Chapter 37: New Sensations
A deep breath sounded through the radio, and a nervously charged ‘okay, breathe’ followed.
“Jessie?” Erik asked, looking at the female Remnant, her Core no longer red.
“Shhh…” was all she answered with.
Sophie woke from her depression, looking tired and haggard. She looked around, wondering what was going on with her sister. No one met her eyes as everyone eyed Jessie. A minute later, Jessie spoke:
“Okay, getting there. I need everyone to be calm. No shouting. I’m still trying to get the hang of this. A helicopter might not be the best place for this, though.”
No one dared to respond to her. The group seemed to agree that Erik should be the one to speak, and he sighed once more.
“Jessie? You okay?”
“Umm… Not really. I think this is what a newborn baby feels, being pushed out of the womb, met with blinding lights, loud voices, and all kinds of new sensory information. Do they come out with all their senses?” Jessie started, then considered her words.
“I… don’t know. Is it a perception power?” Erik tried, gleaning some key information from what she said.
The other key power every Remnant would get besides an Aura ability was a Perception ability. As it sounded like, it altered the Remnants’ perception, most often improving it or giving it added functionality. This could range from much more accurate eyesight, increasing distance or even dark vision. Jessie’s reaction told him that it wasn’t something as simple as that, though.
“Yeah. It’s a doozy. Just getting… all sorts of inputs I don’t know what to do with. It’s like I went from blind to seeing time or something. It’s affecting everything, not just my sight. I can hear the water in the air. I haven’t dared to even open my eyes yet.”
“Just take it slow.”
“Are you alright?” Sophie asked.
“What was that?” Jessie asked, sitting right beside the source of the sound. Sophie responded:
“Me. Sophie.”
“Erik?” Jessie asked. “What is that?”
Erik looked at Sophie, then Jessie.
“It’s Sophie. Your sister?”
“I hear temperature, I’m not amnesic. Is that a word?”
It turned out the sensory overload Jessie was experiencing required her to relearn how sounds sounded, what air felt like as it brushed past her and what moisture felt like as it hugged her skin. Erik and Jessie’s supernatural translation abilities must’ve helped them communicate while she couldn’t understand words anymore.
It seemed her hearing, the ability to translate vibrations in the air to sounds and voices, was all fucked up because it also had to hear how much moisture was in that very air, along with its temperature. Every one of her senses had turned into high-tech weather sensors besides their usual functions. Erik had to admit; this was the one power of hers he didn’t want for himself.
After hearing how much further they had to go and Jessie explaining that it was easier understanding her senses in her mindplace, Erik reluctantly let her absorb her first Minor power after cleaning herself up. There was nothing else for her to do either way, but he told her to give up if it came to it.
She pulled an uncut, clear crystal from her bag unassisted and put it against a small circle on the more offensive-type wing. When her red light filled the cabin, everyone held their breath for a few long seconds. Everyone was on edge, and even Sophie seemed to forget her recent fear of Erik as she returned to talking to everyone, including him, as normal as ever.
When Jessie finished the absorption, they were nearing shore, and soon had to start looking for places to land and make camp. It would have to be close enough to civilisation to refuel the helicopter, but far enough from prying eyes so they wouldn’t be discovered killing Hellbeasts.
The helicopter landed close to the North African coast. The place didn’t have any nearby roads and didn’t show any signs of people. There was enough fuel to pack up and relocate if they needed to, but this was as good a place as any.
When the group had landed and emptied the cargo of most of their stuff, Amir activated some kind of satellite modem, setting up a slow internet connection. It was enough to slowly download a map of the area to see the closest population hub being a place called Collo, somewhere along the same coastline, except further south.
They set up camp a few miles west of their landing zone, just in case someone had seen them land. They’d keep the helicopter under surveillance that night. With several trained soldiers in their group, including Amir, Dunham, and Peter, they unloaded a cache of rifles and handguns along with knives and a few other tools.
Erik and Jessie were on bedrest for the night as they were both tired from absorbing two and four crystals respectively, and because of Erik’s wounded back and Jessie’s recent problem with her upgraded senses.
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Over the few hours it took them to set up camp and decide on guard duty and surveillance duty, Erik told the rest that he’d like to help out with either guarding or patrolling, but none of the others would have it. The medics changed his bandages again.
The night went by without incident. Jessie opened her eyes for the first time during the evening, taking advantage of the low light and silent surroundings. She had got used to the changes to her hearing, sense of smell, taste, and touch, but being used to and able to live with were two separate things.
Jessie hadn’t forgotten that she was expected to train, and fight magical beasts, risking her life as she did. She had to get a grip on everything as soon as she could.
It wasn’t until the morning after Sophie noticed the change in colour of Jessie’s eyes. Her sclera, the whites of her eyes, had changed to a misty blue, and her irises to a deep emerald green. Watching Jessie look around in the sunlight, shifting her focus to humidity or temperature, Angela noticed both colours changed depending on what she was focusing on.
When she focused on temperature almost like a normal person would on distant details, her eyes grew a shade more yellow. When focusing on humidity, the tint turned blue. When focusing on the wind, which she could see as clearly as the ground beneath her, it went green.
Jessie:
Core Ability
Name: Call of Nature
Tier: Iron
Type: Spell, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Channelled
Cost: Variable
Effect - Iron:
Elemental Call:
Scorch (Fire): Set fire to target. Medium cost.
Restore (Water): Restore the physical body of the target to its natural state. Middling cost over time. Channelled.
Replenish (Wind): Replenishes stamina of target. Middling cost over time. Channelled.
Spike (Earth): Forces the earth beneath target into a jagged spear. Will explode after a short time. Moderate cost.
Major Ability
Name: Reap the Harvest
Tier: Iron | Rank: 0 | Willpower
Type: Spell, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind
Cost: Low
Effect - Iron:
Elemental Scythe (Varied): Fires an elementally charged crescent blade at target.
Major Ability
Name: Enter The Storm
Tier: Iron | Rank: 0 | Reflex
Type: Spell, Field, Lightning, Activated
Cost: Middling
Effect - Iron:
Storm: Activate a field around you, charging the area and sending bolts of lightning at targets.
Minor Ability
Name: Volt Surge
From: Enter The Storm
Type: Spell, Lightning, Affliction, Channelled
Cost: Middling
Effect - Iron:
Volt Surge: Sends a self-amplifying current into target, dealing increasing damage over time.
Major Ability
Name: Familiar
Tier: Iron | Rank: 0 | Wisdom
Type: Familiar, Summoning
Cost: Moderate
Effect - Iron:
Summon your chosen familiar to aid you. Familiars share an energy pool with caster. Dead familiar can be re-summoned for Substantial cost after one week.
Major Ability
Name: Ease The Burden
Tier: Iron | Rank: 0 | Regeneration
Type: ?
Cost: ?
Effect - Iron:
She claims this one’s worth the secrecy.
Major Ability
Name: Natural Flow
Tier: Iron | Rank: 0 | Speed
Type: Perception, Elemental
Cost: N/A
Effect - Iron:
Improved senses. Senses attuned to nature.
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A good night’s sleep did wonders for the female Remnant, as most senses still work during sleep, hers being no exception. That, and the much-needed rest she got, made her able to walk around almost effortlessly, even getting a short morning jog in.
She spent the rest of the morning finally healing Erik, having the energy to spare with no specific plans for the day. It took about an hour until his wound was fully healed, leaving only a slight discolouration left on the outer layer of the skin along his back.
The medics were especially amazed, but seeing the sweaty, panting girl after healing for an hour reminded them that it wasn’t free heals in any sense of the word. Jessie washed up alongside Erik after that, then went for a good, long nap.
Erik, finally free of the pain of moving, breathing or existing, took the time to scout the surrounding area. Before landing, they had made sure that the closest town was still standing, and they had even seen some Hellbeasts arriving on shore further west. They couldn’t do anything about them at that time, but the population centres they’d flown past seemed defended enough. Most of the northern coastline was ripe with trade and tourism, meaning it had resources to defend itself as well.
Judging by the echoes of explosions far in the distance, the pair of hounds they’d spotted had found their target. Erik wanted to rush there, but even he knew that while he could fight them, the people here had survived this long without him, and while some deaths might occur because he didn’t rush in now, most would be fine.
It was better to save 99 per cent later than to save one per cent now and dying himself because of a stupid mistake. His dying would mean even more deaths down the line.
The next night went by as the previous one. Erik was finally allowed to have a shift of the guard duty, and he spent four hours walking around the immediate area before Dunham came to take over. It was supposed to be Emma, but Dunham said Jessie needed her for something the next morning, so she would instead be getting her beauty sleep.
Erik shrugged and went to bed. He didn’t feel like he needed as much sleep as the rest, but the plan was for him and Jessie to start training early in the morning the next day, so he didn’t want to stay up too late, either.
They had checked up on the helicopter during the day, and there were still no signs of anyone having been in the vicinity, though they still intended to send Amir and Peter to check that as well in the morning.
