Getting to dry land was easier said than done. We ended up running into two more bands of bog ferals, both smaller than the first, but just as fast. It wasn’t until after we were well away from the second band that I realized we should’ve been looting them as we went. I didn’t know if we would need credits at Dragon Heartchamber 4, but after a few days in Jade City, my Universal Savings and Loan account was tapped out.

As the night sun hit its apex behind the rain clouds, we came to a bayou of cypress-like trees. The black water there was up to our chests, and there was no telling what lurked down in the dark shadows of the fingered root systems.

My stomach was pitching and rolling like it wanted to barf up all the oily nast from the ferals’ rotten life points, and on top of that, I was wiped out. Those life point surges were crazy powerful, but they didn’t last long, and they came with a big fat crash the second they wore off. I needed to find someplace dry to sleep or I was going to collapse face down in the water and drown.

“What about making camp up there tonight?” I asked, pointing up at the trees. “Might not be comfortable, but at least we’ll be out of the water.”

Kest frowned down at her HUD. “But we’ve only covered about a quarter of the land between us and Heartchamber 4. We don’t know what the terrain’s like ahead. This could’ve been the easy part.”

“All the more reason to get some rest and recover now,” Rali said.

“I’m bleedin’ done in,” Warcry said. “You do what you like, stumpy. I’m stoppin’ here.”

With a burst of Ki to strengthen his legs, Warcry jumped out of the water. I threw up an arm to block the spray from my face. Even with the extra Spirit, he just barely managed to grab hold of the branch he’d been aiming for. Warcry looked shocked that he hadn’t been able to do better than that, but he pulled himself up onto the branch and slumped against the trunk without saying anything else.

“Isn’t anyone flushing the waste chemicals from their system?” Kest asked in disbelief.

Rali shot his sister a look. “You know we are. This is a lot more strenuous terrain than our internal alchemy is used to. Even mine would appreciate some rest, and I know you’re exhausted, too. Metal’s not the unrelenting element, no matter how much you like to pretend it is. Besides, Hake needs to stop and purge the soul contamination from his system or he’s going to have bigger trouble.”

“Soul contamination?” I asked.

“From the bog ferals,” he said. “They’re sort of between living and dead, kept moving by the unnatural Spirit pollutions in their bodies. When you started tearing the life points out of the ferals, I felt it building up, centered on you.”

I swallowed some sick-tasting spit. “That’s what that is? I kind of assumed it was just overstimulation, like after you drink too many energy drinks.”]

“Come on, ya bleeders.” Warcry leaned over the side of his branch, feet crossed underneath it. He clapped his hands like he wanted someone to pass him a ball. “Toss us up a rope for the rest of you to climb.”

“Fine,” Kest said. She called one of her chain ladders out of the storage ring. “But we’re not staying long. Just until Hake’s decontaminated and maybe a couple hours of rest. Then we’ve got to keep going.”

One at a time, we hauled ourselves into the tree. I was the last one up. I found a thick branch with a smaller one next to it like an armrest and settled into the crook to drip-dry while Kest sent the chain ladder back into storage.

Red light flared up from Warcry’s direction. Flames raced over his whole body, and immediately, his clothes started steaming. He was drying them out.

I smirked. “I knew it worked like that.”

“Shut it, grav.”

I was too tired and nauseous to keep messing with him, so I just closed my eyes and tried to keep from throwing up. Would I fall out of the tree if I went to sleep up here? I hooked my arm over the armrest branch as a precaution.

“Everybody should have some AlgaeFrize,” Kest said from her spot a little higher and to my right. She called four bags of those neon shoestring potatoes out of the storage ring. They dropped into her lap, and she had to grab at them one-handed to keep them from falling into the water below.

“Here, Hake,” she said when she got them under control. She tossed a bag to me.

“Thanks.” I wasn’t sure I could eat without puking, but I knew I needed the Healing Restoration. Now that we weren’t fighting or moving, all the bruises and scratches and bites I hadn’t noticed during the fights with the bog ferals had started to flare up. You don’t really appreciate a healing script tattoo until you go without one for a day.

Kest lobbed a bag of AlgaeFrize up to Warcry, who saluted her with it before tearing in, then she leaned around the trunk until she could see her twin, who had settled on a branch to my left. “Rali.”

“Thank you, Kest, but I’ll pass,” he said. “It’s against my Ten restriction to profit from my own Spirit abilities.”

“I know that, goof,” she said. “I marked the ones you didn’t infuse.”

“Well, in that case, I am a little peckish.”

For a long time, there was nothing but the sound of chip bags rustling and insects buzzing while everyone else ate. I left my bag unopened. Every time I thought about food, my mouth watered like I was about to puke. I swore I could taste the bog feral’s rotten brown life points coating the inside of my mouth like rancid sewage.

“You need to eat, Hake,” Rali said in a low voice, like he was too exhausted to talk at full volume.

“You need the healing,” Kest agreed. “Humans don’t have the immo-filtering systems that Selkens do. And even we still need to be careful in unknown water. It’d be stupid for you to die of an infection from a little scratch when you’ve made it this far.”

“Even ignoring your injuries,” Rali said, “your internal alchemy has a lot of work to do to force out the soul contamination, so you’re going to need the extra energy.” He glanced down at the brightly colored chip bag in his hand. “Ideally, we’d have something a little more natural for you, something that won’t add impurities to your body while it’s fighting off the Spiritual impurities. But we’ll work with what we’ve got.”

“Okay, you sold me.” I tore open the bag and stuck a handful AlgaeFrize in my mouth, going for quantity over caution. Maybe I could get most of them down before my stomach kicked them back up.

But once the neon green snack hit my stomach, Rali’s Healing Restoration spread through my body, fixing all the torn-up tissue and revitalizing my exhausted muscles. It even took the edge off the nausea.

“I think it’s been mentioned before, but you’re a genius, Rali,” I said.

“That’s why they call me Sage Rali.”

“No one calls you that,” Kest said.

“They oughta,” Warcry said, tipping back the last of his bag into his mouth.

Rali gestured from me to Warcry. “I can’t argue with popular opinion, Kest.”

She scoffed. “You do all the time—usually just because it’s popular.”

“Yeah, but I’m inclined to believe it when it falls in my favor.”

I finished off my bag of AlgaeFrize, listening to the twins bicker and the swamp bugs make noise. With the life point sickness easing up, I could definitely fall asleep. I shut my eyes.

I had just about dozed off when my branch moved.

Rali sat down a couple feet out facing me, right arm hooked over the armrest branch.

“Let’s get to work on that soul contamination,” he said.

“Sounds good,” I lied. I yawned and sat up straighter. “What do I need to do?”

“In short, burn it out.” Rali flicked his hair out of his face with a jerk of his head. “This might be kind of counterintuitive for a Death affinity. Miasma’s kind of cold, right? But you’ve got to use it like a purifying fire to cleanse the soul contamination from your body.”

To say that Miasma was kind of cold was a massive understatement. If I didn’t keep my internal alchemy going constantly, the Death Spirit sank into my tissues, freezing and killing them off like frostbite. But I kind of doubted somebody with Warm Heart affinity could fully understand that, so I nodded to show Rali I was mostly following.

He shifted to get more comfortable on the branch. “First, look inside yourself and find the soul contamination. It might gather more in some places than others.”

I shut my eyes, fighting to stay awake while I searched my Spirit sea for the greasy, nasty mess. Not a hard find. It was floating on the top like oil on water.

“Okay,” I said.

“Now use your Miasma like a purifying flame.”

I looked at him. “Um…”

“Yeah, sorry, I don’t really know how to tell you to do that,” Rali admitted with a grimace. “It’s sort of like cultivating, it’s going to be unique to you. It might help to start with the idea that whatever you come up with needs to burn this contamination off, then go from there.”

I closed my eyes again, focusing on the contamination. On Earth, they sometimes burnt the excess gasses off where they drilled for oil, didn’t they? And places like swamps had smaller versions of the same thing, tiny ghost candles that popped up when escaping swamp gasses ignited.

I took a little of the Miasma from my Spirit sea and concentrated it down into a smaller surface, sort of like adjusting the flame on a blowtorch. Then I aimed it at the greasy brown pollution. Immediately, eerie turquoise flames spread across the surface of the soul contamination, burning it away.

Corpse Fire, the words rang in my head.

“Huh,” Rali said, “I didn’t expect you to get the hang of it that fast. Given how late in life you started cultivating, you’re really progressing.”

I shrugged. “It helps to have a sage for a teacher.”

“Or it’s a Mortal affinity’s natural instinct to cleanse their Spirit sea of soul contamination,” he said. “You guys are pretty much the only ones who have to deal with this sort of pollutant, so it would make sense that your Spirit comes with an inborn housekeeping ability.”

I kept my eyes shut, working on the contamination. I had a lot of the greasy gunk to burn off. When I ran low on Spirit, Rali hit me with a Warm Heart Spirit boost, replacingwhat I’d spent.

I opened my eyes. “Hey, man, maybe you shouldn’t waste all your Spirit on me. I want to get this trash out of my system, but I don’t want to use up all of your Spirit to do it.” Unlike the rest of us, Rali wasn’t getting any restoration from the AlgaeFrize.

“It’s not a big deal,” he said. “I’ve got plenty of Warm Heart to throw around, and I can always cultivate more wherever I’m content…”

“Which is anywhere,” I finished for him. “Always with the Buddha stuff. Thanks for the boost, but there’s a ton of Miasma in the air here.” With Ki-sight, I could see clouds of the turquoise smoke rolling along the surface of the water. “When I need more, I’ll just cultivate it.”

Rali pretended to wipe away a tear. “Our little Death cultivator’s growing up.”

“Whatever, dude.” I gave him a joking shove.

He caught the armrest branch, laughing.

“Oi!” Warcry yelled. “Stop shaking the bleedin’ tree! Some of us’re trying to sleep, yeah?”

“Yeah, Rali,” I said. “Your little Burning Hatred cultivator needs to be put down for a nap. He’s cranky.”

Warcry broke off a stick and threw it at me, calling me something that was half alien curse I didn’t understand, half anatomical impossibility. At least on Earth.

For the next half-hour, I cultivated and used Corpse Fire to burn away the soul contamination. The nausea burned off with the oily film. When I was finished, I felt even healthier than I’d been before I absorbed the bog ferals’ life points.

The exhaustion, however, had only gotten stronger from all the cycling and burning. Everybody else had retreated to their own branches and fallen asleep or gone into meditation, so I leaned back against the trunk and zonked out.