Book 4: Chapter 22: Biblical

    In a place of darkness, where neither light nor life had visited for time immemorial, absolute stillness reigned. One might assume that in such a space, a complete lack of movement was natural. The only possibility, given the circumstances.

    One would be wrong.

    If an observer reached these abyssal plains with their mind and body intact, they would readily attest as much—if they somehow escaped with their lives, anyway. The source of this dissonance was something primal. Something that only the most powerful and aware of cultivators could hope to identify. Most beings, human and beast both, would only notice an overwhelming urge to flee.

    It was the feeling that arrived when the wind dies on a moonless night, leaving only silence. The sense that someone was staring at the back of your head. The sudden compulsion to sprint home that strikes out of nowhere when walking alone in the dark.

    But this was all of no consequence; no one had visited this place for centuries, so there was no reason for the source of these fears to stir. Until, that is, a wave of elemental chi washed over the world.

    It was but a whisper of essence, so faint as to go unnoticed by all but the most-perceptive denizens of this long-abandoned world. Given that life hadn’t been seen for millennia in the place where stillness reigned, one might assume the pulse of power would flow on by, neither cognized nor inciting incident.

    Again, one would be wrong—fatally so if they were nearby.

    Rock and sediment churned over one another, the larger pieces breaking apart. Giant boulders were ground down, and within seconds, all that remained was a thick slurry. Hidden within the now-murky waters at the bottom of an oceanic trench, an ancient body started reforming. Fragments of anything even vaguely earthen were sucked into a vacuum of latent power. There, they joined, becoming something greater.

    As soon as its body had formed, awareness slammed back into place. It knew exactly how many years, centuries, and millennia had passed, but it cared not. Such things were for lesser creatures to consider; this one’s existence wasn’t measured by the passage of time. Instead, it focused on the surrounding world, and what it found made the being hesitate.

    There was nothing. The gods that had sealed it so long ago, those pretentious upstarts that were always present, were nowhere to be seen.

    At first, he suspected a trap. Their absence made no sense. Had they discovered his ruse, then used chi as bait to draw him out? Before their swords could descend, the ancient being sent his power out into the surrounding slurry, preparing to shield against the impending ambush.

    He had allowed itself to be sealed last time, but that was because it’d suited him then. Now, things had changed—the condition for his reawakening had occurred.

    As seconds passed, the being’s defenses grew by orders of magnitude, elemental power infusing its body. Each moment further muted the effectiveness of the gods’ snare, yet the attack never came. The being blinked, sending undetectable strands of his awareness out.

    He started with the ocean''s depths, exploring unseen caverns and blackened trenches. From there, he searched countless islands, and though he found conscious life, none of them were touched by the divine. Preparing for the trap to spring once more, he slowly extended his essence toward the heavens. His mesh of elemental chi entered its farthest reaches, finding... naught.

    The gods... they were gone. They’d truly departed this realm. And from the hurried reverberations left in their wake, it seemed they’d run for their lives. They’d fled.

    He returned to his body to find his center shifting, sediment forming large boulders that ground against one another. It made a sound like continental plates being forced together. The noise, something he’d seldom produced, flew out into the darkness.

    He was laughing.

    The plan had worked even better than expected. The gods had left him sealed beneath the ocean, assuming him trapped and their machinations infallible. Such was the hubris of those interlopers that called themselves divine.

    The condition for his awakening had occurred, a new elemental being had been born, and there were no gods left to stand in his way. Vindication rolled from the earthen titan.

    With the unstoppable force of a landslide, the ancient being’s hunt began.

    ***

    I watched Corporal Claws as she zipped back and forth within a sea of endless clouds, both pep and excitement radiating from her newly born body. So bright were her emotions that I imagined them lighting even the abyssal plains of the deepest ocean.

    And it wasn’t only Claws filling my cup to the brim. Cinnamon’s eyes sparkled like twin diamonds as she gazed up at Claws, her thoughts a tangle of happiness, disbelief, and everything in between. I could have watched her all day, but there was something even more exciting to witness.

    Paul’s feet were planted in the sand with all the ferocity he could muster, his rod bent almost in half as the hooked fish tried to escape.

    “What do I do?” he yelled. Whether it was the size of the fish or beginner’s nerves, the result remained the same; Paul was freaking the frack out.

    Barry flew forward, his muscular hands resting on his son’s shoulders. “You’ve got this, Paul. Don’t overthink it.”@@@@

    I sent a wave of reassuring chi from my core to wash over him, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t necessary. Barry’s words and presence had already doused the flames. Paul clenched his jaw, took a deep breath, and started winding.

    I stepped up beside him. “Pump the rod up after winding in. Just like Deklan did earlier.”

    Paul nodded and did his best to emulate the movement. It was stilted at first, but then his enhanced body compensated, muscle groups contracting without his explicit instruction. Not at all bothered by these newfound reflexes, Paul continued on.

    The fish seemed to become more panicked, each run shorter and more frenzied than the last. In stark contrast, Paul’s confidence blossomed with each length of line he retrieved, a brilliant grin growing wider by the second. Of those present, Barry was clearly the most excited, but the rest of us weren’t too far behind. I had to shut my senses off to the waves of pride and anticipation, especially to Borks and Cinnamon, whose connection to me core let them bypass my passive defenses.

    As Paul’s self-belief burgeoned, so too did his skill. He’d not even caught his first fish, yet already he was getting comfortable with the process, his grip better and movements increasingly efficient. The fish, though big for its species, never stood a chance. It took less than a minute to catch the first flash of scales beneath the surface. They reflected the rolling lightning above, making the creature appear as though electricity suffused its being.

    I smiled and remained still, letting Paul and Barry have this moment. The former kept tension on his line just as instructed, and the latter hustled forward into the knee-high water, the waves there no match for his ridiculous physique. When Barry grabbed the fish, his arm and chest tensed. He was flexing even during a wholesome father-son moment. I shook my head, intending on teasing him about it, but then I saw the electricity.

    It hadn’t been a reflection. The fish was suffused with lightning. The chi crawled across the fish’s body, occasionally jolting up and into Barry’s arm and causing his muscles to contract. With little effort, I focused on it, letting the creature draw me in.

    Mature Lightning-Infused Shore Fish

    Fleeting

    Usually a staple source of both food and bait, this fish has been temporarily infused with lightning to celebrate the ascension of an Elemental. Infused creatures have their chi content significantly increased for three hours.

    “Uhhh,” Barry and I both said, equally lost for words as our vision cleared.

    “Honestly,” I continued. “I don’t need to say much. I haven’t known you long, but you don’t seem at risk of antisocial behavior. You have two loving parents, you know the value of hard work, and you have a supportive extended community to rely on. Because of your awakening, you’re guaranteed to have a good education. You also won’t struggle for food...”

    I let these words hang for a moment, letting each point sink in.

    “Back on Earth, these were the biggest risk factors for young people, and you’re safe against each of them. There is, however, one risk that most teens back on Earth didn’t have to worry about.”

    This drew his and Barry’s attention, both recognising the severity in my voice.

    “You have power, Paul. And not the vague societal power that can corrupt trust-fund kiddies with absent parents. You have tangible strength, and you’ll only gain more as you get older. Combined with teenage hormones—I can go into them more later, but they’re what make teenagers so hot-headed—even one poor decision could lead to something catastrophic.”

    Paul had a troubled expression. Glad that he was taking my words seriously, I ruffled his hair.

    “Keep in mind that I don’t think you will, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind. And, in order to combat this issue, I’m assigning you two tasks.” I held up two fingers, illustrating the point. “First, unless it’s to defend your life or that of someone else, you are to run from conflict. This is a hard ask, because it’s not human nature. Still, this is my directive. My order. If you can escape conflict without risking your own health or that of someone else’s, you are to remove yourself from the situation.”

    Calling it an order was a calculated risk on my part, but thankfully, it succeeded.

    Paul spun so he was facing me. “I promise, Fischer. And you too, Dad. I swear I won’t fight anyone unless I have to.”

    “Thank you, mate.” I lowered one finger. “That was a heavy request, but the next one is even more difficult. Do you remember the things I listed as risks?”

    He gave a sharp nod.

    “Good. Your final order, and likely the most important one I’ll give you, is that I want you to help others that lack the privileges you’ve been born into.”

    His brow furrowed, his mind likely running through the other village children and not finding anyone that would need such help.

    “I’m talking about the others that will join us. Chi has returned to the entire continent, and we’re far from the only village or settlement that now has essence running through it. Even now, I have at least one of the Buzzy Boys watching each cluster of humanity, ready to let us know the second someone becomes a cultivator.”

    Paul’s eyes went as wide as saucers. “No way...”

    “Yes way,” Barry replied. “We’ve kept it pretty secret because we don’t want people to panic about outside cultivators, but it’s only a matter of time until others start ascending.”

    “More kids will come...?”

    “I reckon they will, mate. We have no idea what their life has been like, and I’m not foolish enough to believe everyone has a good childhood. Your job, then, is to be there for them. We’ll help too, of course, but—”

    “Some won’t respond well to adults, right? Especially if they’ve been mistreated by them. It’s human nature.”

    I leaned back, giving Paul an appreciative look. “Well, yeah. That’s it exactly.” A part of my awareness yelled out to me, screaming that just as I’d feared, Paul might be maturing too fast. Leaving his childhood behind. Barry’s response was even more visceral, worry etched on his face and streaming from his core.

    Before either of us could voice our concern, Paul spoke. “I’ve done that before, so it makes sense.”

    Barry licked his lips. “You’ve done what before...?”

    “I’ve trusted adults before. After they hurt me, I mean.”

    “Who hurt you?” Barry’s muscles spasmed, his strength ready to be unleashed upon the first person Paul named.

    “You mean Ellis?” I suggested.

    “What? No. That was kind of fun after the first few times. I meant Auntie Barbara.”

    “Auntie Barbara...?” A lack of comprehension robbed the heat from Barry’s fury. “What did she do?”

    “The quiche...” He made a face of sheer disgust. “After she got me with that, I didn’t eat anything she made for months.”

    “Wait, you mean back when Uncle Leroy came home, and you didn’t eat every time we went there for dinner...?” Barry shook his head. “What quiche? What in Demeter’s lush crop did Barbara do with a quiche...?”

    “Vegetables.” He spat the name like it could reach out and bite him. “She told me it didn’t have any, but it did. She grated them so fine that she thought I wouldn’t notice.” He turned toward us, his eyes narrowed and lips forming a line. “It was green. She used so many vegetables that the entire thing turned green! I couldn’t believe her after that, so I totally get why other kids wouldn’t trust adults.”

    “And with good reason,” I laughed, relief flooding me. “I wouldn’t trust her after that either.”

    Barry let out a long sigh and turned toward me. “Is there anything else you wanted to add?”

    “Just one thing. If you ever need anything, Paul, you can rely on us. Even if you’re too embarrassed to tell your old man here...” I patted Barry on the back. “You can come and tell me. I promise that I’ll never judge you for being honest.”

    I was all but certain Barry would be okay with the offer, but I still felt a weight fall away as he smiled and nodded. “And I hope you already know the same of your mother and I. We’re so proud of you, Son, and we’ll always have your back no matter what.”

    Our wholesome moment of silence came to an abrupt end when something did it’s best to pull my left arm from its socket. I’d totally forgotten about my rod, holding onto it with one hand so I could better focus on the conversation with Paul.

    As the creature shook its head, I felt something that part of me had been worried I’d never feel again: the thrill of the unknown.

    I’d hooked a monster, and I had no idea if I’d be able to land it.