Adamant Blood 451

Mark checked himself out in the mirror, making sure his white suit was looking good. It was. Perhaps he should have a different one today, for the big party, but this one fit well and Eliot had repaired it earlier, and so this was what he was wearing. He liked it.

Eliot walked into his room, all ready to have a fight as he blurted out, “I’m not going to take Resurrection from that guy even if he offers it.”

“Okay,” Mark said, and he ant it.

Eliot paused. And then he focused. “I’m serious. It’s not right. People get the Powers they get at Tutorial and it’s a sacred thing.”

Mark had to pause. He rolled his eyes very hard, and then he slamd his gaze into Eliot, and deadpanned. “Really. You believe that. You really believe that.”

“… No but… Kinda? I don’t know, man! Maybe I’ve been on Daihoon too long and the traditionalists are getting to — I just… Tartu would say it’s wrong to switch Powers?”

“No he wouldn’t or else he would have told that already… Ohhh! But we could do a whole storyline in the HVP with it. Tartu could be the traditionalist, all about how people are who they’re born to be, and I’ll be the guy coming in and disrupting everything, and— oh wait! Tartu is a mage who makes Domains that are spell-bindings and he got Farr from a god, and the Chosen System is all about getting better Powers anyway, so where is this all coming from, Eliot?”

Eliot was quiet.

Mark added, “You seem to be pulling at whatever thread you can find to make this not happen.”

“… If this happens, I’ll have a responsibility to keep everyone alive.”

On the surface, that could have been a rather callous statent, especially from soone who made sure the walls were secure, the cities were clear, and the people were safe. Mark just had to kill monsters. Eliot had to see to everything else. But Mark knew Eliot. So, perhaps… having Resurrection was too much? The guy already did a whole lot.

Mark said, “But you already try to keep everyone alive. You already do everything you can possibly do, all the ti. So having Resurrection just ans you can fail sotis, and then you can fix your failure.”

“… I don’t know if I want… all of that, Mark.”

“Yeah. It’s a big addition, for sure. You can probably automate most of it, and I’m sure you’ve even thought about how you could.”

Eliot looked away, thoughts spiraling around sothing he didn’t want to confront.

Mark nodded, and then said, “I don’t buy into that stuff about how people get the Powers they should, even if the Powers you get are directly related to your mana, which is related to your mories and dreams and… What you get is not ‘decreed by fate’, and therefore ‘the only valid Power you should have’ or any of that bullshit. But I do know that it’s wrong to impose your will upon the soul of another, and upon their desires for Powers or… or for anything like that. So I’m not going to try and convince you of anything, unless you want to convince you. But, just so you know, from what I saw of Jessie Stills, if he knows the offer to get rid of Resurrection is on the table I am rather certain of one thing:

“He will ask, and I will give him sothing else in return.

“It is highly likely that I’ll be taking Resurrection and putting it into soone hand-picked by the Emperor, or soone of similar status, unless you want it, and then I’ll fight for you. From what Walaria said about having tons of people in lockup or prison or whatever who would rather not have the Powers they have, and how she wants to strip their Powers from them, I’m probably going to be shifting around a lot of Powers, and soon.

“And you can handle a Third Power.

“So… Just think about it, okay? Before it’s too late and Resurrection goes to soone else.”

Eliot blurted out, “The demons don’t want Resurrection, so if Resurrection becos automatic and safe and out there, then they’re going to co for , Mark.”

Mark took a mont so that he didn’t laugh at Eliot’s crazy comnt, and then he calmly said, “They’re alreadycoming after us, Eliot. , you, Isoko, Sally. All of us. Whatever that shit was with Buckler and Lancer was not just them. It was also the demon behind them. As soon as I get a real chance I will be talking to Blackthorn and Planty about all of that.”

Eliot locked eyes with Mark and said, “It’s too much. I want to do less and I want you to pull the pressure back, because I am feeling a lot of pressure to do everything, and I don’t want to do everything. I want a family. I want security. I want to help others. I don’twant to save the world, and I do NOT want to go to war with Okuana. I’m 90% sure I am at the point where I want to say ‘fuck Daihoon’ and go back to Earth.”

Oh.

Oh shit.

Okay.

Eliot never ca to Mark and spoke about stuff that heavy unless he had already made up his mind a while ago.

“Okay. Let … think for a second— Let’s start with the biggest basics: Do you still want to be a part of the team?”

“Yes, but…” Eliot trailed off, unwilling to voice that final decision.

“Okay okay. How about: Do you still want a familiar and a floating castle? Security through mobility?”

“Yes,” Eliot said, that answer much easier to give than the previous one. “I was supposed to have a talk with United Sapients this week for final approval, but it didn’t happen and we think Okuana is putting pressure on them through one of the biggest livium suppliers… I think you heard about that?”

“Tartu told about so company nad Haleotopic in the Californias and how they wanted to buy your and Tartu’s mana crystals and how their whoever-is-in-charge’s family was suddenly posting on social dia from northern Okuana— Oh. That’swhy you haven’t gotten your familiar. Okuana was making a play. They went through United Sapients, too. Sorry. I didn’t… uh, realize that that was more important than I thought it was.”

Eliot grinned, just a little, and said, “I think it’s forgivable, Mark. You’ve been busy, and Okuana is an empire fighting against us, and against the settlent.” He lost his grin. “It’s a lot.”

Mark said, “I’ll… I’ll talk to Walaria again.” Mark continued, “So you want to do less. Do you want to be book-of-life’d, or not? I am assuming ‘not’… Assuming I can make it happen without any issues, of course.”

“A big assumption,” Eliot said, seriously.

“… So that’s a ‘no’.”

“I don’t want to go to war, Mark. So even if you could… I’m not going to be on the front lines in a war with assassins and… and all of that.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Mark nodded… and then he made a connection he hadn’t really thought about until that mont.

Eliot was scared of monsters, and rightfully so. Monsters and non-humans of all kinds sort of hard-countered Man-made Manipulation, because non-human astral bodies lingered on stuff and disabled Man-made Manipulation. So… Mark kinda wondered why Eliot was scared of people at all. He would ask that question first, he supposed. The rest of the thought was this: Castellan was able to stop monsters pretty effectively, but only when they got inside, and not completely. Bigger monsters plowed through all defenses.

But the major defenses of Daihoon cities of all kinds were all made of Death mana.

Eliot had been wary of Necromancer, and yet Lola had tried to get him to ‘get over that’ fear and do so Pantheon-based necromancy work, to see if he wanted to be able to fight his fear of death directly and also, perhaps, to figure out Resurrection. But maybe there was a bigger reason that Eliot should go for Necromancer.

Mark lined up so thoughts—

“No no no,” Eliot said, stepping away, “I know that look. You’re gonna talk into sothing but you JUST SAID you weren’t going to try and convince of sothing unless I asked and I’m… asking you not to convince of anything, Mark. I know you can and… don’t.”

Holding his tongue was like trying to stop a punch that he had already thrown.

Mark tried, “Please… let say onething.”

Eliot was wary… “Okay. Go ahead.”

“Death mana is really good against other people, and other living things, and especially against assassins and their death mana attacks.”

The statent hung in the air, Eliot letting it wash over him… and he was perplexed. Wasn’t Mark trying to convince him of sothing? So what did Death mana have to do with anything at all? Like, sure, it was good against a lot of really dangerous things… so? So what?

Mark watched as Eliot tried to figure out what Mark was saying.

Eliot opened his mouth to ask a question, but he paused, he stopped, and he narrowed his eyes at Mark, not really understanding what he was saying at all. Eliot relented, “Okay, fine. Say more.”

Mark started very small, saying, “Jessie might be giving away Resurrection to others, but you don’t want that responsibility. I get that. But maybe you could use Necromancer—”

Eliot shook a little, like a nervous tic, saying, “Ughhh!”

“—as a weapon! Death mana is how all the cities of Daihoon protect themselves from major threats! You can make a real weapon out of that capability,” Mark said, rapidly, and when Eliot kinda paused, as though he was seeing sothing he had never thought about before, Mark continued, “You can probably clean up an entire city’s worth of Death mana and store it in batteries and have mausoleums of your own. You won’t have to deal with dead bodies. You can make them deal with themselves. So don’t go for Resurrection. Try Necromancer. And help figure out how to make books of life without stepping on the minds of the people who really matter to . Because I’mterrified of making a book of life and then having soone co back wrong.”

Eliot was kinda grimacing by the end.

Mark waited.

Eliot said, “Necromancers are fucking nasty.”

Mark grinned. “Dead things are nasty, yes. I agree. But the Power of Necromancer insulates you from Death mana and other potential one-shots from stuff like Death bombs. And hey! Maybe with Necromancer you can make so power armor that will be really strong against monsters and… and there’s a lot there, Eliot. And I know Lola was talking about—”

“Okay okay… yeah. Lola… talked to about a lot. About Necromancer, too.”

Mark grinned a bit more, and then he tried to stop that when Eliot frowned at him. Mark cleared his throat, and said, “Stuff to think about.”

“… Necromancers are actually nasty, though. They’re…” Eliot knew Mark wasn’t getting it, so he spelled it out. Eliot said, “Necromancers are not sexy.”

… sexy?

Mark laughed this ti, and loudly. He couldn’t help it.

“I’m serious!” Eliot tried to say, even as he laughed a little bit himself. “They grey out! They get all weird and they feel corpsy! I was with this one girl once and she was kinda… It was fine! But she was… colder than she should have been.”

“They’re immortal if they do it right. Plenty of ti to solve those issues.”

Eliot blinked. “… Oh yeah… They… uh… yeah they are.”

“And I doubt you’ll get greyed out. You got that permanent tan-thing going on!”

Eliot felt a flush of pride and joy at that, chuckling once, and then he shot back, “I am pretty fine, unlike your pale ass.”

Mark snorted—

“But seriously, though… Necromancers are the opposite of sexy.”

“You know what’s sexy? Giant death lasers that kill kaiju and save the day.”

Eliot grinned a little, and then he laughed, and shot back, “Then I definitelyshouldn’t take it. I wouldn’t want to compete with Aurora for your affection.”

“That was ONE ti!” Mark bantered.

Eliot laughed.

Mark smiled… and then Mark said, “But seriously, though. You don’t have to use Necromancer to make undead. They didn’t talk about it at the Understanding Party, but I’m pretty sure that half of those guys just maintain the Death Cannons of Aluatha.”

Eliot shook his head a little… and then he paused, and said, “Maybe yeah. But those systems are maintained by hundreds of people— Thousands, really. Castellan shuffles Death mana around for them to use, too, so… I an… I never thought about Necromancy in that way.”

Eliot seed like he needed ti to really think about using Necromancer for offense and defense, and whatever.

Mark said, “Pray on it to Hearthswell, and see if the mana types line up.”

Eliot said, offhandedly, “I already checked and they do. It’s Death fire and it’s particularly…” Eliot changed the subject, looking at Mark, and saying, “You sure that’s the outfit you want?”

Mark grinned. “I am.”

And then Mark glanced to the side, extending his Unionsense out to the other parts of the Green House where Addavein was talking with Rekaro about sothing, Tartu was with his guys and also Isoko, Sally, and Andria, who were eting up with Pearl, Amy, and Uva who were just coming out of the tram down the way and heading toward the house. Sally was at the door, and her vector brightened as Uva walked forward a bit faster, headed toward Sally. Lola and Rylan and Tulo were talking about sothing near the bar. Derek was in more than a few places, including hanging out at the hovercraft in the back.

The sky was bright, but it would be darkening fast. The auroras were already coming out.

Everyone was ready.

Mark said, “I think we’re going, soon. But if the war should start then I’m probably going to get teleported sowhere and I want you guys to follow Addavein, or to stick together.”

Eliot nodded a little, gaining a severity to his features. “I don’t want to stick around for the rest of the party, even if the war doesn’t happen. We should go back ho tomorrow or Monday at the very latest.”

“Tomorrow morning, then. After the party.”

Mark walked out into the middle of the Green House with Eliot, to stand with Isoko and Sally and the others, and even Pearl, Amy, and Uva. Everyone was nervous, but the party gathered, with its possible-new additions, and then they were off.

On the tram ride to the party, Mark broke the seal on so big questions as he asked Pearl, “How was Cade? When did you all leave him?”

“He was doing remarkably well before we left,” Pearl said.

Amy joined in, saying, “Walking around and everything.”

“His mories are slightly altered,” Pearl said, “But he recognizes that. Transcendent Mind is filling in the blanks he has lost and recovering most of his mories with just a bit of prompting. His father is doing all the heavy lifting and videos of his childhood and his social dia accounts are helping. He’s heavily traumatized, but the trauma is slipping off of him quickly according to what we’ve heard from the mind healers.”

“Are you still in contact with the situation?” Mark asked.

“Yes. We’re getting updates from the AI overseers in the hospital, in case you wished to know what is happening to him. Do you want to be cleared for that oversight, too?”

Mark shook his head. “Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll let the experts tell if sothing is terribly fucked up and this entire idea of switching Powers on people is a non-starter.”

Addavein told Mark, “There is no putting this mushroom cloud back in the bomb.”

Pearl bowed just a little, as she held onto the overhead railing in the tram. She said, “He might co to the Grand Ball, though he was still making that decision as of an hour ago.”

Mark nodded a little… and then he put Cade out of his mind. He’d hear about the guy, or not, soon enough. No need to bother him with a call, or anything like that.