B2 - Chapter 6: No Limits

Terraform paced the dimly lit office, the ambient glow from the Singularity casting erratic shadows on the stone walls. He paused as Terry’s voice cut through the silence.

“Which one is it?” His tone carried a mix of curiosity and trepidation, the weight of the Singularity seeming to press down on his shoulders. He knew Silver had the Material and Physical, while Qui Shen had the Elemental, and Dancer had the Presence and Mental—according to his grandfather’s. But the Metaphysical and the Spectral were unaccounted for.

Terraform sighed deeply, his eyes flickering with an ethereal light as he glanced towards the small orb cradled in his hands. The power contained within the Singularity was palpable. Waves of energy roiled off the orb, sending intoxicating, tempting, and…terrifying pulses through the room. It was as if the very atmosphere vibrated with its presence, and Terry could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

“The Metaphysical,” Terraform replied, his voice softer now, laden with a combination of reverence and regret. “It’s been in my possession for fifteen years…but I’ve never been able to digest it.” He cast a chagrined glance towards Terry, the lines on his face deepening. “I had hoped to pick Silver’s brain about his, but after Skipper’s betrayal, it felt...dangerous to reveal.”

Terry’s brow furrowed. “You thought he’d steal it?”

Terraform looked away, his gaze distant as if he were searching for the right words among memories long buried. “I thought the temptation for reprisal would be strong. Factor in one of the most powerful objects in the world and one of the few men capable of taking it from me.” He shrugged, a motion that seemed to encompass all the weight of his decisions. “I wanted to get his measure first.”

Terry moved to the stone desk and leaned against it, his eyes narrowing with thought. “And you’re telling me why? I already told you I haven’t talked to Silver in months.”

Terraform strode to the edge of the room, pausing by the open window. The view of the sprawling Pit lay beneath him, a hive of activity. His voice dropped to a low, worried timbre. “How much do you know about Qui Shen?”

Terry’s mind worked overtime trying to follow the change in subject. After a moment, he shrugged. “Just what’s on HeroWatch…”

A shudder rippled through Terraform, his back straightening as if icy fingers had traced up his spine. “There’s so much more to that man than what’s on a wiki.” He turned back to Terry, genuine fear glimmering in his eyes. “In Asia, he’s called the Incinerator. Because he burns his prisoners alive. Slowly…” Terraform shook his head softly, the magic sparking in his eyes a wild and dangerous thing. “And not just other Awakened. Families, children…” His fists clenched briefly before he forced them to relax. “He’s the worst kind of super. He cannot be allowed to assimilate another Singularity.”

Terry’s eyes narrowed, his mind grappling with the gravity of Terraform’s words. “You still haven’t answered my question…”

Terraform chewed his lip. Finally, with a resigned sigh, Terraform shoved the Singularity back into his chest. The object seemed to slide past flesh and bone with an unsettling ease, merging once more with his body. “If worst comes to worst, I had hoped to give it to Sol. Or Silver, if he was alive.” He shook his head, his expression grim. “But with Sol’s mental state…” His expression flipped, a smile forcing itself onto his face. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this, Terry. There’s no S-rankers in the Market besides Sol, so most aren’t even aware of the Singularity’s existence. I suppose…” He chuckled humorlessly. “I suppose I just needed to share my burden with someone.”

Terry stepped forward, the respect he held for Terraform warring with the responsibility he felt for his own Quests and the people under his charge.

“You’ve done so much for me, Terraform, and I know the scale between us is unbalanced. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but I have my own war I’m fighting back on the surface.”

Terraform nodded, a sad smile on his face. “I understand, Terry. At the end of the day, we’re all slaves to those creatures pulling our strings.”

Before Terry could respond, Terraform strode back to his liquid stone chair, settling his feet beneath his desk. “Don’t let me keep you any longer, Terry. I know you’ve been waiting for another session with Marlon for a while.”

“Terraform…” Terry started to say, but the man glanced back, waving a hand casually.

“Please, Terry. Think nothing of it. I shouldn’t have burdened you with this to begin with. I mean no offense, but this isn’t the domain of a D-ranker. I still have friends on the surface. The Market isn’t lost. Not yet. Not while I still breathe.”

A bridge of crystalline glass formed from the window, and Terraform turned his back to Terry, as clear a dismissal as he had ever seen. Terry hesitated at the edge of the window, wondering if there was more he could offer, more he could say, but the man was right. He was just a D-ranker, and though he had close ties with multiple S-rankers, the only one he could truly call upon had been one stiff breeze from throwing himself into a pit of lava.

Terry couldn’t think of the words he wanted to say, so he simply strode onto the glass platform. It ferried him down to the bridges below, and as he glanced back towards Terraform’s office, instead of the glass window he expected, a stone wall rose up, obscuring view into the man’s office entirely. He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t help but feel like he had let a friend down in some way. Terraform had confided in him, shared the anxiety and weight of responsibility of running the Market. Maybe the man had just been looking for a sympathetic ear, and Terry had shut him down.

No, he was being foolish. He was a D-ranker, just as Terraform had said, and he had his own Quest to worry about. His resolve hardened as he thought about his upcoming meeting with Marlon. He needed to unlock his Midmark Quest. He needed to get stronger as fast as he could. He wasn’t strong enough to make a difference in the coming fight between Qui Shen and Terraform, but he would get stronger. And in order to do that, he needed to meet with Marlon. Especially if the Market was on the brink of invasion.

As Terry stepped from Terraform’s glass platform onto the nearest bridge over the Pit, he couldn’t help but notice a particular air that had settled over the market. The other times he had been here, the pedestrian traffic had been just as bustling, but with an upbeat mood to it—casual displays of magic, superhuman strength and speed, the sounds of laughter. But now, the mood was somber, subdued. The people coming to and fro hurried with a sense of purpose that bordered on panic. There were no overt signs of a coming invasion, but it was obvious that Qui Shen’s arrival was no secret.

Terry wondered if they were preparing to fight or flee. As he neared the alley that led to Marlon’s shop, he spotted a sign in all caps:

SERVICE FOR OFFER: ONE-WAY PORTAL INTO THE PIT

He chuckled to himself—at least some things never changed. Rather than announce his presence, he parted space with the flex of his aura, opening a portal into Marlon’s shop.

The man was right where Terry expected, working his pottery wheel as if he’d been waiting in the same spot all the months they had been apart. Marlon didn’t even glance up when Terry’s portal materialized. As he stepped through, appearing inside the shop, Marlon simply grunted in greeting.

“Good to see you too, Marlon,” Terry said with a wry smile.

“If it’s not in the Ds, I’m sending you straight to the Pit,” the man barked.

Terry felt his pride stir and a smile formed on his lips.

“It’s in the Ds. And I created my own Skill.”

Marlon’s foot stopped pumping the pottery wheel and he stood without a word. Terry was so taken aback by the sudden movement, he retreated a few steps. Without even a glance up, Marlon snagged a towel from the back of his chair and began wiping his hands clean.

When he was done, he finally looked up.

“Bout damn time. Now, the real learning begins.”

Excitement gripped him, butterflies forming as the hairs on his arms stood up. What could a master like Marlon teach when he was actually engaged?

A portal snapped open in front of Terry and he couldn’t help but marvel at how effortlessly Marlon manipulated space. The second wicker chair he stored in the closet materialized through the portal, settling before Terry’s feet. Marlon shifted his chair until it was right in front of the other so that they’d be face to face.

Terry took a seat expecting Marlon to do the same. Instead, the man looked up toward the rafters, his eyes seeming to track the cats that dominated that space. Seconds passed where Marlon didn’t say anything, simply stared up toward the ceiling, as if waiting for some signal.

Then, a small portal cut through the air in time with the leap of a cat. The cat let out a piteous meow as its trajectory was intercepted by the portal, only to find itself suddenly in Marlon’s arms. It whipped around in a panic for a moment, before Marlon’s hand on its back settled it.

He came back to the chair, easing himself into it as his hand continued to stroke the cat’s back.

“What do you know about aura?”

Terry was so thrown off by the odd way with which Marlon had corralled the cat, it took him a moment to process the question.

“Uh, sorry? Aura?” He had to forcibly bring his thoughts back on track, the pressure of Marlon’s uncompromising gaze and terse tone slowing his mind. “Let’s see…well, I know it’s integral to our magic. Our System helps shape it for us when we activate our abilities. And I know we can alter it to create new Skills…”

He trailed off as Marlon frowned.

“Chicken or the egg?” the man asked, his hand continuing to stroke the cat absentmindedly.

Terry narrowed his eyes. “Sorry?”

“Which came first?”

“Uh…I don’t know.” Marlon’s unrelenting gaze compelled him to answer, though he knew the question was generally considered rhetorical. “If I had to guess, the chicken—”

“No!” he barked. “Which came first, the System or your aura!” He shook his head with a disappointed frown. “Are you familiar with subtext, Tammy?”

Terry sighed at the man’s intractable nature. Marlon only called him other names when he was annoyed. He forced in a deep breath and turned his mind back to the question.

The answer was pretty obvious once he gave it some thought.

“Aura,” he replied definitively.

Rather than praise the answer, Marlon grunted as if he were annoyed.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I had aura before I Awakened. And there’s plenty of non-Awakened who can express or manipulate aura.”

“How do you know that’s not a function of the System, hm? Perhaps the Call flooded our world with aura? You’ve built a theory off a flawed premise. Do better.”

Terry felt the blood rush to his face, his skin prickling with a spike of adrenaline. He hated this rhetorical game. Why couldn’t Marlon ever just give me a straight answer! Why couldn’t he simply teach rather than browbeat me into submission?

No, he cut off that line of thinking immediately. This was too important to let his ego get in the way. For what felt like the fifth time, he forced in calming breaths and turned his mind fully to the exercise—because that’s clearly what this was, a mental exercise to drive him to a certain realization.

He considered everything he knew about aura. It was something that existed in non-Awakened, he knew that for certain. Not only had he been able to manipulate his own aura years before he Awakened, but he’d also been able to sense others. All the undead he’d ever come across were also adept at manipulating aura—the sanguine, ghouls, draugrs, patches. More than that, it was integral to their communication, something that had clearly developed over centuries, if not longer, which spoke to an entire history surrounding the existence of aura.

Another factor he considered was that the Systems didn’t seem to augment their Awakened’s aura or physicality. Rather, the Body Tempering and other enhancement Skills simply coordinated aura in a specific way to foster those enhancements. Even his Presence Attributes weren’t as simple as points he could assign, but rather were indicators of his development accomplished solely through hard work and practice.

All those points served as evidence towards his theory, but the reality was, his instinct was the strongest indicator—at least in his own mind. Somehow, he could feel the truth—aura was an intrinsic component to the universe, something that ebbed and flowed all around him. And he knew that though it could be manipulated, shifted, even co-opted, it wasn’t a new phenomenon brought about by the Call. It had a heft to it in his senses, a feeling of timelessness, antiquity, that he just felt.

These thoughts flashed in his mind in an instant and he considered the different ways to explain how he knew. But ultimately, he suspected Marlon would find ways to pick any premise apart.

“I can say confidently that aura came first. I’m sure you’re trying to drive me toward that answer in a certain way.” He shrugged. “But I just know it. I feel it in my bones.”

Marlon pursed his lips, clearly annoyed that Terry had sidestepped with his answer. But after a moment, he nodded begrudgingly.

“You’re right, though your explanation relies upon a bedrock of fallacies.” He nodded toward the cat held in his lap. “Can you sense Marmalade’s aura?”

Marmalade…? Terry very purposefully didn’t say out loud, though the questionable name itched at him.

He knew instinctively that the answer would be yes. All living things had pinged against his aura sense in his experience. But he knew Marlon wouldn’t accept an instinctual response. Instead, he reached out with his senses, feeling the aura around him. There was that ever present river—as he’d come to think of it—coursing around not only him, but the objects and creatures in the room. As he focused his senses, he saw Marmalade in that river.

And reared back in utter shock.

The cat’s aura was…off. Something had been altered, shifted around to create little nodules that appeared unnatural in comparison to all the other animals he had observed.

“What…what am I seeing?” he breathed.

“I’ve augmented his aura, see? I’ve augmented all of their auras.”

Terry looked up in confusion before realizing what the man meant. His eyes tracked higher and he let his senses range into the rafters. Even from this distance, he knew immediately what the man had meant.

Every single cat—even the litter of kittens mewing in a makeshift hammock—had unusual growths on their auras.

Marlon’s voice brought his attention back.

“Don’t fret, they’re perfectly fine. I would never experiment on my babies if I weren’t sure of the results.”

Terry’s mouth gaped open for a moment before he recovered.

“To what end? What do the…modifications accomplish?”

Marlon looked up, tracking the cats above.

“Various things,” he replied with an absentminded tone. “Some, I’ve given tags that my System recognizes. Others, the anti-fall enchantment I’ve been working on.” He frowned at that. “They don’t particularly like those, so I deactivated them for now.”

“But…but you’re a Traveler. How—?”

“Who says what I can and can’t do with aura, hm? The limitations of these so called Systems are arbitrary. Haven’t you learned anything from me?”

With barely any help from you, he wanted to say. He decided to keep that to himself.

“You’re saying…a Traveler can work items like an Artificer or learn to manipulate elements like an Elementalist or—“

“I’m saying, don’t limit yourself by what they tell you. A damn copycat of all people should understand there are no limits to what we can do with our auras!”

Terry’s mind churned, a million thoughts competing for his attention. It made sense, was almost blatantly obvious now that he thought about it.

Marlon’s voice dipped low, a solemn note to his tone.

“The System is a crutch, a handicap, a…stencil. Learn to be an artist, not a paint by numbers hack. If you want things handed to you, stay within the bound of what your System offers you.”

He leaned in, his magic flaring in his eyes for the first time that Terry could remember.

“But if you want to unlock the possibilities of the universe, you need to think outside the box. Create, destroy, experiment, adapt…” He leaned back, his hand encompassing the cats and pottery around them. “This room may look like a pig’s sty. But everything in here represents my life’s work. A treasure trove of data…for those with the patience to unlock its secrets.”

Marlon’s aura reached out—a small, fine tendril—that touched a particular spot on Marmalade’s back. Terry sat forward, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he focused on what that tendril was doing. It touched a spot on the cat’s aura, applied a small bit of ephemeral power, and Marmalade’s entire aura shifted into a new configuration.

Terry was too slow to spot the exact changes before Marlon released the cat. It bounded from his lap, a shiver tracing up its arched back. Then it leapt into the air…

…and disappeared from Terry’s sight.

But not from his senses. He tracked its passage with wide eyes as it appeared across the shop, high up in the rafters.

He turned back to Marlon, his mouth gaping open in utter shock.

“Did…did that cat just teleport?”

He wouldn’t have believed it if there were any other solution. But Marlon’s aura had remained inert during the entire exchange, only flexing to change the cat’s aura in that brief instant before pulling back. There was no other way to say it, that cat had teleported seemingly on its own.

As for Marlon, he arched a single brow, a self-satisfied smile on his face.

“Limitations are arbitrary, Terry. And the possibilities…endless.”