The Lone Wanderer

Percy walked into the warehouse for the third time in the past couple of weeks, his steps hurried and his breath short. Once again, there was nobody here besides Nesha and Elaine.

“Why did you bring me here? Did something go wrong?” he asked, fearing the worst.

His last two visits had been to grant his companions their new cores. This time, he had no idea what to expect. Nesha had met him the night before, saying they needed his help with something, but she’d refused to elaborate.

“Show him.” Nesha said, nodding at Elaine.

Stepping into the building too, his cousin took the spatial amulet off her neck, pouring some mana into the enchantment. She set it on the ground as it expanded to its original size, before opening it. Then, she stood in front of it, seemingly using her body to shield its contents from Percy’s view. She spent a couple seconds doing something in secret. Percy even heard the sound of a match lighting, a faint glow flickering inside the device.

“Can you two stop being cryptic and just tell me what’s going on? Did we get busted?” he demanded, frustration mounting.

But neither of them spoke a word.

Instead, Nesha stepped closer, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning into his side. Elaine, meanwhile, finished her work and finally turned around, beaming.

“Happy birthday, Percy!” they exclaimed together, their voices overlapping as they tried: and failed: to whisper.

Elaine held up a cake: handmade, from the looks of it. The crumb was a deep pink. Hopefully strawberry. A single candle stood alone in the centre, its tiny flame barely illuminating the musty floor around her.

“Sorry about the smell, but this was the safest place to do this.” Nesha explained.

While the mushrooms certainly did something to massively slow down the meat’s decay, they couldn’t completely eliminate the unpleasant odour. Percy hadn’t noticed it back when he’d planted a single mushroom in his room, but it was hard to ignore it when surrounded by tens of thousands of them, in an enclosed space.

Suffice to say, it wasn’t the most appetizing setting.

Still, Percy felt some warmth gather in his chest. He hadn’t even known it was his birthday today, having stopped keeping track of it years ago. What was he: 23 now?

Evidently, Elaine hadn’t forgotten.

“Thanks guys.” he said, blowing out the candle. “But you realize we just violated every safety protocol we set up since coming here, right?”

They weren’t supposed to roam the city unless necessary, nor to meet each other without a good reason. They certainly shouldn’t all gather at the same place either if they could avoid it, nor use their real names. Hell, Elaine was arguably slacking off from her guard post right now.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time they’d done this, but the previous two had been an exception. After all, Percy had needed to spend a few hours each time to grant them their cores, with the third person keeping watch.

She shrugged.

“Relax, cousin. It’s just a few minutes. Nothing will happen.”

“You should have seen how paranoid he was back in the Guild! He used to interrogate the Oblivious Agents to make sure they’d erased their memory!” Nesha chuckled.

“Hey, in my defence, we did everything we could and still got caught.” he replied.

Though, maybe they were right. People rarely approached this part of the district, and they’d have to be really unlucky for someone to walk in on them right now.

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Sighing, he used his mana to carve a large slice of cake for himself. But he opted to toss it into his storage seal than eating it on the spot, since the stinky warehouse wasn’t the best place to enjoy a meal. The others followed suit, everyone silently agreeing to eat their share later, in their rooms.

Then, they found a relatively clean spot against the wall, sitting side by side. The past couple of months had been a nonstop grind. It was nice to take a short break once in a while, the moment of normalcy feeling almost surreal.

“You know…” Percy murmured. “…this might be my last birthday.”

“Wow, way to ruin the mood!” Nesha pinched his side.

“Ouch! What was that for?!” he yelped.

“What happened to your usual optimism?” Elaine asked, furrowing her brow. “Are you planning to get yourself killed inside the Valley?!”

Percy blinked, only now realizing that they’d misunderstood his words.

“Wait: no. That’s not what I meant. It’s just… we won’t really know when our birthdays are once we enter the Valley.”

Time would flow very differently in there, days and nights stretching over entire weeks. They’d roughly know how long they stayed, of course, but would they be able to narrow it down to a specific number of days?

It was a strange thought. Magic gave people so much: stronger bodies, longer lives, impossible abilities… But every now and then, it robbed them of things they took for granted. Sometimes, it was something as simple as a birthday. Then again, they had it a lot better than people with blighted bloodlines like Rambert and his family.

Elaine was quiet for a moment. Then she smiled.

“Drama queen much? We’ll just pretend it’s the same day as always. Nobody will know.”

“I suppose that works.” he chuckled, before getting more serious. “Listen, Elaine… I’m really sorry about your affinity.”

The words hung in the air for a few seconds, nobody saying anything.

Nesha’s expression darkened, as she gave Elaine a sidelong glance, sympathy evident in her eyes. Both girls had had enough time to clear the first few channels and to fully awaken their new cores. Nesha’s second affinity was earth. Not the most exciting element, nor was she particularly pleased about having to discover another Circulation pattern by herself. Still, it was more than useable.

Elaine’s on the other hand…

“Why are you apologizing? Are you the one who chose our affinities for us?” she asked.

“Well, no… but I still got your hopes up for nothing.” he replied.

Back when he got his own pure affinity, Percy had thought it’d been the worst possible outcome. Yet, he’d made it work, somehow. He’d found countless applications for his second core over the years, until he even turned down the opportunity to change his affinity to water.

But even he wasn’t sure if Elaine’s new affinity could be salvaged.

It was water.

Like the first one.

Percy hadn’t even known this was possible. Then again, he couldn’t think of a reason why it wouldn’t be. Perhaps, he’d just been lucky it hadn’t happened to his hosts before.

Sadly, Elaine now had two cores in name only. She’d still get all the passive benefits: a stronger physique, a longer lifespan… It would also expand her mana capacity. But that was about it.

She wouldn’t be able to use affinity fusion, nor would she gain the same versatility that the others had. Even worse, this didn’t mesh well with Circulation. Her situation was actually the exact opposite from Micky’s. She now had more cores than sets of mana channels. Her boosting art was doomed to stay weaker than Percy’s or Nesha’s.

The only silver lining is that it wouldn’t require much extra effort from her. She’d still have to clear a couple additional pathways to link the new core with the rest of the network, and maybe even adjust the pattern slightly. But that was several times less demanding than a brand-new affinity would’ve been.

That said, Percy didn’t envy her.

Yet, she smiled against all odds, shaking her head.

“Don’t worry about me! I’m still a Yellow-born, remember? I’ve been treated like a princess my whole life, and that was before you even started showering me with all sorts of crazy treasures. I’d have to be a complete idiot to complain about this. It’s still a good thing, isn’t it?”

Percy nodded, albeit reluctantly. With two cores, Elaine could now potentially live long enough to attain divinity, even without Aurora Dew. However, he still wasn’t happy her new affinity hadn’t worked out for her.

‘I should look for a way for her to change it. Since the lotus exists, there must be other treasures like it…’

He was about to say something, but Elaine stood up.

“Anyway, I’ll get back to my post before anyone tries to sneak in.”

As soon as his cousin left, Percy turned to Nesha, handing her a spatial amulet.

“Might as well give you the first batch of potions, since we’re here.”

“How many?”

“Around 6000, give or take.” he sighed. “I haven’t registered the scaling principle yet, so I was only able to brew a fraction of what I wanted.”

Putting the device away, Nesha shook her head.

“It’s enough to get us started. With this, we can pay Alexander back for his expenses. I’ll get him to buy us the rest of the ingredients in the next few days.”

Percy nodded.

“Then, I’ll make sure to register the principle by the end of the week. That should kick my yield up to the next level.”