“When the vampire’s son is hungry with betrayal, you must be marked with his magic. Are the terms agreeable?”
Yuki screwed up her face, and looked at Gus. He shrugged, as bewildered as her.
“Speak quickly, dearie, the offer remains only for so long…”
“Okay, fine,” she quickly agreed.
“Done!” the Oracle said and rubbed her hands together, the sound oddly like the rustling of autumn leaves as the deal was struck.
“The ability you seek is called Manifest. Can you see it, boy?”
Gus did the odd thing with his eyes that allowed him to sift through the abilities and found it there, lying in the depths. The ability felt odd to him, distinctly feminine and alien. Becoming aware of it had made it stand apart and put a tension on him, as though he were water and it was oil, pushing to separate from him. He stepped to Yuki and placed his hand on her temple and let the ability transfer to her. Like a cool trickle of water, the ability rushed to the surface, flowed out of him, and Yuki trembled as she took it in.
“Well, what does it do?” Gus asked, not having even checked the description before he gifted the ability.
Yuki gasped as she checked her display for the ability description, a manic smile spreading across her face. In a daze, she made a sliding motion and Gus saw the text:
Manifest
Restricted ability:
Prerequisites: Slice 30, Hack 30, Summon 30, Intelligence 50
This ability allows one skilled in summoning virtual avatars to manifest them into physical reality. This ability’s description is unable to be revealed to anyone lower than required levels until unlocked. Allows one to summon previously captured intelligences, and ability is inactive without history of captured AI.
“What’s a virtual avatar?”
Yuki said nothing and gave Gus a huge bear hug. She gripped him tight and he thought he heard Yuki sobbing. When she finally let him go, he saw that there were indeed tears in her eyes.
“I’ll tell you on the way back.” She sniffed and wiped at her eyes, laughing at her fortune. She pointed at the Oracle. “I think she still wants to talk to you.”
Gus saw the Oracle waiting patiently. Her eyes looked hungry though, like a predator and a twinge of uncertainty twisted inside his heart for a moment. Yuki mouthed ‘thank you’ to the Oracle, and made her way back to the transport.
When Yuki was out of earshot, the Oracle came closer, invading his space as she was apt to do. “I am impressed again with you. I wondered if you would be up to the challenges, and I see I was not disappointed. If you recall, I said that you must ask for what you want when I spoke with your friend, do you recall?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Ma’am? Was that an appropriate address to the Oracle? It almost felt borderline offensive but there was no other word that sprang to mind. Her demeanor asked for respect. Demanded it. Her eyes softened a bit, sensing his discomfiture. Or enjoying it, it was hard to tell.
“And…” she drew the word out expectantly.
“And I found out a little with the answer you gave me. I don’t regret my question, but I have as many as ever.”
“You can still ask,” she trailed off suggestively.
“But I already—”
“Oh, did you now? I recall saying some things that may have been interpreted as an answer, but there was no direct ask, if I am remembering things clearly.”
Gus stopped to remember. Had he asked? Verbally, at least? He knew what he had wanted to ask but couldn’t recall saying the words out loud. As if she had read his mind, and possibly he just assumed that he had said the words? He would have to ask Yuki if she remembered the question he had posed.
“Are you beginning to see why I warned you from traveling down this path? There is no leaving it until you reach the end. One way or another. You have grown much. I am happy to see that I did not err in my decision.”
“So I can ask—” Gus tasted clove and a tingle on his lips as she pressed a finger to them, stopping him from speaking.
“It is better to wait. What is asked must be answered. Once asked, the door closes. It is the way. Go. Follow your path. Trust. Ignore the illusions. There will be many. And that is all that I can say.” She leaned over and looked over Gus’ shoulder. Her eyes widened in surprise and Gus turned to look. There was no one on the path behind him.
When he turned around, there was only a rustling of leaves as a small whirlwind died down, accompanied by a slight cackle.
I can’t believe I fell for that.
“Thank you,” he called out to the empty forest.
Chapter Ninety
Goodbyes
“Gus, I’ve got some bad news.”
“I’m not surprised, but what is it, Nick?”
“You’re building up those same byproducts in your brain again. It’s trace amounts, but they are forming, and the rate is quicker than last time.”
“That’s about what I expected. Do you know anything about forming Mandrite crystals or even what they are? Maybe I could extract those abilities and stop this process and get back to normal. I wouldn’t mind a long rest, and sleeping in.”
“Hmm… I can’t access that information, but it seems to exist. I am not sure that humankind has reached that level of sophistication yet? Usually if one member of a species makes a discovery, it becomes available, but usually only on an ‘you must ask or it won’t be divulged’ basis.”
“The only thing that helped was that red energy. Foundation energy, the prompts called it. I need to find some more until I get this sorted. Nick, what’s the lowest part of the manor? Maybe I have to be deep underground like in the mine. I began to detect that energy when it was in high concentrations in the mine, but I haven’t really seen any
