Chapter 8

  The people around you will call you a monster.Yet it is your sin that will bring them salvation.

  -Book of the Father, first page

  Charon was unable to sleep the rest of the night. His brother’s words still echoed in his mind. If Charon could just catch up to him in a month, then he’d be able to stand alongside them. His eyes opened for the tenth time that night into pitch darkness. Even in the gloom of night when he looked to his mirror he could see the blurry silhouette of the sacrament hovering inside waiting patiently for him to awake. He stared at the creature. It had told him that it would not be able to answer his question here in this city; if Charon wished to catch up to his brother, then he must leave Dasos. He had wanted to think on that, mull it over, but the longer that he lay in his bed with the thought forever turning in his mind, the more he realized that staying in this city was not an option. The high he felt earlier in the day from draining the potential—or vitae, he had to remind himself to call it—had faded. It was like his soul had cracks in it that the new vitae was leaking out from drop by drop. He sat upright with a sigh, blinking away the feeling of exhaustion that permeated his every waking moment and looked to the sacrament. “I think… I’m ready to go,” he said with quiet resignation.

  Then let us depart.

  It had answered, the mirror rumbling with it. Charon slid part way off the bed, rubbing at his face as he went to stand fully with a small stumble. “I can’t take the mirror with me and the pond will be too close to the city… will my pocket knife work as a mirror for you?”

  Any reflective surface will do.

  Charon nodded, then began to pack his things. Not much, he felt weaker still, but he could still fit the book and at least one other change of clothes into his bag. He got dressed and grabbed his cane, then headed out into the main room of the house. He was about to head right out the front door before he paused, looking back towards the door that led to his brother’s room. A gnawing voice in the back of his mind told him he should just go back to bed and not leave Phaidros to his fate. His stare lasted for what felt like an eternity before he sighed; the least he could do was tell Phaidros that he left. He wrote a note, keeping it simple. Phaidros, I am taking your word to heart. I have an idea that will allow me to catch up to you before you face the beast. I ask that you trust that I will be able to handle myself and that I will return not as your cindered brother but as your equal. May the Exalted Sovereign watch over you, brother. -Charon. He left the note on the counter and without wasting any more time strode from the house with the help of his cane and out into the night.

  Dasos might as well be as loud in the night as it was in the day. Here the ambiance of the surrounding jungle was deafeningly loud, with all the creatures that were nocturnal taking over the moment the sun set. There would still be Ignited out there training, ra swooping overhead, and hunters in the jungle, but the sounds were nothing before the life that surrounded the city, the screaming insects, the whipping of tree vines, and the echoing hoots, hollers, and roars of larger beasts. It was in this noise that Charon slipped out of the city, silently grateful for the lack of any true guards. He left out the sixth gate south of the city and began heading west, giving the merchant’s district a wide berth. The city itself might not have any guards, but the merchant’s district most likely did with the Shaped Beast prowling about. He wasn’t too frightened of running into it; ignited creatures sought challenges, not Cindered. An occasional tree snapped at him with a vine and he drained its vitae as punishment. Just as before, the tree withered before him and he got a new supply of vitae, the display of power subduing the wilderness around him and providing him with more energy as he strode into the jungle alone with new strength. His exhaustion was gone, supplanted with the energy of the life he had stolen.

  It was about an hour into his walk that he decided to pull out his pocket knife and summon the visage of the sacrament once more. The creature’s reflection wasn’t as clear in the steel, warped from the curves of the blade and giving it a whole new dimension of eerie to its visage. “Now can you answer my question… sacrament? Is that your name?”

  We are the Exaltation of the Father. This or ‘Exaltation’ will do. We will answer any question you ask of us.

  The knife vibrated in Charon’s hand as it spoke. He was half afraid the blade would shatter but when it held intact he let out an inward sigh of relief. His previous question from earlier in the day still itched at the back of his mind. “I drained the vitae from the trees but the excess appears to be leaking, you implied there was something I could do with the excess.”

  Yes, your cindered soul is weakened and cannot hold the vitae it does not naturally grow, your ability to live has been permanently altered unless you ignite yourself again. However, the excess vitae that you hold has many uses and with the power to manipulate it, that gives you the power over life. More specifically, you can imbue the vitae into the world around you and control it.

  Charon stopped in his tracks, trying to wrap his brain around the concept that he could control anything else. He had heard of some Shaped and beyond in the Ignited who had the power to manipulate others, but to be able to do so without being shaped seemed too good to be true. “How?” he asked suspiciously.

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  All life yearns to be one once again. It is connected to one another and even in death will seek that connection once more. The soul is free, but should you fill the husk with vitae once more, it will seek a soul to latch itself to. Your soul. With vitaemancy, you will be able to use this connection to puppet the vitae in its husk as if it were an extension of your own body. Read the section on reanimation and you will have the power we speak of.

  Charon was curious. He glanced around. Despite walking for hours he could still see the sight of Suneater’s Great Tree looming over the horizon. A reminder that there are things other than beasts he should be afraid of. “Not here. Not yet,” Charon muttered. “We need to get farther away. If I kill a few trees Suneater just might suppose it’s some wildlife, but if we start delving into this power then I don’t want to be in sight of them. I think I know of a place where we can go but I don’t have my armor. Is there a way in this book for me to be able to travel faster?”

  The powers within are basic in their abilities, however offer great flexibility based off of the creativity of the user. You have what you seek already. Your vitaemancy need not drain the entirety of a being’s vitae when you use your power. You have already seen how it refreshes you. Look around you, young child, and see the life that surrounds you and is yours to use. Do not drink deep, drink slowly, and you will find you will never run out of energy so long as there is vitae for you to pull from.

  Charon looked around himself. That would have been useful information before he got a little ahead of himself earlier today. Still though, it was worth a shot. He took a cautious step forward, then another as he slowly brought himself into a jog. His muscles strained from disuse; he had not done anything other than hobble anywhere he needed to go for two months. His feet weren’t sure under him and he nearly stumbled over a root but he followed the sacrament’s advice and took a breath as he focused not on one tree but everything around him. Trickles of vitae flowed into him, the wildlife around him wilting, but not dying. Charon on the other hand felt a new surge of energy and began to run faster and faster. The wind rushed through his hair and his face and he had to jump over a gnarled root in his path but his body responded as if he were normal. Two months of feeling like his life was over bled away with each new strong step he took as his pace grew faster and faster. A laugh escaped him while he drained the vitae from everything he passed to make up for what leaked out of him. The jungle did not fight back and soon enough began to instinctively try and pull away from him as he passed. He felt alive again. In that moment, all of what had plagued him disappeared, all doubt, all his self-loathing, all gone in an instant as once again he was able to feel the cool wind of the evening against his face as he ran through the jungle. He missed this, and while it wasn’t as fast as he was when he was an Ignited, even the chance to run again made his heart soar and any lingering wariness about the book in his possession disappeared.

  Charon never tired, not after running till the sun came up; he barely even broke a sweat. They were now deep into the jungle of Dasos, a large flowing river carved through the path. A leaf that had fallen from a nearby tree touched the surface and was immediately shredded to bits by the carnivorous fish beneath. There was a small clearing around the edge of the water that Charon would be able to make a camp and if he needed more space, he’d just have to kill a few of the trees. He wasn’t afraid of the fish in the water, after just getting the basic powers from the book he was sure he could scare them off well enough to be able to get water should he need it. “Alright, reanimation,” he said with some confidence, sticking the knife into the ground for now as he sat down and pulled the book out of his messenger bag and flipped to the section titled Reanimation. Just like before, the page was filled with strange symbols and diagrams but the knowledge bled into his mind without him needing to understand it. Life and Death were once two who became one then split once more. Each person is a small piece of this greater whole. With the power of vitaemancy, you can reanimate what was once living by filling it with your vitae. This requires a constant influx and connection of your vitae much like how a limb cannot be manipulated without blood flowing to it.

  So that meant that with his cindered soul, he couldn’t keep it permanently connected. His vitae would inevitably run out. Well, it was worth trying out. He glanced to a nearby tree, with a flex of his will the tree withered and died and gave him an influx of vitae. He then reached out, still not sure how, and managed to easily push the vitae back in. His senses extended to the tree as if it were a part of him. He felt the wind pass over his branches, the weight of the vines as they swung in the breeze. He shifted and the tree groaned to the left then the right along with him. Charon threw his hand forward and the vines snapped ahead in mirror of his motions with the vines acting like boneless fingers. With a thought he pulled his vitae back out, noting that it was less than what he had put in, as the tree slumped back into death. “Doesn’t seem like it’s useful longterm and trees aren’t going to be able to stop a shaped creature.”

  You have but one piece to the greater puzzle and you have only taken the lives of flora that can do little to fight back. Think grander, to control the beasts that roam the jungle, the insects that skitter below in the caves beneath all worlds, to the very Ignited that might one day hunt you.

  Exaltation rumbled from the knife. That gave Charon pause. He looked back down at the book. To control the very Ignited that might one day hunt him? To take control of the dead. Until now, the consequences of such power had been lost on him. “Would I be able to bring my father back?” he asked, surprised at himself that this wasn’t the first question he asked.

  No. It is too late, the soul has gone to the Father and has been reincarnated, such is the cycle. However if you could find the body, you could reanimate it as if it were a part of you.

  That sent a shiver through Charon’s spine. He snapped the book shut. “Okay. We’re not going to reanimate anything for now. We can save that for later,” he said, nervous at the very idea of desecrating his father’s body in such a way. Trees were… Well, they were trees. They were everywhere and they might as well just be annoying pests that swatted at anything that came by. Charon could stand reanimating trees, but the idea that the ultimate expression of this ability was to bring people back from the dead as some sort of puppet was a bridge he was not willing to cross. “What else can I focus on that doesn’t require… that,” Charon asked, looking to the knife that contained the sacrament.

  All of the sections in the book are useful for one reason or another. Read all of them, there is no downside, no struggle you must achieve to be able to attain it like igniting your soul.

  Charon still didn’t quite believe that but… he had committed himself to catching up to Phaidros in a month. If he was going to do that, he was going to need all of the power that this book had to offer and then some. He took a deep breath, starting to feel some of the exhaustion creep back in. After taking a moment to center himself, he flipped the book back open, going to a new section. It was going to be a long, lonely month.