Benjamin Vryce

Benjamin woke up to the scent of cooking meat. He opened his eyes to find that at some point, he had been rolled over and a bundle of forest moss had been placed under his head like a pillow. Turning his head, he saw Grace. She had her small stove out and was cooking a slice of meat over it.

“Good morning Grace. Was I out for long, how are you feeling?” he asked as he sat up. His body felt different again, like it had after his transformation. He held off inspecting it for now though, he wanted to check on his new companion first.

“Good morning Master. Grace is well, her body is stronger then ever. You were not asleep long, sorry if Grace woke you. She was hungry.” He could see that her body had changed, she wasn’t any taller but her frame had filled out with toned muscle.

Benjamin frowned at being called master. He didn’t like it, at all. He also thought the way she spoke in the third person was strange, but she wasn’t human. Maybe that was just the way of her people.

“I’m glad that you are feeling better Grace. Going forward though, please don’t call me master. You are no one’s servant. Call me Benjamin, or even Ben if you like, my brother always did.” The thought of his brother made his heart twinge slightly but it was only an ache. “I don’t blame you for being hungry after everything that happened, what’s that you’re cooking?”

He already knew the answer of course, it could only be one thing. But he wasn’t really sure what else to say.

“Grace understands…Benjamin…she is cooking a cut of ruin beast. She also has acorns in the stove.” She gave him a weak smile; he could tell that had been difficult for her. That did remind him though.

“It smells wonderful, why do you call it a ruin beast though? We have them where I came from too but we called them boar.” He asked.

She didn’t seem startled that he came from somewhere else or that he had a different name for things than her. She just nodded and answered his question.

“They are called ruin beasts because they are beasts that ruin the land everywhere they go.” She said.

Benjamin wanted to slap himself, it made perfect sense when she put it like that. The brute had dug up the forest every step of the way, as he had followed behind it.

“Makes sense, what about you? What do your people call themselves?” he wanted to know, he had just been thinking of them as Green folk tell this point. As he asked the question however, he could tell that it was a sour subject. He wished he could take the question back, but words didn’t work that way.

“Lord Erlking created Grace’s people in the image of Goblins from the soul’s home world. So, that is what Grace’s tribe called themselves.” She said. Benjamin caught the wording choice; she was speaking of her people in the past tense.

“They called themselves that?” he asked, already suspecting the answer. He had felt her pain and loss when he had bonded with her.

“Yes, Grace and her clan brother were out hunting when they came. Grace ran back when she saw the smoke but it was too late. She buried those she could and left with her clan brother.” She said, voice barely above a whisper.

As she spoke, she pulled an intricate object out of her pocket and rubbed it between her fingers absently. Benjamin recognized it as the thing she pulled from her clan brother’s head while being controlled.

He didn’t want to bring up any more bad memories but he had to know. Waiting for a time, he readjusted his seat on the forest floor. Watching her turn the steak over on the stove top, still rubbing the object. He finally gave in to his curiosity and asked her about it.

“Forgive me if this is insensitive, but could you tell me what you are holding?” At his words she started, looking down at the object in her hand almost guiltily. She opened her mouth to speak then closed it, swallowed and tried again.

“This is Grace’s clan brother...Stomper’s…pattern.” She said, stumbling a little over his name. “Grace does not really understand how it works, the memories told her before… lord Erlking creates a pattern and uses a creation core to power it. Benjamin absorbed Grace’s pattern to create the bond we share.” She told him; it was clear to him that she didn’t know much more then that but he had so many questions.

“His name was Stomper?” he asked, looking over to his body. She had arranged him neatly on his back and readjusted his armor to hide his wounds. “He was very brave, and saved both our lives in the end.”

A thought struck him as he thought about the dead warrior. He looked back to Grace excitedly.

“Grace, you said our bond was created when I absorbed your pattern. Could I absorb Stomper’s pattern and bring him back?” he asked, thoughts spinning and ready to try right away. He even twitched in her direction as if to grab the pattern.

“Again, Grace doesn’t know much. She gets the feeling that all thinking creations got extra memories from Lord Erlking. She is afraid Lord Erlking’s memories would try to influence you again if you tried.” She replied shaking her head, having obviously given the matter a lot of thought while he was sleeping.

Benjamin looked at her. It didn’t escape his notice that by telling him it was dangerous, she might be losing the chance to get her clan brother back. He thought about what she had said. It was very likely that he would have lost himself to the same impulses she had faced if he hadn’t had the dire boars power flowing through him at the time. That gave him pause.

“You said, thinking creations, what about the dire boar…the ruin beast? Could I absorb its pattern safely?” he asked her.

She had just pulled the finished piece of meat from her stove, placing it on a tray made from a giant acorns cap. She paused; she had been adding more fuel to the small stove preparing to cook another piece of meat. He watched her consider his words before nodding.

“Grace believes that would be safe. The ruin beast was created only to fight. There should not be anything extra in its pattern.” She said offering him the acorn lid with the steaming chunk of flesh on it.

“No thank you, Grace. I don’t actually need food anymore. You go ahead and eat first, but I would like to try some if you are willing to cook me one too.” He said by way of apology. It did smell good, but he knew she had been starving even before he met her. With all the changes her body had gone through he couldn’t imagine how hungry she must be.

She smiled at him gratefully before digging into the food. As she worked her way through the chunk of meat, Benjamin grabbed the pattern of the dire boar to examine it. It was smaller than the creation core.

As he turned it over in his hand, he thought it looked a little like an ivory chicken egg. A chicken egg that had been carved with an insanely complicated pattern. He closed his eyes and felt for it with his new senses.

It was there in his minds eye as well. Here it looked like a hollow shell, slightly transparent and filled with script. He could not make out what any of it said but there was a lot of it. Reaching out he touched the pattern, trying to understand it.

As his mental probe touched the shell, all the script inside was pulled into his core. The image of the shell disappeared from his mental eyes. Opening his eyes in the physical world he looked at the pattern in his hands. It was now ash grey and was flaking away into nothingness as he watched.

That was interesting, it looked like after he absorbed the information the pattern couldn’t be used again. He guessed that meant that each one of these patterns had been made individually and couldn’t be copied.

Looking up to see that Grace was still engrossed in her breakfast, Benjamin closed his eyes again. He looked as deeply into himself as he could, trying to find the pattern. It was easier than he thought it would be. Now that he knew what to look for, he found it quickly.

His mental presence entered a white space. It was a void of nothingness stretching out endlessly, except it wasn’t completely empty. He saw a few clustered forms in the distance. Moving in that direction he soon came across another revelation.

There in the depths of his own mind was the damn calming chair. Around it stood three forms, two were bright and clear, the other one was only a faint outline. Looking closely at the outline he recognized Grace.

He inspected the other two beings standing in his…empty space?... It was the massive form of the dire boar, and the small body of Silver. He wondered about that as he drew closer. Why was silver bright and Grace dim? Did that mean that Silver had died?

Reaching the spot, he sat down in the chair, almost out of habit and called Silver over. The little spider scuttled over and leapt into his lap. It looked different then when he had first met the drone. Taking a moment, he inspected the little guy’s appearance.

It used to be a mechanical spider, made of a silvery metal and bolted together with a number of wires and tools sticking out of its frame. Now, it was still silver but the wires, tools and bolts were gone. It looked like a metallic colored biological spider.

There were a few other changes as well. Each forelimb was now tipped with a needle. A colored tube stretched down the forelimbs and across the spider’s body to clear cylindrical tubes on its abdomen. The right tube held a bright blue liquid that glowed slightly, the left a sickly glowing green.

After looking Silver over he really ‘looked’ at the spider. The calming chair helping him focus more then he could have on his own. There was a pattern of sorts buried inside this void space form. He couldn’t read it, not really, but he got the impression that when he had force fed the spider his energy and thoughts, the little guy had evolved.

He got a feeling of approval from Silver, as if it knew what he was thinking and agreed with it. He ran a finger along the spiders back in an affectionate stroke then turned to look at the dire boar. It was standing there looking just as alive as Silver did.

After taking in the plow truck sized beast, he ‘looked’ at it. It was a little disappointing, after the complexity of Silvers pattern. All he was picking up from the boar was the desire to eat and fight. He supposed that was to be expected, it was why it had been made after all.

“Congratulations Mr. Vryce. You are the first of the human souls to enter their void space voluntarily.” The voice came from behind him making him jump. At his surprised start, Silver waved its new injector limbs and the dire boar snorted and stamped its foot aggressively.