*Several months later*

I stood in front of the other Heller, smiling as I inspected the other copy of myself: Only 10 years old, but already I could tell that I was going to be a tall and muscular adult. Not obscenely wide like Jaws, but I was taller than my mother already (not a very difficult feat, granted, given how short she was), and I could now easily swing a hammer for hours at the forge without using any of my powers.

Wolfram and I had both passed a second Tribulation a few months back, and they were apparently getting remarkably harder… both of the duplicates of myself had been gravely injured, one of me having been caught by surprise while working at the forge. My other self had unknowingly passed the hidden threshold of Qi usage to call down the murderous heavenly lightning, and didn’t have time to send a warning...

TI had helped (we each had access to two uses per day), but… there had been something strange, almost like a flicker in my Temporary regeneration power itself. And then the energy struck again, only seconds after the first trial had passed! And then again, and this time TR went offline all on its own, and I was bombarded with enough energy to nearly stop my heart. How the bloody beast was anyone supposed to survive these things! I was able to use my healing power to recover from my wounds, but I was still out of commission for several days.

It was only later that I learned that my Tribulations were actually not at full strength… because I had split myself, the Tribulation had apparently split itself as well, though each seemed to be at well over half power. When I compared notes with Wolfram after his second Tribulation (which I helped him survive), it seemed to me that I had suffered two Tribulations at around seventy or eighty percent power, rather than one at full strength… though it was very hard to accurately judge.

Wolfram had tried using a force field to keep the energy out during his ordeal, but it had backfired horribly. The energy had built and built until it flashed right through his spell, causing it to fold and instantly evaporating the majority of his body, causing TR to almost stop working entirely! If he hadn’t had me there, we were both certain that he would have died. Next time, TR might not be enough… it was time to work on other plans, maybe find some way to slow the energy down instead of trying to stop it…

But, having passed the tribulation, there were clear benefits that we both received; namely, we could now manipulate a larger amount of ambient Qi. Both of us had put considerable effort into investigating exactly what the hell was happening when we ‘sped ourselves up’ (which was by far the most useful application the ability): Right now, our working theory was the we could somehow affect time and space itself using Qi, taking ourselves out of the normal flow of time by a fixed amount, which depended on how much ambient Qi we could manipulate around ourselves. Moving in the altered time rate was also easier than it should have been, with air resistance somehow not seeming to affect us any more than it would at normal speeds. Wolfram and I could both roughly triple our time rate now, as far as we could tell, which gave us such a large advantage over common Warriors that they were no longer much of a threat.

Firebrand had also promised to pass the basics his secret technique (the one for injecting Qi into weapons and armor) on to me after I had grown up a bit more and was able to spar with him, but it was clear that I didn't yet have what it took.

We both knew that we would, at this point, be flattening buildings in The City if we went all out, and he would still come out on top. Firebrand had dozens of years of experience thinking on his feet and using his abilities to the fullest effect. Fighting in the outside air might give me a bit of an advantage, given that I had nearly unlimited access to moisture, but he had endurance in spades...

We had agreed to try again after my 15th birthday, when I would be considered an adult, and by then I would hopefully have a better grasp on how to best use my powers against an opponent who could directly resist them.

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I smiled at my mother as she scowled at Jaws. “Toly! Your hands are FILTHY, get away from my table, you half-brained oaf!”

“Yeah, you are dirty too, Heller!” Chimed in little Zephyr, who was visiting us during a freeday from Academy. I found it hard to believe that time had gone by that quickly, but I suppose that is just how life works – good times whiz by like nothing at all.

Dad and I shared a knowing look as we both got up from the table and headed to newly installed sink (it had taken me a little while, but I had finally figured out the basics of indoor plumbing). All the water in our home was gravity fed from a cistern on the roof, and I had a lot more plans that I wanted to try out when I had more time. I had done some basic experiments with electricity generation as well… but there honestly just wasn’t a need for it here. What I really wanted was gunpowder, but I’d have to wait a bit longer until Jesvae got back to me on that.

After washing up Jaws and I returned to the table, both of us just happy that our little family was healthy enough to raise up such a fuss. I can’t truthfully claim to be nearly as patient as my father, but there was a lot of wisdom in his slow and careful approach to life. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the ONLY time I saw him move quickly was when fighting beasts. At the forge, as in life, if you have to rush it means that you are doing something wrong.

“Heller, tell me more about your powers!” Zephyr demanded with a sweet, but toothy, smile. I let out a fake sigh of exasperation… it was hard to keep anything from her. The girl just had a way of disarming you, making it seem silly NOT to tell her what she wanted to know.

I looked at my parents, who nodded. They never asked me those kind of questions, but at this point it was impossible to hide what was going on. There were rumors all over the place that I was the second coming of Merrik; that I could appear in multiple places at once; that I had mastered every single Cultivation Technique; that I was going to take over all the Great Houses, and a whole host of other misconceptions and half-truths.

“Well, Zep, I’m still re-vamping my fire, lighting, and magnetism powers, which needed to be nearly re-built from the ground up, remember?”

She nodded, looking at me intently. I doubt she understood even a tenth of what I was saying, but that never stopped her from asking more. And, really, there wasn’t any reason for me to lie – the false stories about me were WAY more fantastic than the truth at this point.

I took a bite of the stew my mother had prepared (we always had access to plenty of meat these days), smiling and raising my eyebrows to let her know how tasty it was, as I thought about what else to tell Zephyr. There was no way she would be satisfied with that little.

“I’m getting really good with my Frost Elemental form, and I figured out how to use my control over ice to make it super strong as well. In combination with my other ice powers, it’s still by far my best ability.”

I had taken out a small horde all by myself about a month ago, but there was no point in mentioning that… or that it had been insanely tiring, if not actually difficult (my aerial advantage was huge over land-bound foes). My ice spears were sharper and faster than before, and I had figured out that I could compact any ice I was directly controlling to make a kind of ‘super ice’, which was harder and stronger than steel. Of course, it reverted back to regular ice as soon as I released my control, but it was still a pretty bad-ass upgrade in my opinion.

After that I just started answering her rapid-fire questions, only keeping back a few things: Mainly that I was spending part of my time with Jesvae Spiritwind, who had setup a secret camp and had brought in a bunch of pretty amazing trainers to try and get me ready to cross the mountains. Tetra had joined me there as well, while Wulfric had been transferred to the Garrison here at North Stone Village, mostly so that he could continue to work at the forge with Jaws and I.

I also didn’t mention my newest power, which was an attempt to allow me to process data and parse languages like a computer. Basically, the ability gave me a perfect memory combined with an enhanced ability to deal with raw data, but it was designed to work in the background – kind of like having a computer in my head, which was, in truth, exactly what I had been going for. If there was some kind of civilization across the mountains, there had been thousands of years for our languages to diverge, so I wanted to get a head-start on the language barrier problem.

It could also help me plan out some of the things I wanted to try building, helping me to run simple simulations based on experimental data. I’d be even more excited about that aspect of the power than the languages, but the impending death of the Merrik, real or not, was a constant threat hanging over us all. I considered this my ‘time off’, living with my family and getting to play around with metals and simple machines. If only it could last forever…

We were nearly done the meal when we were interrupted by a knock at the door, which caused Zephyr to jump up (the girl was amazingly quick) and dash over to it. For some reason mother never called the girl out for misbehavior, no matter what she did… I could only guess it was because Zephyrs mom (the doe-eyed lady) was, as far as I could tell, still my mother’s only friend.