Mari:

  Upon reawakening from her tumultuous dreams, Mari felt awkward and unsteady. A faint hint of iron on her tongue made her more concerned. She reached out one hand to the rail alongside the bed, then gently swung her legs over the side. Tentatively placing one foot on the ground, she placed her weight on the limb, surprised to not feel the weakness she’d become used to. She wasn’t even sore anymore. She just felt somewhat rewired. Like she was only about ninety percent aligned within her own skin, if she had to describe it.

  Blinking, she checked the details of her HUD, but nothing turned up noticeably different to her jumbled and slightly bleary thoughts. If she were being honest, she was probably more thrown off emotionally by the dream she’d had.

  “What happened?” She winced at the sound of her own voice, which was a bit firmer than she had been expecting. Of course, nobody answered her. She had to turn her mind inwards, to her Mindscape.

  Within the basic terms of the cultivation path, each layer of the inner world was another tier. She was in the earliest stages, without even reaching beyond the first ten tiers of the lowest realm. Compared to Ivan, who was a Mental Master with a palatial construction within the fourth realm, she was barely scratching the surface. The true reason none of the Dynast Souls attempted all three methods was because of the labor required to ascend beyond the first realm, let alone from the second to the third. In her case, the exercise was mostly just a method to expand the limits of her mind. One couldn’t call themselves an immortal master of any discipline until they reached the third realm of any path.

  Arriving within the first floor of her mental home, she briskly drifted past the history relics that adorned the space. The second floor was the dojo, also unoccupied. The third was more of a recreation room: personal cinema, audio room, and a billiards table in a room with a bar stocked with nothing but empty bottles. Those empty bottles were symbolic of the time when Marielle’s predecessor had gotten over her drinking problem, and every bottle could have had drinks in them, but her ability to walk by and keep them empty was an exercise of decades-long resolve.

  The fourth layer was an absolute monster of a kitchen. Mari had sculpted it to resemble Karin and Constance’s beautiful home. A large portion of the floor was dedicated to growing herbs while the rest was full of marble counters over glossy redwood cabinets. The pantry was stocked with whatever came to mind, because anything she cooked didn’t actually exist. She experienced the memory of making the dish, and then the memory of eating it. The more she experienced the odd mental gymnastics, the more she would attune to the concept of the mind.

  Mari ascended to the fifth floor. A lone structure on a sandy beach, then a long dock to where a large bed was resting amidst the ocean. Instead of approaching the bed, she turned around and spied Marielle in a bikini, stretched out on a towel and enjoying the sun. Or, she supposed, the memory of laying out and enjoying the sun.

  “Well?” Mari asked in an annoyed tone.

  “Don’t ‘well’ me, Mari. If ever there was a memory I didn’t want to share with you, that was the one. Guess I don’t make the rules, though.” Every word was dry, humorless and depressed. Mari wasn’t prepared for the woman to be so abrasive.

  “Let’s leave it alone. We’re sharing this head, so I’m sure you already know how I feel about it. Instead, would you care to tell me what you did in my body last night?”

  Marielle took off her sunglasses, which was rather pointless. She instantly was standing in her military fatigues and looking down at her. “How long do you wager a full physical training course would take you? Because I’m thinking upwards of three months. You’ve felt it since meeting the brass earlier, so I know you know something is wrong. Your girlfriend’s mom gives nothing away, but she’s the only one in that room who had a poker face.”

  Mari couldn’t disagree with the sentiment. One might dismiss Alynne as frowning over some new puzzle in her projects, but the others? And then there was the unusual amount the Sylpharien man had been speaking out of turn. Finally, Alynne had taken too much interest in her weapons. Alynne had long since retired from combat roles. She took little interest in making weapons since doing so. That was entirely why Mari had taken her handgun with her.

  She nodded, and Marielle finished her thought.

  “I don’t trust that you’ll have your full time to get back in shape, so I went ahead and put that medical knowledge to good use last night. It might make a solid foundation for proper cultivation techniques, if you get the time.”

  “How did you find enough Affliction to do that?”

  “Alynne has been giving you transfusions of clean blood for years. She saved every vial of what she drew out of you along the way. I decided to make use of a dozen or so of them. I had the nanites create and condense your muscle structure while working on strengthening the structure of your bones a little. They’re a lot less brittle than they were, but not beyond the bounds of what someone with an excellent diet and genetics might have, really.”

  “Does it count as stealing when it was my own blood? Ugh, anyway, Galileo’s design, then. What could he be up to, anyway?” Mari didn’t get to inherit a lot of memories of the man, but she didn’t have direct memory of most of the other Dynast Souls.

  “He’s no fighter. An inventor through and through. After Galileo’s Soul passed onto Einstein, and his work on the Bomb? He swore he would never make weapons again. His design? It resembles a perfect warrior’s body. I’m worried that he’s in trouble, but I think we have our own problems.” Marielle’s expression was clear. She wanted to help her former companion, but they truly had no way to do so. That likely wouldn’t change for years, either.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “One thing at a time. Should I test out the changes?”

  “Kind of? Just be careful. I made you taller. You’re able to learn from my combat experience, but to do so, I had to make you taller.” Marielle had an apologetic look, but the moment Mari was about to react to the news, she was pushed out of her Mindscape.

  “Excuse me?” The medical aide was shaking her by the shoulders.

  She blinked at him. “I’m sorry. I was just deep in thought.” She pushed herself to her feet, hit the floor faster than she’d expected, and almost stumbled.

  The medical aide caught her by the upper arm and held her steady. “Perhpas you should lay down?” Mari didn’t fail to notice his widened eyes directed where his hand had gripped her bicep.

  “Actually, can we do a full physical?” Meanwhile, Mari was internally berating herself for having lost focus within her Mindscape so much that she hadn’t noticed someone entering her hospital room. She’d have to be careful about when she interacted with Marielle in the future.

  “I suppose we can. You look slightly pale, though. Would you like to have something to eat beforehand?” Her stomach answered his question the moment he brought it up. A moment later, she was alone again.

  Mari stood, clenching and unclenching her hand as she stretched in place. It hadn’t hit her sooner, but she had gone from shorter to slightly taller than the medical aide was. She patted her forearm, feeling the strength despite the thinness of the limb. The only area that seemed visibly different was her legs, where the muscles were more pronounced, making her bony frame look more like a track runner’s.

  She tested walking a little, and found it was perfectly fine. Then again, after the coma, she’d felt a bit off about being shorter. Fine motor control was up next, though she had only a minute until food would come.

  Mari slid the gun from her holster, sat on the chair beside the bed and set to work.

  Her HUD displayed a timer on command, and she immediately began dismantling the weapon. The gun had a very solid construction, since the power the weapon had was no joke, and warranted the strongest materials on the market at the time. The most complicating factor of the revolver were the set of mechanical counterweights built in that actively fought against recoil. They’d been balanced in a very particular way, and Mari would eventually have to calibrate them again. To do so, she would need a proper shooting range.

  Compared to revolvers before her time, the entire weapon was alien. Still, it outperformed everything else she’d handled, even if it was nowhere near being something anyone would call ‘subtle’ in action.

  By the time the medical aide had returned with a cart, she was on her second attempt. It hadn’t taken her long to do the job, but it had felt clumsier than she liked. Repetition would be the only fix.

  Bless the man assigned to her wing of the hospital. He’d brought her double portions. She tucked in, then went back to those repetitions until he could return for the physical.

  Half an hour of tireless effort, and she was comfortable with the firearm again. Well, it wasn’t ‘again’ for her, but she was close to giving up on that distinction.

  Then, the physical examination.

  She was heavier. By several kilos, at that. Taller, as promised. She gained about ten centimeters in height. Both aspects felt both new and familiar at the same time. Otherwise, her health hadn’t changed too much. Her lung capacity was a bit low for anyone’s tastes, but her heart was interestingly efficient, even under stress from running a short distance. Then again, the heart falls under the category of muscles. Should’ve been obvious, really.

  [Vitals: Normal]

  [Affliction: 22%]

  [Location: Hospital, West Wing, Physical Therapeutics]

  [Mental Condition: No abnormalities detected]

  She had a slight twinge of worry about how Marielle had decided to raise the Affliction rate in her display. Not that she was going to worry about it anytime soon. It had taken a while to do the full physical, and she had only a few hours before Kris’ match would start.

  “I’m utterly baffled, Miss. Just a few days ago, you were in a coma and had lost a shocking amount of body mass. Suddenly, you’re at the peak of fitness. Taller than any record we have of you, too.” The medical aide just stared at the tablet in his hand in disbelief.

  “I am putting a gag order on that information. In fact, delete it all.” A commanding tone pierced them both like a spear. Mari turned and caught sight of Karin by the doorway.

  “As you wish, Madam Councillor!” The aide immediately deleted the chart he was filling in, went the extra mile by handing over the tablet, then bowed before leaving.

  Mari eyed the fleeing equivalent of one of Earth’s nurses. “That’s some authority you’ve got.” She would’ve whistled in appreciation, if she could still whistle, which was another oddity of the changes.

  Karin ignored the comment and got down to business, as usual. “First, thank you for taking the time to be in that meeting yesterday. I know your health is tenuous. Well, it was. Alynne told me about the recording you saw and the possessions stored in that room for you.”

  Mari nodded, having expected as much.

  “I am allowing all of Captain Marielle’s things to be released to you exclusively. However, the weapons are a different matter.” Karin forestalled Mari’s darkening expression with a gesture of her hand. “Alynne already told me about them all. I would appreciate seeing their use within safe conditions before making a decision about your fitness to carry anything of the sort.”

  Mari paused. That expectation was fairly reasonable. She nodded, keeping silent. She could at least sense that she shouldn’t respond to Karin with a ‘yes ma’am.’ However, Karin had taken on a commanding posture akin to the military discipline Marielle was used to on Earth. In some ways, Kris’ mother was even more imposing.

  “As for my daughter,” Karin’s tone shifted, becoming softer, “I am still concerned. There are many unknown things about you and your predecessor’s long-term outlook. I would like to hear your thoughts about her. To better understand your own feelings.”

  Mari straightened up, if she even could do so more than she already was. “Kris is a treasure. She’s always been there for me. Even if her words are a little biting at times, she always does things in a way that minimizes the backlash of the incident. And somehow without others noticing, most of the time. She’s everything I’m not, really.”

  “I cannot say I enjoy hearing that from her partner, surprisingly. I would rather you have some self-confidence of your own.” Karin’s harsh edges fully rounded as her tone softened further. “What do you believe is your position in her life in the future?”

  That required some thought to pull together a proper response. “Until recently, my best prospects for the future were joining Alynne’s research team. Thinking about the future isn’t easy with everything that has changed.”

  “That is only fair, and I am happy you did not jump for the first answer that came to mind. A little forethought and consideration is helpful in life.” The tall woman spun on her heel and strode through the doorway. “Come on, then. You need to get cleaned up before you miss her match. I was the lucky nominee to be your chaperone.”

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