Learner’s notes Day 283:

Kala finally found my weakness: Thrillers where an aged crime fighter must battle some kind of monster with a very specific set of strengths and weaknesses.

I love the process by which the human detective identifies the previously fearful creature’s weaknesses and uses them against it to finally turn the tables on the monster, using only their wits and the environment.

Creature features, Calvin called them, also commenting that my enjoyment of the genre was a little ‘on the nose’.

To me, it reveals the story of human’s oldest heroes. Before humans had walls, fires, spears and swords, they only had their brains, and every animal big enough to prey on them was a fearsome monster.

At some point one man – or woman, but probably man – must have used their minds to defeat these fearsome predators and spread this knowledge far and wide, demystifying them for everyone.

The whole moral of the story was about learning, about understanding something to make it less dangerous, to conquer it. That appeals to me greatly.

I also like the ideas for extra specialized organs I can work on. I don’t think I’ll need to burrow through the ground at tremendous speeds and consume those on the surface world, but if I have to, I at least have a few key ideas for what changes to make to my body plan.

Creating a red mist that settles over a seaside village and impregnates all the women with killer babies is still beyond me, but I’m working on it.

***Calvin***

“Namkena!” Baroke shouted off to Calvin’s left, bouncing a copper coin off a tree-stump into another villager’s cup, forcing the man to take a swig out of the wooden mug. The crowd gathered around the enormous archer shouted in amazement at the man’s thirteenth consecutive score. His opponent was starting to look a little green.

Calvin returned his attention to the village elder, a prune of a man by the name ‘Elder’. In their society, Elders gave up their names when they took over the responsibility of guiding the village.

“What you suggest is simply beyond my ability to decide.” Elder said, giving him a toothless grin. “We are but a small village in the corner of the Great Ones’ empire. We already sent a Runner ahead to advise the Empire of your presence, we can expect their response by tomorrow night.”

“So they’re close,” Calvin said, wondering whether it would be simpler to just use One of the Guys, take the form of a young Juntai woman and go ahead and scout out the empire personally.

“No, they are nearly a thousand miles distant, straight to the east,” the elder said, pointing. “Our Runners are very fast.”

Calvin remembered seeing a man with a strange contraption on his feet that looked a bit like an animal’s digitigrade legs, with two lumps of coiled copper, one on the bottom of the mans feet, the other on the other side of the bend.

How would that work? Calvin wondered.

If they’re making rail guns via magnetism, all they have to do is make opposing magnetic fields on their little foot-thingy, and BOOM, a little extra pep in their step. Give me a hard one.

“So, I’ve been fascinated by the Ability your people have been demonstrating, making miracles happen with copper.” Calvin glanced around at the warrior’s tightly wound copper bands.

“I’m sorry, that knowledge is forbidden to speak of to outsiders.” The elder said, his expression icy.

Tell him we already know they do it by using an Ability to generate magnetic fields inside their body and sweep them past the coiled copper at extremely high speeds. That should rattle his cage.

“I understand,” Calvin said with a nod. “We don’t mean to insult you, we’re simply ignorant of your ways.”

“Yes, we wish no disrespect,” Kala said, bowing slightly, softening the old man’s demeanor.

Lame. Diplomacy is lame.

“If the meeting is tomorrow night, may I wait with the rest of my crew? They need to know I’m unharmed.”

Calvin glanced over to Baroke who was dancing awkwardly back and forth in a line with half a dozen warriors, beating their chests and hollering at the sky.

“You can have him as collateral, I guess.”

The elder chuckled at that, taking a cube of something dark and popping it into his mouth casually, as if by habit.

“He’s a great warrior, but we need to sleep at some point, and he doesn’t speak the trade tongue so well, you’re free to take him with you.

“Very well, I’ll head back now,” Calvin said, climbing to his feet. “I look forward to speaking with you tomorrow.”

“Oh, one more thing,” The elder said, holding up a hand, stopping them “We have traded with the plainlanders from time to time, so most of us know a foreign woman isn’t necessarily ‘unclaimed’ without her Brinda, but it might behoove you to make some for your wives lest someone take it upon themselves to claim them.”

Calvin glanced at Kala’s smooth face then, over at a woman with an oversized stud in her ear, connected by a chain to her nose and the circle of copper around her neck.

He scanned the crowd and saw many variations on the same theme, marking them as married women.

So he’s afraid one of my party will get assaulted by horny warriors?

“I thank you for your consideration,” Calvin said, shrugging out of his shirt to reveal the top of his marriage tattoo. “But I’ve already followed a separate tradition and marked them in less…obvious places,”

Kala blushed, her dark skin reddening.

“Please let your warriors know that they are in fact claimed, and that trying to do so would be unwise.”

“I’ll do so, but know that it’s never possible to accurately predict what young men will do, and violence over a woman will not be tolerated from you.”

“What about violence from a woman?” Kala asked with a raised brow.

Elder sat there and frowned at her, his bushy white eybrows furrowed together like he was trying to figure out the answer to some great puzzle.

Calvin took Kala’s delicate hand and helped her stand, waiting as she brushed dirt off the hem of her long dress.

“Attention everyone!” Calvin said, spinning in a circle as he attracted the attention of everyone in the village.

“This is my first wife, Kala, she loves and cherishes me dearly, more than any other man. Say hi, sweety.”

“Hello,” Kala said with a demure bow, a smile growing on her face as Calvin’s mischievous anticipation was transferred to her through the Guya bond.

“Now kick me in the face.” Calvin said under his breath in Gadveran.

Gotta demonstrate that Kala’s not to be messed with, to head off trouble in the future. If They were able to scare any would-be rapists off with a little demonstration, then it was more than worth -

Calvin was barely able to snap his guard up before the blade of Kala’s foot caught him in the chin and catapulted him up into the canopy.

Calvin’s back hit the tree branch above him, causing the entire tree to sway. Calvin opened his eyes and saw stars and the upside-down, gaping faces of the villagers.

“You see,” Calvin said, short of breath, “She’s actually – oh shit – “ Calvin grabbed the thick branch and tugged himself out of the way as Kala shot through the air like she was fired from a crossbow, her fingers covered in Bent.

She sent a clawing strike through the space his head had been a moment ago, her bent-covered fingers gouging deep into the wood.

“You can stop the demonstration now,” Calvin said, grinning as he clambered through the trees, trying to keep Kala from perforating him, admiring her figure as she whooshed by him.

“Do you actually want me to stop? Because something tells me you might enjoy getting bullied by a pretty girl!”

Kick his ass! No, wait, tag me in! Nadia shouted in Calvin’s mind. I’ll do it!

“Preposterous!” Calvin shouted, dodging out of the way, using the whorls of external Bent to catch her attacks as he focused on navigating the trees. Her lithe form highlighted by the wind buffeting her dress.

“Why are you smiling then?”

“This is reflexive!” Calvin said, still smiling as he caught a branch with his leg. He caught both Kala’s arms with the whorls of Bent from External Circulation, taking the opportunity to steal a kiss.

Beli Ma has reached level 26! 130% Correction

Kick coming on the left! Nadia shouted.

Calvin raised his left arm to block and a heavy weight struck down on him from the right, sending him tumbling out of the canopy and crashing down into the soft earth of the jungle floor.

Calvin thought for a second his soul was leaving his body before he realized the ‘tunnel’ was dirt encasing his buried head. Their was a glimmer of movement above him, and Calvin was treated to a nice sight before Kala landed on him feet first, slamming him even deeper into the soil.

“Urgh.”

“Do you yield?” Kala asked with a mischievous grin. Calvin could feel intense passion building behind her gaze.

“I call foul. Nadia did me dirty.” Calvin said with a groan.

I never said whose left.

Sophistry.

“Well, do you yield?” Kala asked, leaning over him, pressing her face close to his, filling his nostrils with her intoxicating scent. There was invisible energy between them, and he knew without a doubt that she was moments away from kissing him.

“Is this aggressiveness what you got from the Guya, or are we in some kind of feedback loop?” Calvin asked. Both, maybe?

Kala opened her mouth, but Calvin interrupted.

“Not that it matters.”

Multi-Split

24/45 Bent remaining

Calvin selected the crystal component on his belt, then an area around Kala.

In the blink of an eye, a cocoon of Bent resistant crystal appeared around Kala’s arms, legs, mouth and waist, preventing the dark-skinned princess from speaking or controlling her movements. He could feel her trying to use Beli-Ma to peel the crystal off, but it was scattered by the properties of the silvery crystal binding her.

Calvin carefully pushed her off of him, then picked up the futilely wiggling girl by the crystal handle jutting from her waist and throwing her over his shoulder while scanning the stunned onlookers.

“I asked her what was for dinner,” Calvin clarified for the audience. Baroke guffawed into the silence.

“Oh right, I forgot to mention that while my wives love me dearly, they are also volatile and dangerous. I scouted them from various prisons, you know. This one here bit off a man’s penis and ate it.”

Kala’s protestations were muffled by the crystal gag, but her glare told volumes.

“Because I mean, what kind of man would be happy with a wife who couldn’t challenge them?”

The villagers seemed dubious, but Calvin was fairly sure that they now viewed Kala with a lot more apprehension than they did before. The sheer speed they were moving at spoke to more than five Breaks, and the village hunters were unlikely to have more than three.

They had just given them a tangible demonstration that either one of them would have no problem pacifying the village. If that didn’t ward off trouble with upstarts, Calvin didn’t know what would.

“Anyway,” Calvin said, directing a bow at the wide-eyed elder, “Thank you for hosting us, and I apologize for any startlement my man-killer wife might have caused with her outburst.”

“MMMff,” Kala said with a scowl.

“We’ll make preparations to return tomorrow afternoon.” Calvin continued.

“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to leave the woman behind when you come?” Elder asked.

“Sorry, she’s so much better at talking to strangers than I am, so I have to take her.” Calvin said.

Kala rolled her eyes as he mixed truth with fiction into a confusing blend that left the old man scratching his scalp.

“Just…make sure she doesn’t bite anyone’s penis off, okay?”

“I’ll get right to work on that,” Calvin said with a salute, “Me and her have to work out some issues tonight anyway. I’m sure I can work not biting into it.”

“Baroke, you stay here, sleep under a tree or something.” Calvin said, hauling Kala over his shoulder.

***

When Calvin broke out of the woods and back onto the road, he saw Learner and Goob playing a board game, making soft clacking noises as they shuffled their pieces across the board, vying to capture the last stronghold of the other player.

Ella, on the other hand, was mysteriously absent, her book was folded on top of the wagon, and her pants and top were on the ground outside Calvin’s oversized tent.

Through Extensive Training, your intuition is high enough to see where this is going! Elliot said in a faux-system announcement.

“Goob, take Learner and check the angle of the road,” Calvin said, dropping Kala off his shoulder beside the tent. Ella’s arm emerged from the tent-flap and dragged the Gadveran princess, wiggling into the darkness.

“Why? There’s nothing but darkness and death out there, and the Knick-knack’s work is always perfect.” Goob asked with an uncomprehending frown.

“Get the fuck outta here!” Calvin shouted, pointing back the way they’d come. Goob jumped up, startled, before grabbing his surveying equipment and running in the direction he pointed. “And don’t come back for…”

Calvin leaned next to the tent.

“An hour?”

“Make it two.” The tent replied.

“And don’t come back for two hours!” Calvin shouted after them, shaking his fist.

Calvin ducked his head inside the tent, dismissing the Dupdomancy spell and releasing Kala from her crystal restraints.

“Savages!” Kala said as Ella took the job of restraining the girl’s wrists. “Do as you wish with my body, but you’ll never make my heart surrender!”

Calvin met Ella’s gaze, and they both shrugged.

“Fine with me,” Ella said.

“Fair enough.” Calvin echoed her sentiment, climbing into the tent.