferior tool set. Tough linked lines of fibres ruptured, an occasional cell burst, and new cells that had fewer links with its neighbours were created. All of those changes acted on a fundamental level to make the wood softer.

The process was slow and after five minutes of effort that pushed his already stressed skill tolerance to the point of breaking, Tom stopped. A further ten percent of the lump of wood had been converted. For a proof of concept and first attempt, it was probably enough.

Wordlessly, he passed it to Baptiste.

The pot plant examined it curiously. “It’s not the same,” he finally said. A long, nasty thorn appeared on one of the vines; it plunged first into Baptiste’s section, then into Tom’s. Both times, the piercing action looked effortless courtesy of his friend’s strength and the softness of the wood. “Not quite as soft as what I created, but it was pretty close.”

Tom shrugged, pleased to having had mostly succeeded.

“Mind you, you’ve only changed a small amount, and the transformation appeared challenging.”

“My skill doesn’t work like yours,” Tom told him animatedly. “The further I have to shift the nature of the wood, the harder it is.”

“Ah,” he exclaimed. “So if it was only a tiny change, like enhancing it to be slightly harder, then you could do something like that easily. Is that right?”

“Yes. Well… kind of. I haven’t tested the efficiency.”

“Great, let’s practice.” The wood they had been using disappeared, and a new one appeared in its place. Together, they started playing with Tom’s ability to improve the wood. Providing he wasn’t trying to create a significant change, his skill proved to be surprisingly efficient. It had also grew easier to use, and he suspected he knew why.

With a thought, he imagined seeing the skill on the screen in front of him.

Skill: Living Wood Growth – Tier 2 – Level 4

You are able to make wooden plants grow to your desired specifications.

Threshold Bonus 4: Adjusting properties of the wood costs 70% less mana.

Sideways Evolution 1. You’re able to find a seed of life even in wood that others would assume is long dead.

The text had instantly appeared on a patch of the table free of obscuring weapons. Baptiste and anyone else in the line of sight could see it, but Tom didn’t care to keep this secret, and the profile he had entered already had all his sensitive information. There were no secrets to be had, but the evidence that this place worked like April’s trial was a godsend. 

He wanted to jump up and down in excitement, but stopped himself. While he used the ritual status screen in the isolation room regularly, it only provided two slots a day or sixteen per week. That was fine currently, but when the number of skills he possessed was going to increase, being limited like that would stop him from keeping regular track of his changes.

Then another thought occurred to him: what happened if, instead of this place being like April’s trial, it was actually better? What if the trial allowed him to skip the status screen restriction? He focused on a different thought. He wanted to see his true status sheet.

Text scrolled on the table, starting with his missing class and then attributes.

Panic flared in him, and he killed the scrolling information.

His heart was thumping.

That had almost been a mistake. A costly, pointless error, because it had displayed his own painfully constructed status sheet, not the clean system one. The ridiculousness of him nearly printing out his whole sheet shocked Tom’s sense of self confidence. He wasn’t supposed to make those types of mistakes, and he felt nauseous just imagining the damage it could have caused. 

He hadn’t thought to pre-block the title section.

Baptiste had been sitting next to him, and he had almost displayed all of his titles. The unredeemable injury it would have done to him and any other pre-system child watching could have been immense. Tom felt sick thinking about it, and it wasn’t like he was sure the system would have prevented the mistake.

DEUS would, if she could; but the other GODs had a say in the rules of this place, and who knows what they had collectively decided was appropriate.

Idiot, he berated himself internally. He couldn’t believe he had made that mistake. 

“What was that?” Baptiste asked suspiciously, probably picking up both on his actions and some of Tom’s panic. 

“It was my handcrafted status sheet,” the table had returned to showing only his Living Wood skill. Given Baptiste had been paying attention ,Tom was glad his instincts had kicked in as quickly as they had.

“Why would you do that?”

The first couple of responses he thought up were aggressively stopped by Social Silence. He coughed and spluttered as he tried to regain control over his vocal cords.

“Are you sick or something?”

“No, my throat was irritated.”

The plant’s body language reflected confusion and suspicion.

“It’s a human thing.” He volunteered.

“Sounds annoying.” Baptiste stated in a clipped tone, clearly not fully convinced.

Tom smiled at that description. Social Silence was, by design, both a blessing and a curse, so at times that second part of its nature made it annoying. However, overall, it was designed to help him and benefit him, and it did just that.

“It can be very frustrating,” Tom agreed. “As for your question... I find quantifying my advancements helps me maintain my motivation. That might also be a human thing.” He smiled wryly.

“No, it sounds pretty cool, actually. Not something pre-system people usually do, but I might talk to my elders to determine if it could help me. Now,” a vine extended to tap the piece of wood Tom held. “No more distractions. Let’s see you make it resistant to fire.”

There were no more breakthroughs in the session, but it was fun. Once Tom started to grow tired, he begged off and took control of his cocooned body. Within seconds, he was fast asleep.

The next day when he exited the isolation room Briana herded both him and Kang straight back into it.

“What’s this about?” Kang asked the moment the door shut, and the chime went off to indicate that the room was secure.

Briana stood in front of them, determination written across her face. “I want to do what Eloise did. Help me.”

They both looked at each other, wordlessly communicating the next steps. Tom flicked his head at Kang aggressively.

The other boy sighed. “Why, Tom? Why do you always leave it to me?”

“Leave what?” the irate six-year-old snapped. “Are you guys being meanies? What’s he leaving?”

“The hard conversations.” Kang answered her.

“What’s hard? I need to do what she does, and I’m good at magic. I’ll learn. And you can both help.”

“Briana,” Kang said carefully. “Eloise uses force magic. Presumably she has a high affinity for it. You don’t.”

“I can use water.” She flicked her hand and a missile shot out and struck the combat dummy hard.

Tom winced.

That was a new spell, and it was powerful. Based on the slight tears in the combat dummy and the sound of the collision, if it struck his unarmoured flesh, it would cut skin and muscle open, and potentially even damage bone.

“I just need to use it to do the stepping things.”

“I don’t think it will work with water.

“Don’t be big meanies! She was faster than me!”

“I guess we can look at what’s available,” Kang said helplessly. “But I’ve never heard of water being able to do that.”

“Water walk?”

“Is not what she wants,” Kang answered Tom with a little heat. “Don’t give her false hope. Force Step and Air Step are well-known low-tier aerial movement techniques. But there is nothing similar for any of the other affinities.”

“I disagree. I could… I mean I’ve heard you can kind of do it with earth.”

Kang shot him another annoyed look. “I’d be surprised if that’s possible without the use of a domain.”

Tom thought about his own experience and exactly when his control of earth had transitioned into something he could use for aerial mobility. “Yeah, now that I think about it, you’re probably right.”

Briana, meanwhile, was staring at them with a mix of disbelief, hope, and growing annoyance.

“Every domain can do it.” Kang continued his lecture. “But as a low-tiered water spell? I’m not sure it’s possible. Maybe with her storm affinity…”

“Storm is even less likely than water.” Tom told him. “She wants a low-mana spell. Storm has great movement techniques, but they cost too much mana for her to learn.”

“How do you know that?”

Tom said nothing. Briana was watching them dangerously.

“Why do you know that?”

“Kang,” Tom hissed at him. They were being too careless. “I checked what was available in her other affinities. Arcane is the most likely here.” He whispered, hoping Briana wouldn’t overhear.  

“Stop doing secrets,” she insisted and marched over to the cupboard that held all the spell wire frame diagrams. She threw it open. “Kang. Help me check, please. You’re the best reader.” She pulled out the water domain booklet. 

It was obvious that Kang wanted to run, but Briana seemed to sense that and cornered him.

“Please - it won’t take long. Please, help. Don’t be a meanie. I need this.”

Reluctantly, Kang sat down and went through the pages of spell names with her. None of the names were anything like air step, and the other boy stopped reading.

“You don’t need this, Bri. You have other strengths that would be better to pursue. It doesn’t matter if Eloise is better at this one thing.”

That was exactly the wrong thing to say. Her frustration that had been building went to the next level. One hand went to her hip, and with her other she poked him on the chest.

“No,” Briana snapped. “No, she beat me too easily. I need mid-air water jump.”

“There isn’t a spell like that.” Kang retorted in frustration. “We just read both Storm and Water. There was nothing there that could be changed to be used like force step!”

Tactically, they had steered her away from Arcane. Both of them knew that getting her to open a new affinity, especially only her fifth strongest, was stupid, and if she realised the solution to her current problem was in Arcane, that is exactly what she would do, and there would be nothing they could do to stop her. 

“I’ll make a new spell then. The teacher said you could craft your own spells.”

“Experts can create their own spells.” Kang looked at him. “Come on, give me some help here.” He implored.

“Well, with physics, there’s two ways you can…”

“Not that type of help,” Kang interrupted him. “Tell her why it won’t work.”

“No… Tom what were you saying about fizz- Fizz sticks,” she stumbled over the word, unable to pronounce it properly.

“Physics,” Kang said, glaring at Tom. “But it doesn’t matter. I’ve read everything, and there isn’t a spell you can use as a base. So there’s no point worrying about it.”

“What does phy, phy stick.” Briana stuttered. “What were you saying? How do I get it working? What are the two ways?”

“You don’t have either of the affinities that can. The spells don’t support it. Focus on what you’re good at.”

“Kang, stay out of it.”

“You asked me to help.”

“I asked you to help me read,” her face went red. “Let Tom speak. You’re being rude.” She looked at him.

“Water magic may not support… wait,” he said hurriedly as he saw her preparing to object. “Let me finish, please. I’m trying to be helpful. Water magic may not support what you want to be doing. But to duplicate an air step you either need to manifest water and hold it still enough that you can jump on it, or shoot water out of your feet fast enough to propel yourself upwards.”

Briana said nothing for a moment. Her face was screwed up in thought, almost as though thinking was painful. She looked from Kang to him, with her face screwing up more and more. Then she went absolutely white.

“Briana, what’s wrong?” he asked in sudden concern.

The little girl glanced between them rapidly. She attempted to form words, but couldn’t.

“Just talk,” Kang advised.

“Tom, how do you know all that? And how do you both talk so well? Kang was reading words I had never heard before. How did you know them? It doesn’t make sense.”

“I practice lots,” Kang started.

“No, stop,” Briana ordered, her hand reaching out in an attempt to cover the taller boy’s mouth. “It’s my turn. I… it.” Her gaze kept switching from one to the other, and her eyes were filled with horror. She was almost hyperventilating. “What aren’t you telling me?” She licked her lips and then they all saw another flood of realisation. An increased conviction in what she had already worked out. She took an unsteady step backwards. “Are you going to die like Ba?”

“What are you saying?” Kang responded, desperately trying to hide who he was.

“I don’t know what you’re suggesting.” Tom tried at the same time.

“Are you going to die like Ba?” She stared at them, one after the other. There were now tears in her eyes. “It’s both of you,” she whispered, sounding shocked. “We’re not talking about this. Never. Don’t talk. Don’t ask. Don’t question.” She repeated the familiar mantra like it meant more to her all of a sudden. Like what had always been something adults repeated continuously, but had no meaning had been transformed into wisdom that was the difference between life and death. “Don’t talk. Don’t ask. Don’t question.”

“Briana.” Kang tried.

But she put her fingers in her ears. “Nah, Nah! Nah, Nah!”

“Briana, we need to talk?”

“Nah, nah, can’t hear you.”

She was scrunching her eyes shut, hand over ears and yelling loud enough to drown them out.

“It’s important.” Tom tried.

“Can’t hear you, can’t hear you.” Her shouts were hysterical. She ran to the door and triggered the exit.

Tom went to stop her, but Kang’s hand closed over his shoulder to hold him in place. “No. don’t. It’s too late”

The doors opened. Kang’s arms had dropped to his side, and his face was a schooled neutral.

Briana ran out. She had left the isolation room. They couldn’t confront her even if they wanted to.

With agonising slowness, the doors shut, and there was another chime to demonstrate privacy.

She knew! That was the only thoughts his mind could hold. There were disasters and there was this. Bri was six, and she had worked out their secret. Their lives were dependent on a six-year-old. Tom wanted to collapse. He wasn’t sure there was anything he could do to save the situation.

Kang rounded on him. “Physics, Tom - what were you thinking?”

“The damage was already done.” His mind was running over the conversation and the incongruities that had occurred. “I reckon she had already figured it out by then.”

“Bullshit.”

“She suspected from the start. She wasn’t asking children to give her that solution. If we were normal kids, how would we be able to help her with her magic? How could a normal six-year-old help there? She was asking for more.”

“I’m not sure. If you hadn’t explained physics…”

“Kang, it wasn’t just me. Water Metamorphosis, Nauseous Murk, Induced Aneurysm, Ephemeral Drowning - what six-year-old can not only read and pronounce them, but also know what each of them meant?”

His friend froze as he realised exactly how badly he, too, had stuffed up. “I just got lost in the moment.”

“We both did.”

“But we can solve this.” Kang said optimistically. “Get her into an isolation room. Gaslight her into forgetting.”

Tom shook his head. “I reckon that horse has bolted.”

“We can’t do nothing. Why are you so calm? Do you know how dangerous this is for us?”

“I’m not an idiot. We might have already written our death sentences. But there’s not much we can do if that’s the case. But I also don’t think she’s going to dob on us.”

“It’s not what she’ll let slip deliberately.” Kang looked at him in frustration. “It’s the mind reading, the psychic examinations. It won’t be her choice. They’ll get into her brain and steal the information. I’ll set up an emergency meeting with Dimitri. There has to be precedent.”

Tom grabbed him before he could move. “Absolutely not.”

“Why?” Kang asked.

“What’s happens if his response is to kill her?”

“He wouldn’t,” the other boy blustered. “No, he wouldn’t do that.”

“Who’s more valuable?” Tom questioned rhetorically. “Dimitri’s a good man, but… Can you be sure he won’t overreact?”

“No, he’ll just oath bind her or something.”

“Can he? Removing loose ends might be the only choice they have. I can see a situation where oath binding could make the problem worse. First, it’ll attract attention to her, and second, we’ll have adults doing the ritual, which creates another weak link. I can’t be sure. We’re not telling Dimitri.”

“We can’t just do nothing!”

Tom put his head in his hands. He remembered her expression and the mantra she had been chanting. Briana was not going to deliberately betray them, but other things could go wrong. The mind reading, the change in behaviour. She was only six. She couldn’t be expected to react to this maturely, and, as much as he wanted to believe in Dimitri, he knew the pressure the competition put people under.

He had seen firsthand how good people had done unimaginable things because of a perceived need. As much as he liked him, he could see the situation where Dimitri dealt with the issue by summarily executing her. This was not something he could deal with himself, because he didn’t have all the information required. He needed proper advice.

“I’m going to talk to Corrine.”

“And how do you plan on doing that? Because if your plan is to drag her into an isolation room, I’ll stop you. I’m not about to let you expose her.”

“Once more, Kang, I’m not an idiot. I know I occasionally say stupid things, but in tactical situations like this I’m good. There was a reason I was as valued as I was.”

“You’re pulling rank on me?”

“No. I’m not pulling rank, but I will ask Corrine. I made it into the Divine Champions’ trial, and, provided she’s in it at the same time, we can talk, and do it safely. There is no risk. No one can overhear.”

“You did what? What do you mean that you can talk to her anytime you want?”

“Sorry, I’m going to go. I’m sure my avatar is capable of answering your questions, but try to stay in here as long as possible. I’ll get proper advice and be back soon.”

Before Kang could stop him, he mentally took a sideway step, and a moment later he was on blue grass. “Is Corrine here?” he asked immediately.

“Yes.”

He turned to face the construct that had once more appeared in his blind spot. “Take me to her.”

He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t even know how to evaluate how screwed he was. All he could do was hope that Corrine had knowledge that could help them. Because he didn’t need a doctorate in psychology to know that putting his life in the hands of a six-year-old was a terrible idea.

AG. Writing this was fun.

Sometimes when I construct a scene, the logical progression that follows, i.e. how the character reacts to the event presented results in outcomes that I wasn’t expecting. It adds spice to the creation process and is I love it when it happens.

The story plan for this particular section was for Briana to push to learn a force step equivalent.

That was it.

Them revealing themselves as they did was just the logical outcome of how the scene played out… It also has the wonderful impact of materially distorting my planned story progression for the next couple of weeks as we sort out the consequences of this. Nevertheless, I think it was right. Kang and Tom screwed up and now they have to find out the consequences of their mistake.

PS.  I never accidentally kill vital characters for the overall book progression, but I have eliminated characters by accident in previous series who were important because of scene progression. Kozzie from my first series springs to mind as the most impactful of one of these unplanned events.