Chương 208: Act 3, Chapter 58: Four men and one date / the second man

Day in the story: 23rd January (Friday) Alexandra May"This time, I just want to talk, Dam," I told him when he insisted on me getting breakfast.

"Whatever, kids. I am going to get full," he replied, watching Alex fold the world to his whims and place him inside my Domain. This was much-needed training for him as well as for me. We were ready with basic intel on EoT's field operations, and that meant that he and Maya would have busy days ahead of them.

"Have fun," I waved him off.

"Where do you want to talk?" Nick asked. I cocked my head to the side with a wide smile and extended my hand toward him—open palm up. He groaned once, but placed his on top of mine. One heartbeat later, with the full realization that after all this time I no longer felt any unhealthy attraction toward him, we were inside the Nest. Its pristine alabaster walls shone in the morning light of my own sun as it let the rays come through the see-through ceiling. It warmed my skin and soul alike.

"Sophie gave me a relation of your shared night and of how your Domain had grown, but it is great to see it in person."

"Thanks. Sit, please." I said, taking a place on a chaise lounge draped with red fabric, straight from Paris. Elle did send great things from there now and then. Taking what we liked was easy when a sleight of hand and a flicker of thought could make things disappear.

"No, I will stand. Thank you, though. I need all the exercise I can get to get stronger. Especially after the show I've just seen."

"Oh, please, it's nothing."

"It's a lot, actually. You are a different fighter from the one I fought alongside the last time."

"Not by much. It was the drake, right?"

"I think so. You still did most of the things by yourself back then. I can see how that vampire you mentioned could have had a bad time against you."

"He was a dick. Would not let me move a muscle on my own. Can you imagine that?"

"I have heard about that, yes. Luckily for you, you have an army of helpers now." He replied, taking one of the spy-ders that dwelled in the corner of the room onto his own hand. He checked it out while I used the eyes placed on it to do the same to him. Heavy shadows were under his eyes, his skin bagged and saggy, as if he were older by a few years. He was thinner and less muscular than when he left for his Domain uncoupling. Even his hair was brighter, as if the color had dimmed.

"I did not have them yet back then. But Liora proved capable. That flying rascal. And Noxy finished the job."

"That dragon pulled the trigger?" he asked, surprised.

"No, that would wreck him. The gun shot on its own. Safer that way." He looked at me for a second, then let the brief confusion pass, putting the folded spider onto the backrest of the couch.

"What did you want to talk about?" he asked finally, watching the small artistic critter scurry away.

"You. Sophie's my… family. I wanted to say a friend, but she is more than that for sure, and I know that by heart now. I even told her that I was madly attracted to you and she brushed it off with a smile. Can you believe that?" He stood stunned, looking at me like at some kind of monster.

"You… what?"

"I consider her my family. So how you feel is important to me. If there is anything I can do to help you, I will do it."

"Not this part."

"Oh, come on, Nick. Don't be a kid. I know you meant the attraction, but what is there more to say than what I already did?" I said, bringing both of my legs onto the lounge. I looked up at the sky above with my oldest eyes.

"I am pretty sure you knew about it, or felt it, even though I am awesome at hiding my own feelings."

"Pretty good, but not great."

"That was a joke, Leben. I was attracted. You are smart, funny, caring, and handsome. And we spent a lot of difficult moments together, so how could I not? It was a choice on my part to indulge in those moments of wondering 'what if.' You get that? If not for Sophie, would I kiss you? Would we make love?" I continued, and upon hearing my words, he decided to sit. His skin was redder on the cheeks.

"This, however, is not an option at all. So I made another decision: to finally let those feelings go and tell you about them."

"Why? You could have kept them to yourself."

"I blame her," I said, pointing in the general direction of the Weaver's Tree.

"Who?" he asked, turning around.

"Ali—the girl I would have been if not for the Penrose. The one that became my Soul Core. She's a bad influence."

"I understand," he replied and hung his sight on a point on the ground somewhere between the two of us.

"That's it?"

"No. I too was attracted to you," he whispered.

"Knew it! I am just too fucking great not to be a femme fatale, am I not?" He smiled weakly at that.

"Still am."

"Not any more than to Sophie, I hope."

"No. It's kind of a forbidden fruit effect. The heart wants what it can't get. I won't let it."

"You better not, Leben. You look like shit anyway, so no chance here. Care to explain why?" I finally got a laugh out of him.

"I have just a theory," he started, and I turned to a sitting position again, looking straight at him. A few of the minions brought glasses of orange juice, squeezed from fruits they had gathered in the south of my Agora. There were quite a few fruit trees growing there. He just shook his head while reaching for the glass and taking a sip.

"I should have been an artist."

"Funny much?"

"A lot, actually. Anyway, like I was saying. I think my body caught up to the trauma it suffered, but was healed from it by the power granted by the Domain. Or—and that is a more plausible explanation—I think that's how I saw myself deep inside my soul: weak beyond measure, despite the power I was offered. Inadequate and unfit. And when the Shadow was removed from the Domain, we both were hit by the damage of that move in the physical world."

"Is he okay now?"

"He was getting better. We took care of him when we both were in the Domain, but he is not there anymore."

"He what? Packed up and left?" I joked, sipping juice myself, while I watched with intensity how Liora barely escaped a sea serpent ten times his size. He wanted to chew on bigger fish than his jaws would allow him. Fortunately, he breached the surface and flew high enough to escape the jaws that opened to four sides, each one full of serrated teeth. I'd need to bring him in for some rest later today.

"No. We talked near the end of my stay in there. Well, we talked a lot all the time I was in The Hearth."

"Hearth? I called one of the buildings in here like that as well!" I said with a joyful voice.

"Hardly original, Alexa. It's the fortress in our Domain," he sighed.

"In my parents' Domain. I just now realized that I never ventured outside of it. There was not enough time to check what was out there, nor opportunity." Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

"C'est la vie." It was damn easy to learn French, with so many brains bound to the task. Elle basically remembered anything she read on the first try.

"Yeah. The talk near the end, though—we discussed what it meant for each of us to be, well, us. And it was kind of a revelation for me. Despite the fact that I was influenced by Culinary Excellence my whole life, I developed passions for other things too. For science and connecting with people. I tried to bring lots of worlds together in cooking, to make it something more than the act of making food itself. I studied chemistry and physics to understand the processes.

I made a YouTube channel to teach others, and bring the virtual and real world together."

"This is not a job interview, Nick. I know you are great." He sighed.

"He was the same in that Soul Core, and before he joined. So when I let him go, he finally had a chance to let that part of us bloom."

"No way," I said.

"Yes, way," he answered.

"You cheeky bastard. And you kept it a secret the whole time?"

"Well, as I said, I still need to recover and understand that part of myself, but I had my new trial while I was still in France."

"No shit. How? You barely could walk when I saw you at the airport." I leaned in closer.

"I was better before the test. It wrecked me once more, hence the trouble walking."

"But you passed."

"I did." He smiled.

"What is it? You can't keep me on the edge like that?"

"I can't? Why not?" He leaned in now.

"Take a guess." My brains kept analyzing possibilities, thinking of the best fitting options for his Domain, but the options were so vast it was difficult to come to a definitive answer.

"Fuck it. Fusion," I replied. His brows furrowed in sudden anger.

"You spy on me?" I replied with laughter.

"I got it?"

"Yes. I am a sourcerer of the Domain of Fusion. I thought it would not be so obvious. How did you know?"

"I have a few extra brains now. And it just fits what you just talked about—wanting to bring different things and approaches together, being influenced and yet developing your own takes. And hear me out: there is fusion cooking, right?"

"Get lost. I am not telling you anything more."

"Au contraire, mon chéri, keep talking." A few of my spider minions climbed onto my back and began massaging it with methodical pushes and pulls.

"What is it with you inserting French into conversations? I thought it's the only language in the world you don't know or something."

"I am learning it as we speak, so I might as well use it from time to time. Don't change the subject. What is it that your Domain allows you to do?" One of the spiders left a web attached to my back and strung it over to the edge of the lounge. After that, it started pulling on it to help the others with the massage.

"Get it, because this is strange, Lex, but apparently my initial soulmarks stayed the same. Imprinted onto the Shadow that spent so much time in the Soul Core of Culinary Excellence."

"Embodiment and Insight, right?"

"Yes, but the way in which they work changed due to the subject of my Domain. Let me show you." He emptied the glass of juice and held it in front of him. After a single heartbeat, it was engulfed in a teal-colored shadowlight and disappeared.

"What? Where did the glass go?" I asked, surprised.

"Do you have some space powers now?"

"Kind of. It's a side effect of the Embodiment. I can store up to three things in my soul-space for as long as I want."

"Things? What are things? Inanimate stuff? Are people things too?"

"I like where you go with those questions, but so far I feel like those are just physical things, incapable of conscious thought, so no—no animals or humans."

"And you can get the traits of those things, like you did with food?"

"Precisely." He smiled, and his arm turned completely translucent, as if made of glass. It caught a flicker of light here and there as he rotated it in front of me, closing and opening his fist and wiggling his fingers. Then he used the same arm and hit the hard wooden edge with a closed fist, shattering the arm into small pieces.

"Why!? Why did you do that?" I shouted at him.

"Don't worry, I will clean this up," he replied, smiling as his normal arm began regrowing at an alarming pace. Faster than what he could regenerate with food before. Faster even than what Peter could do with his brand of magic.

"Insight lets me feel the properties of whatever I touch on some spiritual level. I know deep down how they would affect me and what I would be able to do with them. That's why when I helped my parents move stuff around the house and grabbed a container made of the Old Oak's bark, I knew that the regeneration it would provide is something I will always carry within myself."

"I can see why," I replied, and noticed that my minions stopped to look at Nick with intense focus on their end. Their bodies flicked here and there, but they kept observing.

"So you have two soul-slots for other items?"

"One free," he replied as his newly recreated hand shone with the same teal light and the glass reappeared in its palm. He put it down gently on the floor in front of him.

"I have the second slot semi-permanently taken as well, until I find something better, that is."

"Oh come on, don't make me beg for it. You know that I will. I am a curious animal."

"It's nothing special, but I found it pretty damn good. Better than the drake armor I used at the start. Less durable, but better suited for my fighting style and more creative in its uses. And Marek helps me learn how to make the best use of it."

"Podolski? You fused with a tree?" I asked, looking at my minions collecting he broken glass and taking it outside. Nick observed that as well, smiling at them and me after.

"Close. Do you remember a Willowshade we fought when we first met… Malik?" He mentioned his name with an underlying sadness, but there was determination in his voice too.

"Yes, of course."

"Now that my Domain is tied to my house, I use it as a starting point for my journey into Ideworld. I train every night, like you do—or did—do you still?"

"Mostly. I try to divide and conquer."

"Whatever," he sighed with a prolonged stare.

"Anyway, I sleep in my Domain, I fill it up with whatever I feel would resonate with my core, and I venture into Ideworld, where the closest splinter is that of the Suburbia."

"You fought Willowshade again? Alone? In your condition?"

"I am better than I look, and yes, I did. With the help of regeneration and drake armor, it was pretty easy. I took its branch and immediately saw the potential of that thing, stored it within myself, and kept on fighting." His outstretched hand covered itself in what looked like bark made of pure void, fingers stretching into shadow willows, then everything shifted back into his normal self.

"I carried the scales within me for quite some time after that, but I did not really use them much after getting that tree's powers, so I took them out of the soul-space and into my satchel. I carry a few items in there I can switch between depending on what I need at a moment."

"So you are pretty much using the tree powers only right now. Magical trees, but arboreal things nonetheless. That's why you went to Marek?"

"Yes, he helps me utilize this stuff better. And I use him as a gossip to get info on the Rhythm."

"You want to get your own revenge?"

"Will you try to sway me away from it?"

"Of course not. I will tell you what I know and plan."

"Seriously? No secrets and half-truths?"

"No, Nick. None of that."

"Thanks." He answered, leaning back into the backrest of the sofa.

"I am actively spying on EoT, even as we speak, in many ways actually, but the exact means are not important. The fact is that they are preparing something big in a few places around New York, both Earth and Ideworld. What it is, I do not know yet, as no one speaks directly about it."

"Rob is helping them?"

"No. Actually not at all. They wanted his help, but after Malik's death he distanced himself from them and even lashed out against a team in one of their operations, so they gave him time to get himself together. Time that apparently stretched too far for them, so they insisted on him joining the effort. He was badly damaged by yours truly."

"So I've heard."

"Yes, but apparently I did not kill him. He has been seen again once—disfigured by the explosion, but functional. He told the EoT guys that he needs more time to get healthy, but he will join them, and then he went into hiding again. That's what I managed to get from the talks I listened to."

"So what's your plan?"

"You've met Alex, the male me. He is going to wear a mask I prepared for the occasion. A latex face of Robbie, and I have a pretty good memory of how he looked and behaved, thanks to Malik's residue in my brain." I pressed a finger to my temple.

"And he will go visit those EoT operation sites and wreck musical havoc in the name of Robbie fucking Reyes until he becomes their number one target." Nick whistled.

"Good plan. You want to thwart their efforts and set them against each other. Two birds with one stone."

"That's exactly it." He sighed audibly.

"I wanted to get close and personal with him. Smash his stupid face in until it caves. But this seems like a better idea. Any way I can still help with this?"

"Don't know yet. I will let you know if something comes up, but learn from my mistakes, please. Getting personal when you don't have to might cost you something that does not grow back. Or someone."

"I'd never endanger her."

"Not willfully, but you know that Soph's an easy target if someone wants to hurt you. It would be better if you assumed another identity for your less mundane activities."

"I thought about it. It's even easier now, since I am of a new Domain, which rarely happens, and I can change my face to look like this." He said and stopped looking human entirely. His mouth disappeared along with his ears and nose. His hair turned into short, pure black willow branches, while the front of his face looked like an abyssal trunk with two set pools of black for eyes.

"Scary, right?" Part of the bark parted to produce speech that sounded like it was underlined by cracking wood.

"I've seen you turn into me once. Nothing will beat that. But yes, it's pretty damn good as a means for cover. Nick Leben, codename: Hardwood." He immediately turned back to his former self.

"I forgot who I'm dealing with for a second." He stood up.

"Will you show me your Domain, outside of this building?"

"Of course, Nick, you will always be welcome here. I had even made a permanent portal door you can use whenever you want to access it from our apartment."

"Really?"

"Yes, but know that if I've shown you mine, you've got to show me yours." I joked again, while Catansi began writing a text to Jason. It was long past time I met with him too.