Chương 50: Material Forsa

Sol wandered away from the sparring session - or rather, what seemed to be more a lesson in humility - pondering his own deficiencies. In the week or so since they had arrived, Sol had improved his ability to absorb fórsa greatly. He could now hold First Ring fórsa for about thirty minutes and Second Ring fórsa for almost five. What he could not do was manipulate it at all.

He had hoped to watch Miriam as she used three different fórsa Natures to see if he could find some clue into unlocking what Cian had originally thought would be an inherent flexibility, but he had noticed nothing that seemed helpful. Only that she seemed ridiculously overpowered for a First. One thing Sol had discovered was that his ability to sense fórsa was still as strong as it had been when he'd been the Líadan. With refinement, he could see the fórsa flowing through Miriam as she had switched Natures.

It was as if with every switch, the color of the weave inside her body changed - honestly pretty slowly, if she had asked him. He was sure she could probably speed that up with time. When he turned that fórsa sense onto himself he saw nothing. Just a ball of captured power sitting in the middle of his chest, completely idle. It obeyed no order he could give it. It wasn't his - he was just holding it until it slowly dissipated.

"We'll figure it out," Cian had promised cheerfully, but Sol was getting good enough at understanding the boy's body language that he was starting to mean it less and less. They had discovered one thing that Sol had made Cian promise not to reveal to the others. When he held no fórsa, no creatures came out to meet him in the jungle. He was just like the villagers in that respect.

After some careful parsing of words, Cian delicately thought that without his own fórsa mesh, the island didn't recognize him as a person. You could roll a wagon through the jungle and get the same response. Sol could leave whenever he wanted. For now he had chosen to stay - to continue to learn from Cian, who had as unique a perspective on his condition as anyone could have. To support his new friends. And… because the Captain was here. Sol couldn't pretend that his emotions towards Cormac weren't mixed.

On one hand he felt an inherent animosity that he assumed came inherited from Ultán, but on the other he still had a direct and unbreakable connection to him through the Captain's Covenant. Sol always knew where Cormac was, anywhere in Láthair Maol. It remained to be seen if this would hold true in the jungle. He knew that while the Captain lived he couldn't abandon him. Even if Sol kind of didn't like him. His version of Cian was waiting for him back at the tower. After some lukewarm greetings Sol sighed deeply.

"I'm feeling pretty dejected about how this is going." Cian nodded.

"Understandable. But we've only been at it a little while. The mysteries of the world are not to be solved in a day." Sol absorbed as much of Cian's fórsa as he could and held it again. Once more it refused any command he had for it. Well, perhaps he just couldn't do it, he reasoned sadly. He hadn't been able to manipulate fórsa as the Líadan. It seemed that perhaps his core functions hadn't changed just because his body and his mind had. He frowned. His core functions had not changed…

but he could once do something else with fórsa he held. He could repurpose it to repair the core gem, and he could disperse it into the sea. Sol had not been injured, so he'd had no occasion to try the first one, but had not even thought to attempt the second. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Though… what good would it do to simply leak out the fórsa even faster than he had before? It's a waste! The lingering Mind screamed at him instinctively.

That part of him wanted to hoard it, even as it slipped through his fingers anyway. Tentatively, Sol held out his hand and released some of the held Water fórsa. It was compressed enough that he could see it as it left him, a fine spray of mist glittering into the air and disappearing. Cian's eyes went wide.

"What was that?"

"Just the only other thing I could do when I was a ship," Sol said.

"Release the fórsa into the sea. Well, I could use it to repair myself too."

"Huh…" Cian said, squinting at Sol's hand.

"I have an idea. Mind humoring me a bit?"

"I have literally nothing better to do."

"How do you use fórsa to repair yourself?" Sol shrugged.

"When I was the Líadan, I could convert the fórsa I collected into… gem-stuff. If my gem was worn out or damaged, I could use that gem-stuff to replace the missing material."

"Can you try doing that now?" Sol started to protest that he wasn't injured, but changed his mind.

"Can you cut me? Just a little? I can try that out." Cian's dagger appeared and a thin slice flicked out of Sol's forearm. That in itself was novel to Sol - he had never experienced pain that way before. He decided he was not a fan. Regardless, he absorbed more of Cian's power and activated the function he used to repair himself. He was surprised to see the fórsa moving to do just that.

Sol had honestly been expecting it to fail - that it was only suited for fixing the gem itself, which he assumed still existed somewhere in his body. Instead, the fórsa migrated to the injured section and started rebuilding.

"That's Life fórsa!" Cian said, enthralled.

"I gave you Water."

"You're right," Sol said, his hopes starting to lift.

"It makes sense - I can convert fórsa types. Otherwise I couldn't turn just any fórsa into gem-stuff." Within moments the cut had been healed - ship successfully repaired with little tendrils of wood which quickly blended into his arm.

"What if I could mix those functions?" Sol asked, taking some more of Red Cian's power to try. At first he had a difficult time accessing the repair function - he was not damaged, it insisted. However, he was no longer only an object obeying instructions. He had a will of his own, and whatever power his body had was his to command. Instead of holding his hand out, he kept it closed, pooling the escaping fórsa as it changed to his whim. He opened his hand. Sol was instantly disappointed.

It was nothing but a dense sphere of what looked like wood - a little carved ball.

"Do you know what that is?" Cian was squinting as hard as Sol imagined it was possible for someone to squint.

"Sol, you've made material fórsa!" Sol frowned.

"I am not sure I know what that is." Cian was almost jumping up and down with excitement.

"It's fórsa, given material form. Anyone with Life Nature could take that sphere and absorb it, instantly refilling their reserves. I'm told that in the outside world it's extremely expensive! Very few people are capable of making it." Sol considered the little ball in his hand again. It seemed very plain - nothing to get excited about.

"That's interesting. Is that all I can do with this? Help other people?" He laughed softly.

"Am I a Saint like Cormac?"

"Well, that's a Luck Adept class, so… I don't think so. But there may be an untold number of things you can do with this!" Cian held his hand out.

"May I see it?" Sol handed it over and the boy squinted at the ball even harder. Suddenly, his face fell. He looked almost horrified. Then he shook his head and all was back to normal.

"What is it?" Sol asked, concern clear in his voice.

"Nothing," Cian said, but he clearly seemed shaken.

"I… need to think about some things. This has been an incredible breakthrough, Sol. Let's call it a day and meet up again in the morning. Oh… a favor please."

"Yes?"

"Don't tell anyone about this new development yet. Let me work out some things first." Cian's eyes were very serious, and for the first time Sol could sense the weight of his thousands of years on him.

"Of course," Sol said.

"Whenever you say you're ready." As Cian floated down the tower Sol stood staring once again at the sea. It wasn't full-on fórsa techniques, but it was something! He looked down at his palm and smiled. He still had some residual fórsa left from Cian. No harm in practicing a little more.