Chương 371: 371

Lola dug deep into the soil of the garden plots with Union, located several floors down from the main deck, and below the rooms and extra space. Just below the heart of the ship. It was a quiet place. The trees stood tall and strong, apples, pears, mangoes, avocados, abasa, beniko, and yapapas. Later, Lola would work on the vegetable patch, but for now she was deep in a Union with the yapapa tree, flowing with a Union of Sustenance and Sustenance.

It was a different Union than usual; one where no side had a deprivation of resources. Instead, the plant used Lola's astral body to sustain its own, much weaker astral body, and Lola helped it connect to the much faster tempo of resources in her own body. In return, the tall, green tree began to flower and fruit, clusters of bright yellow flowers rapidly shriveling and then sprouting into bright golden-blue bulbs.

Each bulb dangled from the branch in a cluster of 5 or 7, with each bulb's actual seed like a dangling, hard red stone on the end of each golden blue fruit. Yapapa was one of Lola's favorite fruits, and when the tree was ripe Lola wasted no time in plucking off one of the nicest bunches and harvesting it for herself, and the children… though to call them children anymore was to have wrong-headed ideas about life. … And now Lola was worried again.

Lola prepared the yapapa fruit, plucking out the red stone with great difficulty and then slicing off the skin with a careful adamantium knife… it was the one Mark had given her. Ahhh… He couldn't enjoy this fruit right now. Maybe the taste? Maybe a little. But not really. The texture was important, too. It was crisp like an apple but it had a certain softness to it, almost like a banana, and that was what Lola liked so much about it.

The taste was pretty much 'sweet cucumber', and when you added sugar, or honey, it got that much better. Isoko would probably like it... though that might be treading on stereotypes too much, with how Japan liked less-sweet things. Isoko was Japanese but she loved spicy Mexican food, too. Lola opted for honey on the yapapa, since they had gotten some from Andria and Tartu's trip into Raptor, a few weeks ago.

The bees that made the honey made the honey in such a strange, good way, that Lola was pretty sure she was going to have to report the honey to someone, because it was clearly magical produce. It was made from those magic crystal vines that Tartu and Eliot were already planning on using… Lola frowned again, worries creeping in. Apparently, Okuana had an empire's grip on flowering mana crystal vines that were similar —if not exactly the same— as the vines that the kids had bought from Raptor.

Whatever came of that whole mess was going to be… a tough issue to handle. Andria, with her new Power, was going to have a rough go of it, too. Lola put those thoughts aside and went upstairs with the bowl of freshly prepared yapapa fruit. She was rather sure the kids had never tried any at all, and she wanted to gauge their reactions. She hoped they liked it. As Lola got closer to the surface of the ship, she began to hear clanging. Banging. Distant thuds. It was impossible to hear it down there, but now…

Lola thought she knew what she was hearing, and sure enough, when she got to the hub a great deal of the people on this journey were watching Mark spar with himself out on deck. Lola watched Mark for a moment. 3 different Marks squared off against each other, with two fighting each other, one with illusionary clothes and the other wearing just black, while the third took pot shots with super-speedy adamantium.

Lola could feel an almost-torn Union in the air, like a once-beautiful dress now used like pieces in a few different hand-me-downs. Lola was worried again, but… but Mark would be fine. Lola handed out the fruit to Isoko, Derek, Sally, Tartu, and Eliot. Andria was on the far side of the deck, all on her own, so Lola would have to walk to her, but Lola was not walking through that mess of slashing adamantium wires and blades—" Oh sorry, you said something?" Lola asked.

Sally paused, then said, "I asked what it was called." She had a piece of fruit in her hand." Ah, 'yapapa'. It's one of my favorite fruits." Isoko said, "It's kinda weird but I really like it."" Cucumbery, right?" Derek said, but he still munched on his piece." Weird in a good way," Isoko added, munching on a piece, her vector full of small pleasures. Lola grinned a little then looked at Mark, asking, "How long has he been at this?"" Going on hour 3!" Eliot said.

The fruit was soon handed out except for a few pieces and Eliot offered to drone those few pieces over to Andria, so Lola happily accepted that offer, saying she hoped Andria liked it, too. Sally and Eliot didn't seem to like it, but Isoko took another whole slice for her enjoyment, and Lola was glad she had guessed correctly there. Sally had noticed something was off with Lola, but she let it be. Lola went upstairs to speak to David, at the controls.

David lounged in the driver's seat, reading on his phone, feet kicked up on the deck. The world beyond the dome overhead was all green and airy, with occasional flashes of gold when the ship ran into and splashed away a giant spherical floating lake of algae. In here it was cozy and with normal colors; the dome had a green-filter, or something. Eliot had made sure that no matter what the world outside looked like, the world inside the Dreadnought looked normal. Lola sat down next to David.

David looked up from his reading, saying, "He's not fine, but he'll be fine."" Yes yes," Lola said, exhausted, "We have talked and you have calmed me down, but I am yet again given over to anxiety. I have no idea what will happen when we get back." David smirked.

"So you're convinced we'll get back?"" It is a marked improvement over the start of this journey, to be sure." Lola asked, "What is Mark doing out there with his Union?"" The goal is to learn how to be a seer, when needed."" Oh dear… I was afraid of that, too. All of the kids are trying to do too much after Andria's success. Thank Freyala Isoko wasn't exposed to that nonsense…" Lola breathed, then asked, "Has he had success?"" Minimal, and also none at all.

First he was trying to use his Adamantiumkinesis to make himself multiple bodies, which didn't work at all. But he can do multiple eyes and limbs almost well enough. The actual breakthrough came when he added Union to the mix." David informed Lola, "It's a Union of 'Here and There' with him as both sides of the Union." Lola had a moment of blankness. … And then she realized she wasn't sure how she felt about that at all. Was it a good thing? A bad thing? A… a thing that existed? That Mark could do now?

Lola asked, "And it worked?"" Way more than he thought he could make it work," David said.

"But the next breakthrough happened when he started making adamantium hearts and then basing his bodies around those, with the hearts beating in unison." Lola felt a small rush of relief. Mark hadn't had a heartbeat in almost two weeks, and he hadn't noticed until the other day with Nobody Important. Lola said, "That's good news." But then she thought, and asked, "There's a third body, though?" David nodded.

"And now he's doing 3 bodies for some reason. That's the ripping Union in the air. Makes me feel all anxious. I don't think it'll work, but he's coming up with ideas and then doing them well enough. It's good when he experiments."" Yes, I suppose it is." They could only teach Mark —and Isoko, now— so much about Union. Both of the kids had Full Union, while David and Lola, while true adherents to Freyala and her church, both with the last name of Tanner in an act of true calling, only had most of Union.

It used to be that Lola imagined she had 90% of what the Goddess had in her mortal life, but that was simply untrue. The kids these days were easily proving as much. Lola asked a vulnerable question, "Do you think he will still need me? Does… does he need me now?" David softly said, "He needs us more than ever, Lola, and you especially." Lola's heart seemed to shake as tears welled in her eyes.

"Ah… Thank you, David." Lola composed herself, then looked at him and asked again, "Does he still need us?" David answered, "Yes." Lola nodded. - - Here-Mark leapt at himself, throwing his whole weight into his fist. There-Mark countered with a forearm cross, crashing Here-Mark to the side, but Here-Mark reoriented on his caltrops and his feet to meet There-Mark's kick at his chest— And then Mark was There-Mark, kicking at Here-Mark but getting his leg grappled. Here-Mark kneed right into There-Mark's crotch.

There-Mark winced at the slight pain, both of them marveling that there was any pain at all, then the There-Mark elbow-cracked Here-Mark over the head with the base of his elbow.

Here-Mark countered by turning into a splash of wires and swords that enveloped and contained, but There-Mark separated into dots and recombined across the field— And then Mark was the Other-Mark who came in with a great slashing sword, 10 meters long and ripping through the air with fire and speed, catching on Here-Mark's tangled body and sending him flying as There-Mark reoriented with five different spears, already coming together to crack into Here-Mark, as Here-Mark slipped Other-Mark's sword and came back together— Here-Mark's head, chest, and stomach all got a spear through them.

Uncomfortable. Survivable. Here-Mark slipped around the spears and grabbed them as his own, turning them into spirals of blades that thunked into There-Mark and ripped him apart into a severed upper torso, a middle body, and two feet and a hand— There-Mark reached out with a floating grip and grabbed Here-Mark's face, making a mask around his face and cutting off his sight and breath, only realizing that sort of tactic didn't work at all— Other-Mark came in with a slip of a thin knife, beheading Here-Mark.

There-Mark stood triumphant for the smallest of moments before Here-Mark grew another head. The scattered head surrounded by adamantium became another discarded clump of adamantium that rolled off to the side, ignored, all the way to the castle, where— Oh. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Everyone was looking at him.

There-Mark, Here-Mark, and Other-Mark, all kinda paused, as the Union that kept them all separated felt like little more than ephemeral air, breaking and cracking. Mark faltered like the breath was gone from his body as he stepped onto the deck of the Dreadnought, standing where Other-Mark had stood. The other two bodies became statues. A lingering pain thrummed through Mark's body, his Union tensed and shredded, but as he stood there he came back together, pain vanishing. Maybe he had pushed it too much.

Everyone was worried, and Mark hadn't even felt that worry until he looked at them, but it had been there the whole time. Mark plucked his illusionary clothes trinket from Here-Mark and his clothes reappeared on his current body. He turned and waved to the guys at the castle.

"Hey! What's up?" All of them were there, though Lola and David were up top in the observation bridge looking down, and Andria was way over there at the front of the ship, practicing some astral body control and also looking this way. Isoko cupped her hands to her face and yelled out, "You good?"" I'm good!" Mark said. Eliot said, "We're gonna switch layers in 10 minutes, if you're ready."" Already?!" Mark looked around at the green sky.

"How long have I been training?" Quark answered, "5. 6 hours, sir."" Too long!" Sally said." Ah, shit…" Mark muttered, looking away. And then he grinned.

"It was good, though! I think I understood something there!" He walked toward them, saying, "I might be able to crack Unioning outside of myself soon, Isoko!"" Phhshhh!" Isoko gushed, "Stop stealing my tricks!"" No way! They're good tricks!" Derek, however, was interested in something completely different, asking, "Did you reach through into a fourth dimension?"" Nope," Mark said, reaching the full group, saying, "But I think I'm close to that, too. It's all about deciding where your body is."

Derek said, "Yes, and that's all but impossible without having an actual Adamantium Body. You certainly seemed like you were multiple people, though."" How much of that was real and how much was a trick of self-delusion?" Sally asked." I have no idea how to even begin to answer that…" Mark thought, "But maybe it was all self-delusion? All of life is a self-delusion, right? Are we our bodies, or our Bindings? Is the soul separate? Or is the Binding the soul?

Do souls reach into some other dimension that crosses over into whatever dimension is the dimension of the Veil and demons? When I was first learning about Daihoon and Earth, I heard Daihoon was Earth's 'astral body', and maybe that's true-ish—" Mark paused, realized he was rambling weird, and then he acknowledged the feelings he was feeling in Tartu and Derek, saying, "But maybe you two have different opinions?"" Maybe. Finish the full thought," Tartu said. Derek held back, too.

Mark said, "So if the astral body of Earth is Daihoon, and Daihoon is a Binding, and Endless Daihoon is the actual astral body which is invisible and untouchable unless you're inside the Binding, then maybe that's all sort of true, and the way to reach 'the Binding that is Daihoon' is only through the dimensional crossings that are Endless Daihoon. So I think maybe everyone has their own personal 'world' inside of them, and it's up to the user to understand how it all works in the context of everything else."

Mark added, "The only thing I haven't quite figured out is if it's possible for Earth's 'astral body' to be contiguous but also separated, like a seer's astral body, and if it is, then what does that all mean? The applications of knowing the answer means knowing if there's a certain direction I need to push to figure out how to be a seer, automatically and on demand, sort of how there was a 'button' to push to figure out how to disengage my Shaper speed from my body's natural limiaaaahhhhohhhhhh…"

Mark stared off into space for a moment, then said, "Maybe I can just do a ritual to poke into that fourth dimension."" And HERE is where I step in a lot," Tartu said, "Save it for post-journey. Think about it, but save it. And EVEN THEN, I suggest you do NOT even ATTEMPT such a ritual, if it even is possible. The most likely outcome for such a thing would likely be death." Derek, however, asked, "How would you even start with such a ritual?"

Mark thought, then said, "It has to be some sort of Worship/Aethercalling ritual, right? Something to cement a domain of Worship— Oh! Could you do it, Tartu? Make a Domain that makes you a seer, automatically, wherever your Domains are? I mean, like… you can sprinkle your Domains everywhere you go and link them together through some popularity-contest Hero/Villain Program divinity?" Tartu had a moment of worry, another moment of 'should I???'

, several large 'oh my gods he's going to kill himself' emotions, then he took a breath, realized something deep and truly possible, and said, "You should be more careful." Mark grinned, then simply said, "Sure, Tartu." Eliot held something back, too. Something big. Derek really, really wanted to say something, but for once in Mark's experience with the guy, he held back, too. Mark grinned at everything, saying, "I'll figure it out!"" Well we're headed to the next layer if you're ready for it," Eliot said.

Mark smiled and clapped, sending a minor shockwave into the air as he proclaimed, "Bring on the kaiju! Let's get you superpowered, Eliot!" Soon, Mark Unioned with Purpose, standing on the forecastle of the Dreadnought, and the ship crashed out of the floating-algae-lakes layer, into the dreamlands, and Mark sundered dreamland after dreamland upon the anvil of his Purpose. Broken memories passed by and in a mere 15 minutes they approached another layer of air and rock.

It was a dust storm layer, and Eliot announced that this was not the right layer. New directions were figured out, new plans were made. It would be a hundred kilometers into the scouring wind before they'd turn and plow through the dreamlands again. Isoko casually held the sandstorm away from the ship, allowing Eliot's barrier to continue to rest, for Castellan fire to continue to accumulate within the storage batteries of the ship. Mark sat down on the forecastle and started to read about Worship again.

Quark said, "There is a reason Worship was the last book on the reading list, sir. Perhaps we could try Waterpeople? We never got to that one, and it was all about small communities surviving in the Wilds through minor reality manipulations and rituals. It seems like it might be important for this place." Mark looked up and out into the sand storm for a moment, and then he said, "Reality manipulation, huh? Yes. Let's try Waterpeople."

Quark opened a different imaginary book in front of Mark, and Mark flipped through with fingers touching nothing and Quark moving the pages for him, to read about group dynamics, rituals of tradition that only worked if they were kept up properly, and what, quite frankly, read like organized superstition. Superstition that worked, but also superstition.

The language itself was a bunch of rolling 'ooh's and 'wa's and a few slapping sounds that were heavily influenced by the current directions of the stars in the sky, the time of day, the phase of the moon, and a person's position in the hierarchy of the tribe or group they were speaking to and interacting with. The language flowed. Most of it went over Mark's head.

But he recognized ritual work, and 'building a divine space through ritual and otherwise' (otherwise known as Worship), and though the primer on Waterpeople was not calling it that at all, the correlations made it all very interesting. In the back of Mark's mind, he couldn't help but think about how 'the People' that spoke Waterpeople and brought it to Daihoon after the Reveal, were unknown before then.

Mark imagined they were probably from some layer or collection of layers out here in Endless Daihoon, and the Reveal had caused a layer to fall to Daihoon, or something like that. Maybe whatever had happened to the People to bring them to Daihoon was sort of how Emperor Dominant had shot down an elven society out of the sky, to turn them into goblins to send after Aluatha. But that was just a working theory.