Beneath a sky lit by the ever-deepening orange of the coming dawn, I snapped my fingers and brought two of Tropica’s cultivators out onto the sands. They were the last to arrive, their absence thus far both intentional and necessary.
“Ta-daaa!” I yelled, giving what I deed to be the correct amount of jazz hands.
Before their eyes could adjust, George’s and Geraldine’s cores reacted, the hints of abyssal chi within seeking to escape their abdons and flow toward that which their essence wanted to beco.
Their jaws dropped open when they spotted the kraken. His reaction was even better.
Both of his void-like orbs flashed with such a light shade of gray that it was almost white. Thin ovals of black ford around his slitted pupils, then radiated out with increasing speed.
“Traveler Fischer . . . ?” was all he could say, his limbs all drawn toward himself in a defensive posture.
“George, Geraldine. This is our new octo-pal—a nickna that Theo ca up with before , the bastard. Kraken, this is George. If my calculations are correct, he’s a descendant of Garret and Jenny. This is his wife, Geraldine. As you can tell, her core has the sa affinity with abyssal chi that George does, despite not being a blood relation.”
“How . . . ?” the kraken’s voice rumbled.
I answered his question with one of my own. “Did your masters ever do any writing, mate?”
“The manual?” His limbs writhed for a mont, eyes distant. “It survived the war?”
“We were—” Geraldine croaked, then cleared her throat and tried again. “We were ditating upon its teachings while we waited.” She drew a hand from behind her back. The to she held out was old old.
A pitch-black tentacle shot forward with incredible speed, latched onto the book with a sucker almost as big as it was, then froze. “My apologies,” the kraken said. “May I . . . ?”
Anyone in their right minds would have leaped backward if a tree-sized limb sailed toward them; George and Geraldine both nodded, expressions unreadable.
The kraken lifted it to his face with great care, opening the book to a random page. The mont he spied its contents, he froze. His core opened up a fraction and drew on his emotions, sending them tumbling down into the void. “I was present when these words were scrawled.” He handed—or tentacled, I supposed—the to back to Geraldine with exaggerated carefulness. “It is impressive that Garret and Jenny’s descendants kept it safe for all these years . . .”
His voice was entirely too calm.
I glanced at George and Geraldine, who remained locked in a stunned stupor. “Uhhhh, you guys have anything to say?” They blinked. “Okay,” I continued. “A little underwhelming, but I get it. This is a lot. What about you, octo-pal? Anything you want to add?”
His only reply was to widen the abyss within. It drank his emotions without remorse, uncaring of just how damaging such an action could be in the long term.
“Mate,” I said, “you don’t have to speak to them, but you should really stop draining your emotions away. That cannot be good for you.”
His limbs, still pulled close to himself, undulated silently. Air hissed from his siphon in what I could only assu was a calming sigh. And with a nod that was as much for himself as it was for , he let a fraction of his feelings stream out.
I imdiately understood why he’d not wanted to experience them. It was hope again, a desire to remain tethered to this world. “Forgive ,” he said, his abyssal eyes staring at the forr lord and lady of Tropica. “My hesitation has naught to do with you.”
A wave of compassion flowed over the sands, so strong that its bearer could contain it no longer. George took a few steps forward, slightly closing the distance. “We know. Fischer has been sharing his senses with us. We weren’t privy to your mories, but I think we’ve worked out most of it . . .”
Geraldine moved too, her fingers slipping through those of George’s right hand. “Anyone would be hesitant of hopefulness after all you’ve been through . . .” Her voice shook, and she raised her free arm, wiping away tears that had just started to spill. “Personally, I think it’s remarkable that you’re willing to feel even a fraction of your emotions.”
The kraken, his eyes swimming, looked my way. “You showed them what was happening here?”
“Ya-huh!”
“How much chi did it cost you to hide it from ?”
“Oh, frackloads.” I shrugged. “No biggie, though. Timing is important with these things.”
He stared at for a long mont, the void within him shrinking slightly and letting him experience more of his emotions. “I find it stunning how far you are willing to go for others . . .”
He turned to soone I didn’t expect. “You two are bonded, are you not?”
“Unfortunately,” Maria replied, giving a wink. “He’s okay once you get used to him.”
He completely ignored her joke, nodding instead. “I ask you this because I do not believe he will give an accurate answer—how exhausted is he right now?”
“Wellll, he absorbed the chi of an ancient earth elental, and the golden light of two divine gods, so there’s no shortage of power. But if anyone else was bearing the strain on his mind, I doubt they’d be conscious. Stubborn man was hiding it from , too, but the more fatigued he gets, the less obscured . . .” She slowly spun my way, her eyes forming into thin slits of accusation. “Fischer . . . what the frack is that?”
“What is what? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The thing you’re sealing away . . . and refusing to think about . . .”
“Hey! Poking around in my mind while I’m tired is cheating!”
“I apologize,” the kraken rumbled. “I did not an for my question to cause friction. I asked because I wanted to confirm sothing.” He leaned all the way forward and pressed his massive forehead into the sand, averting his eyes. “I thank you, Traveler Fischer. You have repeatedly pushed yourself for my benefit.”
“Nonsense, mate! One could argue I did it all out of selfishness—either because I want you to advise Claws, or bond with George and Geraldine here. Both would aid us. Honestly, I’d be chuffed in general if you stayed. Who wouldn’t want Tropica to have their own li’l Cthulhu?”
“You could have revealed all earlier, but you delayed so that I could experience and process my emotions. All of it at your own expense . . .” He sat up and shook his head. “If you’d done any more, I’d have beco indebted for life.”
A catlike grin spread over my face. He was right. I had been dragging this out so he didn’t get slamd with it all at once. There was another revelation, too—one that exceeded the rest by far. I’d intended on waiting longer before revealing it, but I couldn’t let an opportunity like this pass by.
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“No takebacks!” I yelled, grabbing hold of an internal door—the only barrier sealing sothing in the hidden depths of my body. “A lifelong debt, coming right up!”
Sensing my intent, Maria’s awareness appeared beside mine. I could have denied her; I didn’t. As I slid the barrier aside, mories ca flooding out, washing away the lies I’d had to tell myself in order to keep the two souls hidden.
Maria inspected them before any other. “Dolos’s and Apate’s ugly smiles!” she swore as dual spirits flowed out and onto the sands.
The mont the kraken saw them, his hold on the abyss slipped, and the void slamd shut—here was nothing drawing his emotions away as he gazed upon the ethereal faces of a husband-and-wife duo he’d never expected to see again.
They washed over him, and a black aura flowed from every inch of his body. It took a mont for him to move. Then, all at once, he flew forward, eight limbs grasping for the two humans he had once called masters. His eyes held none of the abyssal qualities they usually did as he caressed the souls of Garret and Jenny.
I turned away, as did everyone else. I lacked the power to teleport anyone without collapsing, but the least I could do was give them privacy, so I raised a bubble of solid light around them, trapping their words and feelings within. The only exceptions were George and Geraldine, who’d dashed forward at the last mont.
Maria leaned against as we stared at a sea of backs. “You know, that might have been the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. Are you single? We should get a coffee soti.”
I put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her in tight. “I’m engaged, actually. My betrothed is a bit rude to sotis, but I love her dearly.”
“Sounds terrible. You should leave her.”
The entirety of Tropica’s forces were facing west. As a result, I could see everyone’s reactions as vividly as I could sense them.
Torsos shook with sobs, hands drifted up to wipe faces, and people hugged one other, relying on their loved ones to process the scene. Not all were moved to tears, however. So spoke excitedly with their neighbors, explaining who the two people were. I laughed when a newer cultivator snorted at another, then asked, “How did you not know? The bloke looks like a see-through clone of George! He’s clearly the ancestor!”
“Ohhhh, I’m sorry,” her friend replied mockingly. “I was a little busy being distracted by the giant fracking octopus on the beach!”
Maria grinned at the interaction and turned up to look at . “How . . . ?”
“How what?”
“How did you do it? You didn’t close yourself off to , but I hadn’t the faintest clue you’d stowed them away. Was it when you were in his mories?”
“Nope! They were within the earth elental. No idea how they remained there. Unmaking should have, well, unmade them. Maybe Dolos and Apate’s spear trapped them there? Or it could even literally be the power of friendship because of their sacrifice and bonds?” I shrugged. “All I know is that when the spirits flowed up from below, they were there. I recognized them imdiately, so I pocketed them, sealed the mory, and gaslit myself into thinking it was the divine gods I’d sensed.”
She laughed so hard that she choked a little. “Who the frack gaslights themself? Even for so kind of inter-realm traveler, you are absolutely ridiculous.”
“Right? I kept trying to tell people I was unsuitable for leadership, but here we are.”
A loud sniff from my side drew my attention. “So . . .” Ruby said, the whites of her eyes tinged with her nasake color. She pointed toward the hem of her long, flowing dress—it was covered in ash. “Considering how sweet you’ve been to the kraken behind us, I’m willing to forgive your grave cri of ruining one of the few garnts that still fits .”
“Uhhhh, thank you, but how did I—”
“Thanks for asking!” she interrupted. “I was forced to sprint back through the charred remains of a forest after you teleported away from the action earlier! Half way to Gormona, mind you!”
“Away from the action? Don’t you an to safety?”
Both brows rose, and she leaned closer, her unblinking eyes staring into my soul.
“Okay, okay.” I lifted my palms in defeat. “Let’s call it even.”
We shook on the agreent. Before I could say sothing regretful and dig myself into a deeper hole, soone knocked on the shield behind . I took a deep breath, exhaled it slowly, and spun as I dissolved the silencing barrier of light.
It had barely been a minute, yet I got the impression that much more ti had passed for them. Their eyes remained red, but no new tears fell. Cores and emotions were stable—grateful, a little scared, and terribly excited.
Two spirits focused on . Garret of House Kraken, George’s ancestor and the co-author of a certain manual, showed a cheeky smile. “Well, well, well,” he said. “I’m of half a mind to haunt you after all the grief you’ve put my descendant through . . .”
I opened my mouth to reply, but closed it again, brow furrowed. “What did he say?”
“Say?” Jenny of House Kraken flashed an impish grin that both matched and complented her husband’s. “We saw the mories as if they were our own. A crown auditor?” She cackled. “Divines below, what an impact you’ve had on this village since arriving . . .”
George shook his head softly, not at all embarrassed by his forr assumptions. I hadn’t noticed because of my growing exhaustion, but as I looked at him, I sensed the new quality of his chi. Geraldine, too. Though not bonded to the giant cephalopod, they’d gained insight into the abyss. Condensed orbs of it swirled in their cores.
“Thank you, Traveler,” Garret said, his body becoming more intangible. “Words don’t exist to express how much gratitude I have for you.”
Jenny nodded, laugh lines bunching around her temples as she smiled at . “Am I correct in assuming you’ve worked out what you saved our beloved kraken from?”
“The whole being unmade thing? Yeah. Your soul is just . . . gone, right? You don’t move on to the afterlife or wherever it is those sky-bound elentals went. Don’t pass go, don’t collect $200.”
“Yes,” she answered, her fading eyes sparkling with amusent. “The Monopoly analogy is a good one.”
“Thanks! It’s nice to be—Wait! How the frack do you know what Monopoly is?”
“Should we tell him?” Garret asked his wife.
That sparkle in her gaze turned sharp, reminding of none other than Corporal Claws. “Nope. Leaving him in the dark a while longer feels only right considering how often he intentionally confuses others.”
“Guys. Guuuys,” I tried. “C’mon now. Surely you aren’t gonna—” I cut off as they dissolved into lines of black-yet-incandescent light.
I’d not felt its approach, but the mont they made their decision, I could sense the options the universe had presented to them. Their physical forms had been unraveled long ago, so they couldn’t stay. They needed to join the world’s chi, or depart this realm for whatever lay beyond it.
With pulses of thankfulness, gratitude, and affection for the kraken they’d once called family, their ethereal lines raced up toward the heavens, leaving sight in an instant. Neither George, Geraldine, nor mini Cthulhu felt any grief about their departure—they had clearly co to terms with it during whatever ti-dilatey bullshit had happened within my shielding.
“Damn . . .” I stared up at the sky above. “That is annoying, isn’t it?”
“Incredibly,” Maria replied. “Does that an you’ll stop doing it to others?”
“Nope!” Ruby and I answered, with what I’d call polite sincerity, her with what I’d call cruel mockery spoken in a goofy voice that didn’t at all sound like .
I gave her my best scowl, which only made her smile spread to the faces of those around her.
“Anyhoooo . . .” I said, changing the both the direction I faced and the subject. “I seem to recall a ntion of a life debt. Maria? Can you confirm?”
“Indeed.” She nodded seriously, rubbing her chin. “And you did say ‘no takebacks’ before he had a chance to withdraw his offer. I believe that makes it binding. Them’s the rules.”
The kraken laughed. It was a real laugh, one that went from the top of his big ol’ noggin to the ends of his many tentacles. His eyes flashed and remained a brilliant white. “Sorry, Traveler Fischer. I am afraid that I cannot remain here . . .”
“Ah well.” I was a little disappointed, but he knew I was being facetious about debt. He could do what he wanted. “It was worth a shot. Ya win so, ya lose so—”
“Unless I do thisss.”
That final word from the kraken seed to co from the vast abyss that was his core. Such an endless void only understood how to consu, its very nature to draw things in. Yet even with my awareness weakened by exhaustion, I sensed the twin strands of elental chi that wound their way out.
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