Ascended

Master James was still looking at the corpse.

As soon as we’d gotten to our room, which looked like a house that someone had gotten kicked out of, he’d opened the lid and begun examining it.

I assumed that he would start asking questions as soon as he was ready to talk, so I cleared off the kitchen table and got the seven hearts out of my bag.

Val was sitting at the table with a heartstone knife and was cutting into a heart.

“Don’t do it like that.” I held up the heart I was working on.”You have to make a shallow cut, otherwise you can damage the heartstone.” I demonstrated for her.

“Why are we doing this?” She set down her knife and heart.

“Because you need the heartstones to live.” Master James got up and walked over to the table. He picked up one of the heartstones that I’d already harvested and clenched it in his hand. The lines on his arms pulsed once and when he opened up his hand the hearthstone was nothing but a black rock. He dropped it on the table and looked at Val. “As a Bokor, these stones can give you a way to quickly restore your magic, which can be the difference between life and death in a long fight.”

“What if I can’t use magic?” Val crossed her arms in front of her. “I’ve been trying and nothing’s happened.”

The older Bokor looked at me. “What about you?”

I shook my head. “I haven’t been able to do anything either.”

“You did the Zombie thing.” Val corrected me.

I’d been trying not to think about that and apparently it’d worked

“What Zombie thing?” Master James turned to me.

“I went into a Zombie and got a little stuck.” I grimaced. “Not something I’d like to do again.”

“Understandable.” The older Bokor got up and went to his pack and began digging around.

“Is there a way to…” I didn’t know the right word. “Fix me?”

“There’s a rumor of a Touched becoming a Bokor, but I’ve never seen that myself.” He looked up at me, then over at the barrel. “Unfortunately, this solution looks like it was made with a purifying crystal.” He shook his head, “Very powerful and very rare. I’ve only ever seen them as weapons, but they won’t cure you. I mean it will but you won’t survive it.” He nodded at the barrel. “It’s genius really, to disperse it like that. But the ramifications are very…” He shook his head.

“What do you mean?” I looked at Val to see if she had any ideas.

“You could pour this one on the Zombies from above the wall. Or flood a trap that would purify them until it filled it up.” He found whatever he was looking for and came back to the table. “Did either of you drink any?”

We both shook our heads.

“Good. Don’t.” The older Bokor sighed, “I don’t know what the liquid will do, but a knife made out of the crystal will ground out a Bokor’s magic if they're stabbed with it and the blade is left in. And…”

“That’s what’s on the collars they put on the Touched!” I closed my lips as soon as I realized that I’d just interrupted him.

“That is correct.” He looked at the two of us, “Since neither of you has been using magic, it’s not like you would miss that, but you’d probably also get very sick.” The Older Bokor held out a gray stone that fit in the palm of his hand. Let's see what kind of magic you have.”