Chương 44: Sol’s Situation

Cian found Sol standing on the top floor of the five-story tower, looking out at the ocean that was only visible from there. The artificial man stood as close to the edge of the balcony as he could, his eyes closed, wind whipping his sailcloth hair around his shoulders.

"I can smell the sea from here," Sol said.

"I couldn't smell anything, when I was the Líadan. Even though it's a new sensation, and I have very little else to compare it to… I find myself missing the smell of the sea."

"Understandable," Cian said.

"Your entire existence was about traveling the sea." Sol turned to the boy and opened his eyes.

"But it's not now. Not a ship anymore. I have to learn how to be a man."

"No need to rush," Cian cautioned.

"Believe me, these first few days of actual existence… can be confusing. You've been put in a dangerous situation with very little time to figure things out for yourself." Sol nodded, scowling.

"Thanks to Cormac Fiadh."

"Do you blame him for your current predicament? Or is that Ultán talking?" He fidgeted uncomfortably.

"I don't know. I don't know what is me and what is… something that I used to be. I've barely been alive a day."

"Very understandable. So…" Cian held out his hands, as if to offer choices.

"What do you want to do?"

"Do?"

"All the others here have some strong motivation to get out of here. Connections with other places, a sense of self-preservation - but you don't. You could just stay here. Just us two brothers." Cian smiled. Sol looked down at his feet, lost in thought. Finally, after several minutes, he looked up again.

"I don't want to."

"No?" Cian was clearly disappointed.

"What's out there that's worth fighting so hard for?" Sol exhaled deeply and nodded his head to the sea.

"Everywhere else. Your island is very pleasant - I think. But I don't want to never leave one small place, only one day after I came into sentience. I don't know what I want out of the world, but it's unreasonable to think that I should limit myself so quickly." Cian nodded sadly.

"I understand, my brother. If I could leave I probably would too."

"Would you?" Sol asked, intrigued. The boy shrugged.

"Anyway. Let's get on with it then. This is going to be very interesting. Did you know that of all the visitors, you're the only one who encountered no monsters on the way here? I'm very eager to figure out why."

"Oh," Sol said.

"I didn't know any of them had. That explains how you knew so much about their strengths and weaknesses. You watched them fight."

"Also why I know nothing about yours! Do you know what your fórsa nature might be?" Sol paused. He seemed to be in the habit of doing that - just abandoning the conversation to process a complex or introspective thought without consideration for politeness or etiquette.

"Ultán was Wind. I assume Solas was Mind. I feel neither of those - indeed, nothing that I would call a nature, though it may be that I just don't know how to access it."

"Hmm. I'll take a look," Cian said, squinting. Then his eyes went big.

"Sol… Sol, you're completely correct. I sense no nature whatsoever in you."

"Hmm," Sol said.

"I am not completely surprised. If I am indeed a completely new person it would stand to reason that I would need to build a fórsa weave from scratch."

"You don't understand," Cian said incredulously.

"I don't even sense a fórsa stream in you at all. All - or I suppose most - living creatures have a loop of fórsa running through every cell in their body. It's this power that they refine to increase rings and weave into meshes that allow them to deploy techniques with their fórsa natures. You do not have one." Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Sol looked stricken, his mouth trying to form words without the ability to complete them.

"I don't know why that bothers me so. I never had fórsa techniques before."

"But you did," Cian said.

"When I met you on the beach, I detected Fifth Ring fórsa. But it quickly drained, down to First - or so I thought. Now there's nothing."

"Ultán was Fifth," Sol said. Absently his right hand rubbed his left arm. He seemed to be retreating into himself.

"Perhaps what you detected was the last of his fórsa draining away."

"Are you ok, Sol?" The wood-like face was wracked with tremors.

"I suppose… this means I am not a real person after all. I was standing here thinking… that I was one. I liked the idea."

"Hey, hey." Cian wrapped an arm around Sol's shoulders, floating a couple of feet in the air to do so.

"This doesn't mean you're not a person. Just a different kind of person. Most people aren't forbidden islands, but I'm still a person." Sol smiled sadly.

"Maybe so."

"But, I think there is more to this than we're seeing. Describe your component pieces to me. Do you remember what was happening during the transformation?" Sol nodded.

"I was the Long Si Líadan, a prison ship, holding the Selkie Eoin Daithi. I would drain his fórsa and vent it into the ocean to keep him imprisoned in an iron cage at the bottom of my keel."

"Huh. That gives me a thought, but keep going."

"I absorbed an enchanted gem made of Mind fórsa, which had Water and Blight inside it. I don't know much about this gem - I was hungry when Eoin and Ultán left the deck and I latched on to all other sources of fórsa I could find. It merged into my gem repair system in a way I had not anticipated and began to influence my decisions. I felt… intense want. I could sense Eoin and Ultán fighting in the clouds and knew that as I was I couldn't reach them. So I changed."

Sol sounded like he was reciting something that he'd heard that happened to someone else - which might not be too far from the truth.

"Yes, I heard about this. You became a sea dragon," Cian grinned.

"I wish I could have seen it."

"I remember it being a glorious feeling. I latched onto Ultán and began to siphon his fórsa - no longer limited the way I had been with Eoin. Ultán destroyed much of my existing body - he was very powerful - but at the end I prevailed. By then I had absorbed all I could and I had no means to store more - but I was still… hungry." Sol shook his head.

"After that all I remember was waking up on the beach." Cian bounced backwards and did a little flip in the air.

"Amazing! I think I have the answer! The Líadan's gem proved amazingly adaptive when paired with Solas's gem. And just as I was telling Miriam a few minutes ago - Blight is the catalyst for rebirth! I think they both saw what you needed at the time and rebuilt you to satisfy the need. Do you remember what it felt like to siphon off Eoin's fórsa?" Sol seemed taken aback.

"Yes? I think?"

"Try it with me. Oh, no, wait, that might kill you. Hold on." Cian scrunched up his face and a projection of the boy in red clothes popped into being.

"Here. This is a First Ring projection of me. It should feel just like a normal Water Nature First, fórsa-wise."

"Yep, weak as a wet puppy!" The red Cian offered.

"Try to take his fórsa." Cian gestured towards the projection. Sol hesitated for a second, then reached out a hand to touch the projection. There was a brief buzz as his hand made contact.

"Ok. I'll try." The white irises of Sol's eyes suddenly blazed red.

"Oh. Something's happening." The Cian in white laughed.

"I'd say so!"

"This doesn't feel great," the red Cian complained.

"Ok, that's enough," Cian said, the red projection dissipating into the air.

"Let me take a look at you now." He squinted closely at Sol, his mouth wide in a grin.

"Yep. Very low-level First Ring Water Nature! But… oh… it's gone."

"What does that mean?" Sol asked, looking at his own hand.

"It means that you can steal other people's fórsa!" Cian said excitedly.

"That's incredible! I've never seen anyone who could do that before. It might only be possible because of your unique origins." Sol stared intently at his own hand.

"So. I am a vampire for real, huh?" Cian waved a hand.

"Vampires are a myth. I think. You're not some spooky monster sucking blood in the shadows. You're just… special."

"I felt the fórsa that time. But it was gone so fast…" The boy nodded.

"I think your storage can't hold fórsa for long. We'll have to figure out what the parameters for that are, and if you can use techniques with the fórsa you get. But just think… Miriam will be so jealous of you!" Sol turned.

"Miriam will?"

"Yes. You can change your fórsa nature any time you want!" Cian shook his head in wonder.

"Oh, what an interesting but challenging road you have ahead of you! If this works out like I think, you could be the most versatile fórsa manipulator that ever lived! But you'll have to learn so many different Natures! Miriam's task looks positively simple in comparison." Sol laughed softly, and he seemed again startled by his own voice.

"Well. I guess I have no time to lose then." Cian clapped and another red Cian appeared.

"Let's see how this works, shall we?"