Once they reached the quarry, Lucas once again confirmed with Kyle that this was what he wanted. Then asked him to be quiet while he spoke to the foreman. The story they had worked out was one that implied Kyle was Lucas’ cousin from out of town and here looking for work for a few weeks. At least that was what Ild’engel had translated for him.
The foreman spoke to Lucas, clearly rebuking him for leaving the jobsite during the day, but after hearing this story he turned an appraising eye on Kyle. His size alone must have impressed the man, because he was immediately hired to start work. The voice in his head assured him it had far more to do with the essence leaking off of him, whatever that was, than with mere size.
He continued to follow Lucas, until they arrived at a spot where they were to break off pieces of limestone that were then carried away by other men with handcarts. Altogether, the system seemed very efficient. For his part, Kyle was actually ready to get his hands dirty and do some mindless work.
It was like batting practice. By this point in his career, or the career he’d had before ending up here, he didn’t need to think about it. Swinging a bat just came instinctively to him, and it was a time that his mind was free to ponder anything else. Usually, that included going through likely pitching matchups for the next game, but the point was that breaking rock seemed appealing to him.
It would allow him the chance to get more answers from Ild’engel.
When they handed him a pickaxe, he almost laughed. It looked more like a child’s toy than a tool in his hands. Remembering his inadvertent leaps and how even walking felt funny, he knew that if he swung this, he would end up breaking it. That prompted him to start looking around. Nothing leapt out at him as a suitable tool.
Maybe that was okay though. This could be a chance for him to practice control rather than power. It was like when he would choke up on the bat. It was all about precision and putting the ball into play rather than popping it out of the yard. Nodding, Kyle decided he could work with this.
Lucas showed him where he was to work, and the other men had all clearly stopped working to watch him. Even the foreman was watching from a distance. Kyle wasn’t sure how he knew that, but he could feel their appraising eyes on him. Perhaps it was like when a scout watched him play.
Oh well. He smiled and decided to put on a show for them.
He looked at the wall of rock that he was supposed to work on and started swinging the pick. Kyle was careful to only use a small portion of the strength he could feel in this body. Even then the pick sunk all the way to the shaft into the limestone and spidery cracks went out from the spot he had struck.
Lucas sucked in his breath behind him, and he wasn’t the only one, but Kyle just ignored them. He quickly pulled the pick back out. That wasn’t what he had intended to do.
Dammit, he would master this. He was Kyle Hudson. There was no one in the world—no one in the history of the world—who was better with a bat than him. What did it matter if it was a Louisville slugger or a pickaxe?
Kyle went to work, firing off quick rhythmic blows. The rocks that he chipped away were much larger than the ones the other workers managed, but he kept going. He had been right. It felt good to just hit something. As he got into the flow of it, things started to feel natural, and he found each blow was knocking away more and more of the rock.
It was almost like the pick was becoming sturdier. But he didn’t care. He only cared that he was doing something. Doing something meant that he didn’t have to worry about his problems as much. He was lost in a world that he knew nothing about, trusting a voice in his head. That, or he was insane. Either way, all he could do was act.
His hands felt warm. It was almost as though the heat flowed through him and into the tool in his hands. Then from there, it flowed into the rock.
“Careful, you are drawing too much attention. Even these nearly blind mortals are going to see that you are something more,” Ild’engel said in his head.
“What do you mean?” Kyle thought back.
“I didn’t say anything at first because I was thrilled that you were utilizing essence so instinctively. I apologize for my earlier doubts. You are clearly not a mortal. If this menial task is what is necessary to help you learn your power, then so be it. But you are using your essence to shape the world around you.”
“I’m just swinging a pickaxe at some rock. What could be more mundane than that?” Kyle replied.
“No, that isn’t what you are doing. You may not consciously realize it. Not yet, at least, but you are pushing War Essence into the formerly mundane tool and then through it into the rock. Look around you.”
Sure enough, when Kyle looked around, he found that he had broken through ten feet of rock. It had felt like only moments. That couldn’t be right. The foreman was yelling at the other men to get back to work, but they still were all just staring at him.
All around him, broken chunks of
