Larek pulled a meat pie out from his Void Pocket sack as he walked away from the remains of the powerful assassin, finding himself horrendously weakened from the events over the last few minutes. After practically shoving his face full of the delicious meal and washing it down with a canteen of water, he started to feel better as far as hunger went, but he was still exhausted from the fight.
Having to heal himself so much had worn him out to the point where he just wanted to sleep for a few hours. It was far from being the worst wounds or injuries he’d ever taken, but the sheer number of them took the record for quantity, if not quality. Regardless, it had been more than worth it, as he felt himself learning the assassin’s pattern and adjusting his own movements to better dodge, redirect, or block the attacks that came his way. While he didn’t expect every attacker with a weapon that he faced in the future to be the same, the entire experience had been a valuable learning opportunity.
Best of all, he was fairly certain that he had eliminated the greatest threat when it came to the Bereft. There were still more in the city, and he could sense them either heading toward his location or fleeing, but they weren’t so strong that he couldn’t hunt them down when it came down to it. With a resigned sigh, he quickly used his healing Fusions on the former Bereft that he’d fought before facing the assassin, fixing them up so that they weren’t in danger of dying from the wounds they’d taken, before confronting those Bereft that came after him throughout the city. When they had been “cured” with his application of Primal Essence, he spent another 30 minutes flying around the outskirts of the city, tracking down each and every single Bereft that had fled and then bringing them back to join the others he’d put down earlier.
In all, his fight against the most powerful members of the Bereft ended up with a total of 4 that perished after they lost all of their stats, all of them because they fell from a height that killed them upon impact. Larek felt as if he could’ve saved more if he had been able to fully utilize all of his abilities, such as being able to manipulate his internal Pattern externally; but in all, he knew he was lucky that even more hadn’t been killed because of his lack of ways to fight back.
To say that he was relieved to be able to fly around again with his Pattern platform under his feet was an understatement. And it wasn’t just that; being able to utilize his Fusions at a distance was something that he had relied on for so long that having it taken away had felt like losing a limb – but now it had been restored. While his impromptu training had been beneficial, of course, he wanted to make sure a situation like that didn’t catch him off-guard again. It was something he thought about even as he studied and adapted to the fighting style of the assassin, as the Bereft’s aura of energy disruption was both a dangerous hazard – and a powerful tool. He could only imagine that, if he were to safely harness such power, he might find a way to effectively combat the Gergasi.
Once all of the Bereft had been taken care of in the city, Larek spent a few minutes washing the blood off himself with a copy of a Water Stream Fusion before flying back to Zecklent – but he didn’t even make it that far. He discovered that Nedira had already finished gathering up everyone in the city and had moved on to Gardencleft, where she was just finishing up with gathering those whom he’d left behind there. She had the Volunteers to help her, of course, but he immediately jumped in to help assist once he arrived.
“Is it over? Did you find the source of these Bereft?” she asked as soon as they were done with the town, and he started to direct them toward their next target.
Larek nodded. “I did, and it is. At least as far as I can tell; I’m going to have to travel around a little bit to ensure there are none left anywhere, but that can wait until we’ve got all of these others gathered up. I’m almost positive that I got them all, however.”
“Good.” His betrothed was silent for a few seconds as they quickly traveled toward the next town. “Larek, this… this was scary. I mean, I was genuinely frightened that I would somehow get my potential stolen away from me. For some reason, the thought of that happening was worse than the thought of dying.”
It took him a few moments of contemplation before he answered. “I can see that. Being a Mage, and then having your full potential unlocked, has been a large part of your life, so much so that it is almost your identity. I know that losing the ability to create Fusions would be a heavy blow that I’m not sure I could easily recover from.” He turned to her, taking her in his arms. “But I also know that having you with me would be more than enough to get me through whatever challenges I might face if that were to happen. Having my potential stolen away might feel like a fate worse than death, but I believe that, together, we would not only survive, but thrive.”
Larek recalled the thoughts that he’d had before he faced the assassin, with the possibility to eliminate magic and potential in the world if he closed the tear in the world and figured out a way to permanently close all the Apertures. It would essentially be the same thing as losing their potential, as the loss of the energy from the other world would eventually lead to that point; and while it would be devastating to not be able to create Fusions anymore, just knowing that Nedira would be with him would see him through.
Besides, it wasn’t like he didn’t have another profession to fall back on if that were to happen. He would just transition from being a Fusionist to resuming being a Logger; while he would miss creating Fusions, he knew he would also be excited about felling trees once again with Nedira by his side.
Sometimes it was the simple things in life that meant the most to him.
“I feel the same way, but it’s still not something I want to contemplate,” she responded, pulling him down for a kiss before he let her go.
The next 48 hours was a busy time, as Nedira brought in extra help to take care of the former Bereft, most of whom woke up within 5 to 6 hours after having their spark of potential replaced. Because they retained the memories of their time as Bereft, almost all of them were disgusted with themselves at the way they had acted, while at the same time mourning the loss of their potential. Fortunately, Larek was the perfect one to help them get it back, as he produced Gradual Aetheric Purification Arrays for each person recovering from their experience, which would allow them to start the process to not only replace what they lost, but also to unlock their full potential. In addition, he created thousands of VREP staves for them to use for defense, as well as multiple transports that they could use to help keep the nearest Apertures from growing out of control.
There were a few former Bereft who were discontent with what Larek had done to them, and who were vocal enough about how they had been horribly handicapped when they had the hunger removed from them. Normally, the Fusionist would try to persuade these malcontents and convince them that all of this was for the best, but the decision was—unknowingly—taken away from him. Behind his back, the Volunteers who had personally suffered the loss of their potential at the hands of the Bereft rounded up each of these protesting individuals and loaded them up into a transport, before spending a few hours traveling north and dropping them off outside of the Kingdom, practically in the middle of nowhere.
While it wasn’t exactly what Larek would’ve done, he supposed it beat killing them outright – which was what he had worried that they had done as soon as he heard all of these people were rounded up. Finding out about it after the fact annoyed him a bit, but he eventually let it go; he figured it was better for everyone involved if they weren’t around any longer, where they could potentially cause problems.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
A few conversations with those who were recovering from being a Bereft showed him that they had all been greatly affected by the loss of their potential, as they became almost like wild animals shortly afterwards, and only after consuming the potential of others did they regain some semblance of humanity. Unfortunately, that humanity was tempered by a hunger that never fully went away, as well as a pivotal shift in their minds about what their role in the world was. For example, “right” and “wrong” were concepts that were a bit more fluid than normal, as they still possessed a sense of duty to protect people, but that didn’t include those with potential that they could consume.
In addition to regaining control over the region through the rehabilitation of the former Bereft and the donation of thousands of Fusions to keep the area safe, Larek also spent a little more than 24 hours spreading out to every town and city within 500 miles of Zecklent, searching for any sign of another Bereft anywhere. Unless they had traveled further or were somehow able to hide from his magical senses, the Fusionist didn’t find a single one that had been missed in his initial hunt through the northwest. While he couldn’t be 100% sure there were no more in the Kingdom or even outside of it, he figured that they were as safe as it was possible to be.
“Well, that looks like that’s it,” Nedira stated as soon as the last town was up and running with defenders once again, with new Fusions to help them and progress already being made to unlock their full potential once again. There were very few victims of the Bereft that refused to take on the same duties that they had before, while at the same time, there were even more volunteers from the common townspeople that wanted to help. With the assistance of Nedira and the Volunteers from the Militia, they were easily able to train everyone on the use of the VREP staves they were provided, as well as lessons on how to pilot the transports that were created for their use.
While the northwestern portion of the Kingdom had suffered greatly from the introduction of the Bereft, Larek thought that they were leaving it better than they found it. He wished he could do the same for the rest of the Kingdom, though it would take time for all of his Fusions to spread that far. It was something that the newly established Sanctuary was actively working towards, of course, but those kinds of things took time.
“So… what now?” Larek asked his betrothed as they left the area behind, accompanied by the original 20 Volunteers. They had all spent a little time unlocking their full potential again, showing that it was possible even with someone who’d had it taken away from them, though they had some ground to make up to get back to their former strength. “Another crisis or two?”
Nedira shook her head with a soft chuckle. “Not that I know of. At least, I hope that’s the case once we get back to Thanesh.” She sighed, leaning against him as he flew them back toward the southeast and Volunteer headquarters. “I don’t know about you, but I need a break from all of this.”
“I agree. I’ve had enough excitement for at least a few months, and there’s more than one thing that I’ve put off because of all this.”
Nodding, she asked, “Solutions to the Gergasi problem?”
“Exactly.”
“And how is that going?”
Larek thought about it for a few moments. “I had some vague ideas before, but this whole situation has sparked a few new ones. I don’t know if I have the complete solution yet, but I believe that I’m closer than ever. I just need some time to look into it.”
“I’m sure you’ll get it,” his betrothed cautiously offered.
I sure hope so.
Flying back to Thanesh was a relatively quiet affair, which was exactly what Larek needed before descending back into the hectic city and its burgeoning authority in the Kingdom. While he was proud of what had been accomplished through his Fusions, the competence of his friends, and the sheer tenacity and selflessness of the Volunteers, the responsibility of ensuring that the organization was running efficiently and correctly was more than he wanted to bear. Thankfully, 95% of the day-to-day operations were taken care of by other people, either his friends or those to whom tasks had been delegated, and it was only up to Larek to help provide Fusions and make some of the larger decisions. Once the Fusionists in the Sanctuary were at the point where they could regularly help provide the Fusions that the Kingdom needed for defense, that would leave even less for Larek to do. There were a few Fusions that, as of now, only he could create, but he was hoping that—eventually—they wouldn’t be needed much in the future, especially once he’d made enough to keep up with demand for at least a decade.
He just needed time to get to that point.
Worry infused him as they approached Thanesh, as he analyzed the busy hive of activity going on outside the city walls and the transport fields. He was looking for anything out of the ordinary, which would indicate that some sort of crisis was being addressed; while he was more than willing to help in such a case, he sincerely hoped it didn’t come to that, as he’d delayed his own work long enough by that point.
“Looks normal enough to me,” Nedira said as she looked down at the city. “Hopefully that doesn’t change once we land.”
Touching down in The Hopper’s designated space, the two of them and the Volunteers quickly exited, and Larek’s worry only increased when he saw a group approaching the now-landed vessel. He fully expected that they were about to tell him about some other problem that could only be solved by his involvement, and he braced himself at the potential delay in his important work.
“Welcome to Thanesh. May I see your security badges?” the studious young woman with a clipboard asked as soon as the group approached them. She was accompanied by what appeared to be a contingent of Volunteers with fully unlocked potential.
Hmm… doesn’t seem bad yet.
Fortunately, each of them had security badges made for them, so it was easy enough to provide them for the woman. “Ah, I see. Welcome back, sir,” she addressed him, as she handed him back his security badge. “How did the operation in the northwest region go?”
“Well enough. The problem is taken care of, at least.” Larek waited a moment for the woman to say anything else. “Is everything here… going well? Any messages for me?” he finally asked, unable to wait any longer.
She shrugged. “As far as I’ve been told, everything is as normal as possible. I don’t have any messages for you; did you want me to send a runner to see if I missed something?”
“No, that’s not necessary,” he quickly told her, as he didn’t want anything of the sort. While he didn’t want to hide the fact that he’d returned, he also didn’t want to announce it; that might just invite the sort of crisis that he was trying to avoid.
“Very good, sir. If there’s nothing else, I need to see about—HEY!” the clipboard-toting woman shouted, startling Larek for a moment, but she wasn’t even looking at him. Instead, all of her attention was on a nearby transport landing lopsided, and it nearly crashed into another parked vessel nearby. “PUT IT DOWN RIGHT NOW! IF YOU CAN’T FLY A TRANSPORT, LESSONS CAN BE HAD AT THE TRAINING FIELD!”
Her voice was loud enough that he thought it might be a Commanding Shout Battle Art, even as she rushed over to the wobbling transport, completely forgetting about Larek’s group. As the other Volunteers that had come with her followed along, the Fusionist shrugged and looked at Nedira with a small chuckle. “Let’s go, I guess.”
The whole way inside the city was nerve-wracking for Larek, as he kept expecting to be found by a messenger telling him to report to the Volunteer headquarters to help solve some issue or another, but fortunately they were able to pass inside and were able to walk through the busy streets without being stopped even once. Once they got closer to their warehouse-like home and the headquarters building, Nedira split off from him. “I’ll meet you at home; I need to go report to Kimble.”
With a quick goodbye kiss, he swiftly found himself back home, and thankfully there was still no one there to give him another crisis to solve – which he’d half-expected, if he was being truthful with himself. With no one there, and with no immediate danger that needed his expertise in eliminating, Larek was able to settle down for the first time in what felt like months. Even as he sat at the edge of his bed, taking a load off his feet, he began to think about what he should be doing, such as visiting the Sanctuary to see how they were doing in his absence, or seeing if there had been any scouting reports of Gergasi sightings, but he shook his head to remove those thoughts.
He had the opportunity right then to do what he needed to do, not what someone else needed him to do – and he was going to take advantage of the lull in immediate threats for as long as possible. With that in mind, Larek moved over to his throne of pillows, which was untouched since the last time he’d sat within them, before settling down comfortably among them. Once he was in position, he opened his notifications for the first time in nearly a week, finally able to concentrate on all the changes affecting his Status.
