Heretical Fishing

Book 2: Chapter 72: Arts and Crafts

Something light smacked into my back, making a noise like sheets flapping in the wind. Borks let out a yelp and dashed away at incredible speed, his back legs trying to overtake the front ones. When my assailant let out a panicked honk, I knew what had fallen from the heavens to strike me down.

“... Pelly?”

She shook her body, puffing her feathers out as she got back to her feet. I raised an eyebrow at Borks, who had run to the other side of the clearing in his retreat. He was sniffing a bush and pointedly ignoring me, pretending he hadn’t just fled for his life from a pelican half his size.

“You all good, Pelly?” I asked, turning back toward her.

She let out an embarrassed honk, so I gave her a kind smile.

“Were you trying out your wings?”

She nodded.

“Let me guess—you were trying to come say good morning?”

Again, she nodded, even more bashful this time.

“Well, I’m glad I could break your fall. Don’t feel bad. If me or Borks here tried to fly, we’d probably hit the ground face-first.”

Borks was slowly making his way back toward us, sniffing everything he passed in an attempt at nonchalance. I rolled my eyes at him, letting him know I knew what he was up to.

“Wanna see something cool, Pelly?” I asked, pointing down.

This got her attention. She waddled over, peering down at the objects before me.

“Lemons. You know that food I gave you last night? I want to try doing the same thing with this fruit—shifting the chi so one is empty, while the other has twice the concentration.”

Her intelligent eyes sparkled, and I could practically see the thoughts whirling through her mind.

“Yeah... if it works, it could change everythi—”

“Fischer!” a feminine voice called out through the forest.

It made my heart jump.

“Over here!” I yelled back. “In Lemon’s clearing!”

There was silence for a moment, then her voice came again, much closer this time. “I swear on all the gods, Fischer—if you’re trying to make edible lemons without me, I’ll pluck your feathers and string you up to a particularly thorny tree. Then, I’ll...” she trailed off as she reached the clearing and caught sight of Pelly. “O-oh... Pelly. Good morning, sweetie. Did you sleep well?”

Pelly took a step closer to me, keeping a wary eye on Maria.

I roared a laugh. “She was just being hyperbolic, Pelly. She wasn’t going to hurt me—nor would she hurt you.”

Maria clutched a hand to her chest, and I thought she might cry as she watched Pelly sidle even closer.

“Come give Pelly some pats in apology,” I suggested.

Maria skipped forward. “I really am sorry, girl. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Pelly was hesitant at first, but then Maria found the right spot. Her feathered head tilted to the side, giving Maria even better access to the back of her neck.

“Ohhh, you like that, do you?” Maria giggled. “Your feathers are so soft...” She turned to smile at me. But then she caught sight of the lemons. “Hey! You were creating lemons without me!”

I held up both hands in surrender. “It was just a trial run! Borks and I woke up early and I didn’t want to wake you.”

She appeared unconvinced.

“Plus,” I continued, “it might have upset Roger if I came to get you, right? We wouldn’t want that...”

Her brow lowered into a scowl. “You can make some lemons, then have Sue make some treats from them as an apology. I’ll accept no less than five pastries!”

I made my face go impassive. “Best I can do is four pastries.”

“Oooh, you...” She shook a finger at me. “You’re playing with fire, mister.”

I let out an exaggerated sigh. “Ah, they warned me of dating noble-born women. Fine, five pastries it is.”

She snorted in a very non-ladylike manner. “If it gets me sugary treats, you can say what you like about my lineage—lie or not.”

I grinned at her pragmatism. “Good morning, by the way.”

“Yes, yes—good morning.” She leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. “So, did you try yet?”

“Not yet—I was about to when a certain pelican crashed down from above.”

Pelly let out a soft, apologetic honk.

“Aww.” Maria scooped her up. “You don’t need to say sorry for an honest mistake.”

The pelican still appeared chastened, so I thought to offer a distraction. “Pelly—have you met my tree friend?”

She cocked her head at me, clearly not understanding. Not missing a beat, one of Lemon’s roots sprouted from the ground. It rose to the height of Pelly and Maria, then gave them a curt nod. Pelly flapped her arms and jumped from Maria’s arms, not once taking her eyes from the root. She let out a questioning honk, and Lemon retracted part of the root until it was once more at Pelly’s height. They proceeded to have a conversation consisting of honks, nods, and the subtle movement of leaves.

Happy to let them go, I cleared my throat, took a deep breath, and picked up the lemons before me. Sensing I was about to begin, Maria sat beside me. Borks flopped into her lap.

She gave me a nod. “You’ve got this.”

I returned the gesture, then focused on the lemons. Immediately, I could feel their power. It was... damn, they were strong—much stronger than I’d thought. I hadn’t sent my awareness into one since my last advancement, but now that I was feeling them out, I suspected a single fruit had the ability to awaken multiple people.

It’s no wonder the lemonade was so successful…

With my lingering attention, chi swirled from my core, traveling along my right arm and into the fruit held there. I imagined it flowing from right to left, going through the lemon and taking its chi with it. It was harder than with the fish, perhaps because they were in their natural form. If not for my practice over the past two weeks, the test would have been a complete failure.

A small grin tugged at my lips.

Luckily for me, I had been practicing. The lemon’s chi was picked up by the essence I was circulating, traveling into the other lemon. I imagined each strand detaching from mine when it reached the second fruit; it did so. Doing all the actions simultaneously was like juggling four balls at once, and a single bead of sweat dripped down my face. I ignored it, focusing entirely on the transference of power. Despite the effort of will required to concentrate the chi, it was incongruously relaxing. My breaths slowed as the process continued, my mind and body slipping into a zen-like state.

I had no idea how long it took, but when it was done, something tugged at my awareness. I was returned to the present as if waking from a dream. My arms tingled in a pleasant manner as I squinted out at the world, marveling at the beautiful colors of dawn to come that peeked through the canopy above.

“Did...” Maria licked her lips. “Did it work?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but something tugged at my awareness again, an unignorable sensation I hadn’t felt in weeks.

The System.

Though I’d willed the notifications to turn off, something important enough had occurred that the System demanded my attention. I considered reading it. Only for a moment, though. With a surge of will, I pushed it away.

“Not today, demon. Leave me in peace.”

“Uhhhm...?” Both Maria’s eyebrows reached toward her sun-bleached hair. “Come again?”

“Oh, sorry. I was talking to the System. It was being a scoundrel.” I lobbed a lemon toward her. “Catch.”

She swiped it from the air, furrowing her brow. “Do you plan on only speaking in riddles today? Why can’t you just... oh.” She stared wide-eyed at the citrus in her hand. “That’s...”

I nodded.

“It worked—better than I could have imagined.”

“I’ve not felt it before.” She held the lemon up reverently. “Not like this, anyway...”

“It confirmed something I had suspected from the fish.”

Borks cocked his head at me, so I continued.

“Transferring the chi isn’t a one-to-one deal. It has an additive effect of several orders of magnitude. It was hard to tell with the fish, but that’s why it’s so potent. But that lemon...” I pointed at the fruit Maria was cupping in both hands. “That has some serious pew-pew power.”

Maria sighed so hard she almost dropped it. “Can you not be serious for a single second?”

“Nope!” I grinned. “That’s not even the most important thing, though.”

“It’s not...?”

I hefted the other lemon. “This one has absolutely no chi—the test was a success.”

Maria understood immediately.

“Sue can cook with it!”

She started pumping the air with a fist. Borks got caught up in Maria’s enthusiasm and ran around her in circles, barking towards the pink and purple sky above.

I got to my feet and stretched. The sky was lighter, but the sun had yet to rise.

“Shall we?” I asked, extending a hand to Maria.

She grabbed it and pulled herself up, then shot off with the momentum. “Race you!” She glanced back at me. “Come on! We have to catch her before the coffee rush!”

Not wasting a second, I took off after her. “Let’s beat her there, Borks!”

He let out a bark, loping beside me as we trailed Maria’s infectious giggles.

***

As I presented the lemon to Sue, a head shot from around the dividing wall that lead to the kitchen.

“You’re serious?” Sturgill’s eyes were filled with need. “Another lemon?”

“Yeah, mate. One condition, though.”

Sue tugged at her apron, trying and failing to appear nonchalant. “What’s the condition?”

“We want to watch!” Maria said, beaming. “And Fischer requires six pastries of whatever you make—to repent for past crimes against me.”

“Crimes, huh?” she asked, amusement playing over her face. “Of course, my lady. May I enquire as to what crimes he committed?”

Maria sniffed, adopting the demeanor of a slighted noble lady. “A betrayal most foul, I assure you.” She leaned in close, raising a hand between me and her mouth. She spoke in a stage whisper. “He agreed to wait for me this morning before running errands, but alas, when I went to his abode—he was nowhere to be seen!”

Sue gasped, holding an indignant hand to her lips. “He didn’t...”

Maria sighed. “It’s true—I didn’t want to believe it either. Ah, such are the hazards of socializing with men of ignoble birth, I suppose.”

Sue nodded gravely. “I understand completely. Worry not, Maria. We’ll ensure you have all the pastries necessary to take the sting out of his barbaric actions.”

I snorted at the sparkle in their eyes and raised a brow at Sturgill.

“Does it ever get better, mate?”

“Afraid not. Come on, you two. I already have an idea for what we can make—it’s been stewing in my head since the last time you brought lemons.”

Sue lifted the moveable section of counter, and we followed Sturgill into the back.

“I expect a couple portions too!” Sue called as we entered the kitchen.

“Of course, dear.” He rolled his eyes at us. It was playful, not cruel.

He led toward hte back of the kitchen, past sacks of flour, bags of sugar, and baskets of eggs.

“Have either of you ever made a danish?”

“I’ve had some, but I can’t say I’ve made it, mate...”

“I’ve never even tried it,” Maria said.

Sturgill smiled to himself as he grabbed a handful of flour and dusted it over the bench before reaching for a large wooden bowl.

“Well, I’d better not disappoint, then.”

***

In the capital city of Gormona, in a no-longer abandoned room high above the castle, a sleepy guard smiled.

He had first woken this morning as the purple light of predawn streamed in through a slim window. Rather than get up, he remained lounged on his bed of choice—an ancient artifact with a dip that made it perfect for napping in. He slipped in and out of consciousness, each time he woke just as pleasant as the last.

With a contented sigh, he slipped back to sleep once more.

The next time his consciousness returned, the sun had risen. It shone in through the window, and just as Deklan was considering blocking it out with a raised gauntlet, the light disappeared.

“Ahhh,” he sighed, relaxing once more.

But then the sun returned. It beamed down on his closed eyes. His hand twitched, wanting to move and block it out. As before, the sun disappeared again.

“The hells…?”

He cracked an eye. The scene only confused him more. The sky visible through the window was still the deep purple of predawn, the sun nowhere to be seen. Just as he began to consider that he’d dreamed the whole affair, the invading light bloomed once more. The entire room lit, a bright white light bouncing off the stone walls.

Deklan rolled from his favored sleeping spot, squinting at the room as he tried to find the source of the strange illumination. He stood there for a long moment, getting more and more confused each time it blinked on and off. Eventually, he noticed that one corner of the room was brighter than the others. He slipped through the artifacts, heading in that direction. It was completely blocked off at one point, so he crawled beneath the relics, struggling to fit his armored body through the winding maze of metal legs.

He reached a gap where he could stand, so he got to his feet, leveraging his arms to pull himself skyward. The moment he was upright, the artifact before him shone. A thin strip of illumination peeked through around the edges of a rectangular screen. As he squinted at it, he realized something had been put there to cover most of the light-source.

He removed a gauntlet and scratched at it with a finger. It was… paper. Someone had wet black sheets of the stuff, layering it over the screen like the royal children would sometimes do to make paper mache. The paper peeled back in a single sheet, easily detaching.

As if sensing that it was once more visible, the light shining from the screen dimmed, revealing a series of printed lines. Just as with the other artifact, Deklan could read them. He focused on the last line there, cocking his head to the side as he tried to grasp its meaning.

New ascension milestone! Fischer has learned Chi Manipulation.

“Fischer…?” Deklan scratched his head. “Who’s that?”

He stretched his arms toward the roof, letting out a long groan of contentment. His back cracked, making a small smile spread over his face.

“I suppose I should let the king know…”