“Thanks for making me do this. I actually do feel much better about it.”
“Good. I’m glad. Now, come on. Let’s keep practicing. I want to go over telekinesis again with you, as well.”
I found telekinesis was so much easier, and I could also see why Ember was clearing her mind in her spare time. The leaps and bounds you could make with your skills were remarkable. I could now do all the tricks Ember had done with the balls, but better than that, I could lift my ass up from the floor by about ten feet, easily. Although horizontal movements were still precarious, I could do it.
We trained for quite a few more hours. When we were done, we invited Elyek to have a meal with us, and later offered to watch the bridge while they got some rest. Elyek refused, insisting they didn't need to sleep in the same way we did, and would take a few hours after we had slept.
I won’t lie, we were both dead on our feet to be honest. I really needed to rest, and I imagined Ember would have felt pretty much the same. We went to bed, too exhausted for anything other than hugs. I was out like a light in minutes.
When I woke up, Ember was gone. A minor pang of worry shot through me, but I stifled it. We were safe on our ship. All was good. I still got ready in a hurry and made my way to the bridge. Ember was there alone, messing with a hand terminal while draped over her chair, eating an apple.
“An apple? I hadn’t even thought to get fruit from the FSU.”
“Yeah. They're yummy too! You should go get one,” she replied.
“Nah, I don't really like fruit too much.”
She gave me a black look in return, and said no more about it.
“So, what's happening?” I asked, a little confused.
“I got up a few hours ago and took over from Elyek. I’ll continue until they wake, then I’ll come and help you train some more. First, how about you go and get us some breakfast. I was just eating this until you woke your lazy ass up. I could really do with a proper breakfast. After that, you could go and train until I get there. Then we’ll get to your favorite job of all, clearing again. It’s by far the most important thing for us to do, and the further we go with it, the more I see how important it is. It’s probably the one thing Ogun should have had us doing once we transcended. I don’t think he knew half as much as he pretended to.”
“Who knows what he was thinking. But fuck Ogun, we can look after ourselves just fine,” I said, before heading to the canteen to rustle us both up a fried breakfast. I was strong, and I held off on the fried bread. Putting the breakfasts on a tray, I grabbed a jug of coffee too. Ember seemed to be pleased with my choice, as she tucked in with relish.
After breakfast I went to the gym. Although I had been told to work on my Mental Abilities, I really felt the need to get my heart pumping. I did a 20-minute burst of exercise, consisting of a combination of calisthenics and bag work. I’d worked up a grand old sweat by the time I'd finished and happily moved to working on levitation. Though I was loathe to admit it, I was glad Ember had talked me into practicing. With a fresh mentality toward it, the skills were coming easier.
Ember joined me after a couple of hours. I was more than happy to start our clearance once more. We cranked the temperature right back up while we were working hard in our Mindscapes. It seemed an excellent way to acclimatize my body to the excessive heat, without even having to be there to suffer it.
By the end of the day, the mental cleansing, and the duress our bodies had been under from the heat, had taken an uncanny toll on us. We were absolutely exhausted.
There remained around one-quarter of the original mess left to store away, and I’d hit level 103. My Constitution had moved up another 15 points, Wisdom another five and Mental Clarity was sitting at 64%. I was a bit confused by that, but I’d probably just overestimated how much stuff had been there to tidy originally.
I was now ahead of Ember on level and Mental Clarity, and I felt bad for her, I'd have to make sure that I returned the favor after this combat. For now though, I just needed to rest. We expected the call to come tomorrow for my fight.
Not for the first time these past two days, I wished Calegg was here to offer advice on Torax fighting styles and customs in duels such as this. It would have been great to spar with him too, in preparation. Not to mention it would have been fun to kick the cheeky bastard’s ass a bit.
I woke before Ember the next day, full of nervous energy. We had acclimatized to the galactic 27-hour clock, but it was still mighty odd to me. Rolling out of bed, I jumped straight in the shower. The proper one, too, not the goddamn powdered one. Despite respecting its convenience, I still didn’t trust that piece of shit after my horrific ordeal at its hands on the Thoth.
By the time I got out, Ember was stirring. Opening her eyes, she looked at me with a puzzled expression. “You okay, Shaun? You're never up before me.”
“Yeah, totally. Just a bit pumped to get on with today.”
“It’s going to be okay. I may have understated my confidence in you the other day, but I’ve no doubt whatsoever that you’ll comfortably get through this.”
“Well, thanks for the confidence. It means a lot.”
We got dressed and went to see Elyek.
