Chương 55: Pattern

The field just outside the jungle was wet with morning dew, beginning to turn humid as the canopy hoarded all the day's heat. Miriam, Cormac, Róise and Sol were all waiting for Cian to arrive so they could begin their training against actual enemies.

"I can't believe you snuck out of the party to go fight monsters," Róise said.

"I'm pretty jealous."

"Yeah, but you got a new technique out of it," Miriam pointed out.

"And it wasn't so bad really. It felt like the creatures I faced on the way in were way tougher." Cormac laughed.

"Miriam, that's because you've gotten stronger. Honestly you have the best chance of all of us to get out of here. Well, I guess besides Sol." Sol waved. He'd revealed his safety from the jungle so that they wouldn't worry about his training in their last month. He had been worried they would be jealous, or judge him less a person, but they seemed to take that fact in stride.

"How do you figure that?" Miriam asked, manifesting a vine spear and sharpening it.

"The enemies come at us based on density. But your strength is way beyond what someone with your fórsa density should have. It's attacking you with bad information!" Cormac said, excited.

"Huh. I suppose that's true," Miriam said, her spirits greatly brightened. She had been worried that her ticking clock was a death sentence for her - making her and her friends try to escape before she was ready. Maybe she could be ready sooner than she thought. Róise turned to Sol.

"Sol, that was some great drum playing last night. I think. I don't recall a lot about it, but I remember you seemed like you were having fun!" Sol perked up.

"Indeed! I had never been to a party before. I've been a venue for one when I was the Líadan, but it's really not the same. I'd like to go to another soon!" Cormac hugged him around the shoulders.

"Just you wait, mate. Let's get you to Shirren. Róise and I can throw you a party the likes of which you've never seen!" Róise's eyes darkened.

"Once we kick those dog-loving Shorinu out. That. That'll be a party." Cormac looked as if he regretted bringing up Shirren, but luckily at that moment Cian appeared.

"Sorry I'm late everyone! I'm not usually late on account of… you know, being everywhere all at the same time. I'm off my game a little today for some reason." Róise smirked.

"Did someone also drink too much last night?"

"My lady!" Cian said with false indignation.

"I am an island. It would be literally impossible for me to drink too much…hmm. Or would it? Well, thoughts for another day. Besides, all of Láthair Maol could hear Cormac puking his guts out this morning! Pick on him!"

"Hey!" Cormac protested.

"Look at me now! I'm here only because of my robust constitution and supreme alcohol tolerance! Ready to go whenever you give the word!" Róise rolled her eyes.

"You're here because I used Róisín Dubh." He cast a betrayed look at her.

"May I remind you, Miss Séarlait, that I wasn't puking my guts out in the privy alone." She had the grace at least to look a little embarrassed.

"All right, all right. Enough of that. I have a couple of different things I want you all to work on today. You've all been weaving your density every day - Róise, I think you might be close to Fourth. Cormac - you're only a little further off since you just got your Adept Class, but you weave at a much higher rate than anyone else. Miriam, you're still farthest, but it's because you haven't gotten an Adept Class yet. I'll be honest - I don't know if we need you to have three Adept Classes, or just one.

We'll try to find out." Cian pointed at Róise and Cormac.

"You two will practice your combat techniques in the jungle. You're still at the point where these enemies should be easy, so try to make every encounter perfect. Cormac - do not rely on Luck alone. Combine it with the martial skills we've been training with and take them out fast."

"Will do." Cormac saluted. He pulled the pair of spiked knuckle dusters the smiths had made for him out of his pockets and threaded them on his fingers. These weapons kept his hands free for weaving threads, but still helped him apply more damage than his fists alone could have.

"I still think these make me look like a ruffian. So inelegant!" Cian ignored him.

"Róise, I want you to explore Seven Drunken Nights. It's brand new to you so you'll need to learn its rules and limitations. Your goal is not to kill anything today. Mesmerize your enemies and slip past them. Remember, your goal is not to eliminate every monster in the jungle. It's to get off Cianán's Walk." The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Róise grumbled at not being able to kill anything but agreed.

"Finally, I have a bit of something I want Sol to help you with, Miriam." Cin pointed at the ship-turned-man.

"Really?" Miriam turned to look at Sol, who shrugged.

"What?"

"Well… Adept Classes can manifest themselves more often when the user is on the ropes. The problem is, you have just too much power. I saw that last night - I could put you out there for forty-eight hours and you'd never get tired. Getting hazy from tree-ache doesn't count," he said, forestalling an objection.

"So Sol's going to tire me out?"

"He needs to practice extracting fórsa and making it into material. Might be helpful if he tried taking it from someone other than me." Sol shrugged.

"I'm happy to help. I have a lot of material to make very quickly if the villagers are going to leave when we do." Miriam scowled. Her distaste for Sol had lessened considerably - the pleasant man seemed to have very little in common with Solas. He'd actually been a ray of optimism in what could have been a very dismal existence of non-stop training. Sol exhibited a constant state of wonder at the world that was infectious. Even Maitiú had seemed to like him.

It was the idea of her fórsa being drained again by what was pretty much Solas's Reel. While she had spent nearly a month doing that to herself, it had been out of necessity. She didn't relish doing it again. But she trusted Cian and at this point she thought she could trust Sol.

"All right. We'll do it." Cian motioned to Cormac and Róise to get going. They each stepped into the jungle together and instantly vanished from sight. Miriam sat down on the wet grass. Sol joined her, putting one rough hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Cian has said the sensation is unpleasant."

"Don't worry," Miriam said grimly.

"I'm used to it." Surprisingly, the pull of Sol draining her fórsa was not nearly as bad as it had been with the Reel itself, and nowhere near the sickening feeling it had been when Solas was doing it. It felt like she was just losing blood slowly - making her a little lightheaded, but not much more than that.

"What do you plan to do when you get out of here?" Miriam asked. Sol set a little water sphere down into a small pile he was making.

"Honestly I'm not sure. There hasn't been much time really since I started actually thinking. I've seen a lot of the world as the Líadan, but I never had much of an opinion on it before. I suppose my plan was just to go with all of you. I still feel a connection to the Captain - nothing like it was before, but it's still there. I think I'd be most comfortable staying near him until that connection is broken."

"So you don't still hate him?" Sol laughed softly.

"Sort of? It's like an undercurrent of emotion - I feel it, I recognize it, but it doesn't move me to any sort of action. I think I'm learning to filter it out. It helps that everyone seems to have a sort of animosity towards him too." She grinned.

"I don't think people really dislike Cormac. It's just easy to feel resentment towards someone who seems like they have it easy. Like the children of nobles or celebrities. Though I think in his case it's not true. I don't think he's had it easy at all." Sol seemed to ponder this for a moment before asking "What about you, Miriam? What will you do?"

"Well, it seems like my path is pretty laid out before me," she answered.

"I need to get to the Tenth Ring. Which apparently almost no one has done."

"That seems like… a requirement for survival. Not a plan for the future.." Sol said.

"Do you plan on trying to go home to the Realms Above?" Miriam sighed.

"I don't know. I think about my family a lot. Children, grandchildren. But even before I came to the Tír, they had their own lives. I was this thing on the shelf, to be maintained and cared for, but ultimately set aside. If I have to somehow become an old woman again, then I would definitely not go back. Though," she said, looking at her reddish-brown hands, "I can't imagine me there as a dryad either. No such things existed, as far as I knew." Sol nodded.

"So we both have a lot to figure out then."

"I agree with you though. I'd like to stick with Cormac and Róise as long as I can. They're good people and maybe I could help them. They've certainly helped me." Miriam looked out at where both of them had disappeared into the jungle. Draining her fórsa was taking longer than either of them imagined, so she started to pass the time by practicing techniques. Creating weapons, lashes, ropes, switching between Life and Water.

Sol didn't say anything, so she assumed it wasn't interfering with what he was doing, until he made a surprised noise, looking at the wooden sphere in his palm.

"What is it?" She asked, peering over her shoulder.

"This sphere is different from the others." Sol looked closely at it, turning it around in his fingers.

"You see? There is a sort of raised marking. I wonder if I've done something wrong?" Miriam ran a finger along the raised surface. It instantly called to her - this was her fórsa after all - and it felt familiar.

"Wait… Sol, try this." She rummaged around in the dirt and found a rock. She placed it against a flat part of the ground.

"Try throwing it at this rock." He raised an eyebrow but did as she asked. The sphere sailed in a gentle arc, where it struck the rock and shattered instantly. Vines erupted from the impact site, lashing the rock to the ground. After only a few seconds the lashing fell apart into dust, not maintained or designed to last.

"Sol!" Miriam shouted.

"That's incredible! Did you know you could do that?" Sol looked at the rock, confused.

"I still don't know what I did."

"You packaged and stored the technique I was practicing!" Miriam hugged the man, who still seemed shocked.

"That's amazing!"

"I did?" Cian appeared out of nowhere.

"Hey, can't a guy turn his back for five minutes? What's going on?" Sol repeated the exercise, this time while Miriam was making a vine spear. The sphere had a different raised pattern on it, but when he threw it at the ground a hefty spear stabbed itself into the impact point. Cian was beside himself.

"Sol! Sol, this is incredible! You crazy man, you! Now you really are as flexible as I thought you could be!" Sol just stood there, looking at his hand with a shy grin.

"I can't believe it!" Cian's eyes went big.

"Oh, Sol. I have such a good idea for you."