107 (II) Open

“I think I’m going to try something when I get the chance,” Shiv said. “I’m going to try doing this beneath the light of the mana core. I tried to have my skills fuse, but I think it doesn’t work without direct exposure, or maybe Adam focusing it on me. Like he has to do with his Righteous Dawn Prevails. I don’t know. I’ll ask him later.”

“What are you thinking?” Uva asked.

“I want to mix The Chef Unwavering with my Practical Metabiology if I can. See if they even come together. I mean, I think some parts of biology can be like a recipe or something.”

Uva tried to imagine what that was like, but psychology, and frankly, Psychomancy, were far softer disciplines and far more insidious in certain ways than the complex but more rooted realities inherent to Biomancy and biology. She didn’t have much insight to offer him here.

Shiv shook his head awkwardly. “Speaking of which, uh, you know, Uva, are you good at writing?”

“Writing?” she said, slightly taken aback. “I am good at reports. I do not do much personal writing, but I would say my skill is well into Adept.”

“Yeah, of course there’s a skill for writing too…” He gave an awkward sigh. “I’ve been trying to start writing a journal of some kind, a book documenting ingredients and dishes and creatures you can hunt in the Abyss.”

“Oh,” Uva said, her curiosity piqued. “You want to make a cookbook? That is… That would be quite useful, I think, especially with your capabilities. Are you trying to document what your The Chef Wavering can do as well?”

“Yeah, something like that. There’s just… I got a lot of stuff I’m trying to cover, and I can’t just keep track of them all in my mind. Not yet, anyway. Is there a Memorization Skill too?”

“There is, in fact,” Uva replied.

“I wonder why I never got that one. I try to remember a lot of things. I can practically name all the Swan-Eating Frog’s set lists from a couple of years back.”

Uva shook her head. “No, that’s not sufficient. Think of how much effort it takes for you to gain a level in Gravitic Wrestler. Do you strain your mind to the same capacity?”

Shiv paused. “Yeah, I get your point. You need to be doing it constantly, driving it to the very limit.”

“To the very limit,” she repeated for emphasis.

“Right.” Shiv pressed his lips together. “I’m not that good at writing right now. I just… I find it hard to focus. I tried earlier and got a bit frustrated. I’ve looked through plenty of books from spending the colder days sitting around in the library in Blackedge, but actually putting words together feels like I’m wrestling with my own brain. My mind jumps a hell of a lot too.”

“I know. I’ve been in your mind long enough to suspect your mental template to be hyperactive. A lifetime of conflict and constant anxiety or paranoia can cause that in a person. But I suspect there’s also bloodline dispositions as well.”

“Is that adjustable?” he asked. “Or is it really bad?”

“It’s…” Uva considered her reply. “I potentially could, but the effort of sculpting one’s cognition on such a level is… How should I put this?” Uva might have the skill to do it, but her expertise in Psychomancy was originally focused on shrouding. Something that made it harder for other Psychomancers to affect her and those around her. Something that made it easier for her to engage, even against those who would have the advantage in a direct Psychomantic confrontation. She was, in a word, a Psychomancer dedicated to hunting other Psychomancers. Such was the natural outcome when your adversary was the First Blood.

To reshape one’s cognition, though, that was more in the domains of a psycho-healer, and frankly, a psycho-architect. Weave was desperately short on those. Uva had known one psycho-architect in her generation of the Arachnae Order, and she remained an Adept even now, bottlenecked by the complexity of her path.

“I’m not scared,” Shiv said. “Even if it does damage to my mind, I should just be able to come back together, so I think you can experiment a little on me too if that’s what it takes. I’m open to doing anything for some more improvements.”

Open. There was that word again.

“No,” Uva said. “And for multiple reasons. First, for most people, there is a significant risk in altering their minds. Doing so poorly inflicts mental issues like psychosis or schizophrenia. More importantly, it might break their minds entirely and ruin their sense of self. For you, I think the effects will not take. Your mind will revert to its original, stable state. You are, in essence, locked to your current mental template. That’s why you heal so well. And there is nothing wrong with the way you think. It might even be beneficial for active combat.”

Shiv considered that for a moment and grunted. “Yeah, might be for the best. Strain,” he muttered to himself. “Yeah, strain everything. Alright, thanks, Uva. I’ll try to get the skills fused. I just need to find a way to stress both of them at the same time, maybe. Anyway, I’m going to try to trigger the neurotoxin inside me this time instead of one of the many bacteria-strains. At least I think they’re bacteria…”

“Inside you?” Uva said. Her mind went blank for a moment. “You’re storing dormant sicknesses inside of yourself? How?”

Shiv let out a slight grunt as he opened his left arm. Through the open wound, Uva could see a small piece of Leviathan tissue fused into his flesh. “I managed to figure out how to pull some of the dormant sicknesses from where they’re hidden inside the Court Leviathan. I also managed to successfully transplant its flesh unto mine without getting it to reject it this time. Something about how the Court Leviathan is designed makes that easy. Right now, I got a steady source of dormant sickness to trigger. Only managed to figure out how to activate a few of them, though. And my body burns them out pretty quick.

“This is…” Uva wasn’t sure how to describe this. For anyone else, it would be stark-raving mad. Suicidal. For Shiv, this was just another moment in his life. It was even logical. If he didn’t have the technical understanding to create his own viruses or pathogens, he could trigger dormant sicknesses embedded within the Court Leviathan to boost himself in a fight. “…very creative,” she finished.

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“Thanks. So far, I managed to get what I think is a fungal infection to spread across me. That usually triggers a pretty bad allergic reaction across my skin, but it doesn’t last long. Frankly, I’m getting used to it already. I’m trying to study how my body reacts to it. But even with my Chronomancy, there’s a…” Shiv let out a breath. “There’s a lot going on. I might need a notebook for this too. I think I can learn to cast these as spells as well. Frankly, a dedicated Biomancer might be able to make some of these viruses without having anything close to Master-Tier Biomancy. The problem here isn’t power, it’s understanding. And it’s hard to level missing understanding through death. I tried with Metabiology, but the System seems reluctant to just give me knowledge. Power, sure. But not knowledge.”

Once more, Uva noted how inverted Shiv’s development as a Pathbearer was. Usually, someone was trained in the softer skills first, prepared in writing, memorization, and all other informational disciplines before any of their physical and practical skills reached Adept-tier. He was the opposite way ’round, in the extreme. And so, he handled things brutally because his skill set was brutally underdeveloped. Aside from his cooking, his technical and intellectual development had been severely hampered.

Uva felt a surge of annoyance towards Adam’s father, Roland Arrow. For someone who feared the child of your enemy might turn into a monster

, she thought to herself, you certainly did everything you could to make him develop like one.

Uva considered what she would be like without any proper training, without years of instruction and refined practice. Instinct. Instinct and intuition were her answers. And they weren’t pretty answers, at that. It was probably part of the reason why he was developing skills the way he was. I might also need to start shaping his personal curriculum more than just teaching him Psychomancy, Uva thought. If there was one benefit to Shiv having little to no experience, it was the fact that he didn’t have any bad habits yet. Well, none intellectually. Physically, his combat and tactics were for Adam to handle.

Just then, another swath of inflammation glided down Shiv’s chest. Red boils appeared, rising from the skin in bulges, but they only held their place for around five seconds before they broke, lost color, and flattened. Shiv’s muscles bulged and swelled. He grew another few centimeters taller as well. His movements happened in blurring jerks. He let out a drunken laugh and worked to keep himself steady. “Woo, okay. That’s not too bad. I think I’ll use this one when I get into a fight next.”

“You know, you can contain some of that drunkenness,” Uva said.

“How?” Shiv slurred slightly.

“Your Psychomancy.”

“It’s not very powerful yet,” Shiv replied.

“That’s fine. It’s the exact same thing as with your Biomancy. You don’t need a lot of power to affect yourself. Think of how much Biomancy you needed to stop your own heart.”

Shiv considered that. “Not much at all.”

“Yes, and Psychomancy even less so. It’s simply about finding the right pieces in yourself. Follow my strand. Follow where I’m going and what I’m doing. Let your skills work in tandem. Like they’re pillars for each other.”

“Pillars,” Shiv muttered. And that somehow sobered him immediately. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I can do that.”

His Psychomancy field flowed inward as he chased after her strands. Uva noted how awkward his intent was, and how unfocused and indelicate his control. But these were all things of inexperience. He could be cured of these weaknesses through proper instruction, and on this day, she would show him the true beginnings of Psychomancy.

“Here,” Uva said. She seized the parts of him that enjoyed the feeling of digesting the diseases, but she didn’t do anything. Instead, she highlighted how this sensation was passing through him. How it consumed his thoughts. “The feelings you’re experiencing are more physiological than psychological. But there is a psychological component. And there is a way for you to ‘pilot’ yourself. To exert mind over sensation.”

“Huh. So, can this help with my attentiveness too?”

“Absolutely. But it is paradoxical. You must be focused to infuse focus in yourself. So. Seize this. Grip the parts of you consumed by pleasure, by distraction and intoxication, and layer over them.”

“Layer? With what?”

“Another memory. A moment of extreme focus. Like when you are cooking. Or when you are trying to do something that requires a great amount of attention. This is the simplest method of establishing control over yourself. As you have transplanted a piece of the Court Leviathan into your body, now you can transplant part of your memories, your past sensations, over your present. Mind over matter.”

“And… this can be done at any time?”

“If you have the focus. If you have the control. If you strain and stop yourself from being distracted.”

Shiv reached out for a moment, but his first attempts slipped as another buzzing rush swept through him. Unfettered, he tried again. Again. Uva control was fine and reached deep. Her strands were near-solid constructs of mana. Shiv, meanwhile, was directing something that was fainter than a breeze and capable of even less force or control. He tried harder and harder, pitting his intent and will against his own mind, doing all he could to clutch specific memories the same way Uva did.

But hardness wasn’t the way here. Focus. Control. Directing the currents of his mana was the true path. Uva could have told him that. But it was best for him to learn directly. For him to understand the lesson himself.

His struggle went on. Seconds turned to minutes. Then, Shiv pressed on for nearly an hour. Through all that time, Uva observed his habits, studied how he approached her discipline.

He needs more flexibility of thought and an understanding of psychology to be a good Psychomancer. But there is no issue with his will or intent. I suspect he is beyond that in some ways. I suspect—ah, he has it.

Finally, Shiv twisted his Psychomancy mana around the memories Uva highlighted for him using her strand. He stole a method from her. She spiraled herself around the memories, arranging his mana into cyclones that consumed each section of memory and sensation.

“Good,” she said. “You have it. Now. Move a copy of the memories over.”

Shiv’s brows furrowed. Sweat poured from his forehead, but he infused his cyclones into his mental architecture and began to move parts of himself. Soon, a memory from his past crossed the gulf of his mind, a memory of a scowling man with a large, messy puff of hair gesticulating and screaming at him, demanding he cut faster.

Uva was taken aback. Such a memory filled her with instinctual stress, but Shiv found it to be calming. Even reassuring. More than anything, it was focusing.

Psychomancy 9 > 11

“Why? Why this memory?” she asked, unable to contain her own curiosity.

Shiv chuckled as he fastened his desired memory into place. At once, his movements became more refined, more coherent. “Because that’s when I knew Georges wasn’t going to get rid of me. I made a mistake. A bad one. I expected him to throw me out. He made me peel a thousand potatoes that day instead. His punishment was to yell and make me better. And you don’t do that for someone you don’t care about. It was more than anyone ever did for me before.”

Psychology 1 > 2

“I see,” Uva breathed. What seemed so unpleasant to her took on new dimensions. Open. I should be open to all manner of perspectives. All ways of understanding things. This lesson isn’t just for Shiv. This should be for me as well. What lies beyond the surface? What is the actual truth of the matter?

She contemplated that while she instructed him further, and he sank deeper into knowledge, and she opened her mind more and more to other possibilities. To things she hadn’t considered before as well.

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