I used Purify Blood on myself as I moved to get rid of the residual poison. I had several cuts and bruises, but none were life-threatening, and I felt we should save the Health Potions. They were clean, closed, and not bleeding. I gave each of us a boost of Revitalise.

  Pānihi seemed to get better every step she took, and I was a little envious.

  I looked at my skills. Revitalise was also Journeyman Level. Could I alter it to something more long-term? At its base, it is a short-term energy-boosting skill. How could I modify it? I let this mull over in my mind for a bit.

  Kevin woke up after half an hour, but I still carried him.

  Two hours later, Kiri dropped out of a tree ahead of us. “There is a place to rest for the day this way,” she said. I watched her, and she was also favouring a leg.

  “How many?” I asked.

  “There were two archers, but one was a junior,” she said. “I took him down from here, but when the senior one missed you with her Triple Shot, she ran,” I remembered the three arrows striking together and one nicking my calf. “I got her eventually, with Kahz’s help. He blinded her in one eye and kept her distracted. I also have clicked into place my bone arrow skill,” she said quite proudly. I knew she had been working on it for a while. “How are you, Kevin?”

  “Weak, and feeling useless. Even Kahz is more useful then I am,” he replied, “But I am several points higher in Poison Resistance.”

  “If you got the archer, I assume no word will get out?” I asked.

  “No. Their outpost must be a couple of days away, so we have that long, probably longer, depending on their check-in schedule. If they follow the army routine, it will be weekly.”

  “How did the word get here so quickly?” I asked, counting the days. Then Kahz flew in and landed on Kevin. “Never mind, messenger birds,” I answered my own question.

  “They didn’t have much detail on us,” Kevin said, “or they wouldn’t have attacked like that.”

  I nodded. That made sense.

  Kevin continued, “They should have taken out Kiri first; that would have taken Pānihi from the fight. Then, they should have peppered us with poisoned arrows at range. I was already down, and Ivan could have been worn down with no way to retaliate.”

  “How would I counter that?” I asked.

  “Not easily,” Kevin said. “You would probably have to burn the forest down.”

  Well, shit. I will have to think about that.

  “They may not think things through like you,” Kiri said.

  We got to the shelter for the day and settled down.

  I spent some time looking at my Purify Blood Skill. It still wasn’t a healing skill, but it would be great against poisons of all sorts. It would not heal the damage, though. At Apprentice, it felt like having another kidney —one I could use on someone else. Instead of getting damaged like a kidney, it just costs more Spiritual Energy. Through the apprentice levels, I could speed it up at the cost of more energy. At the Journeyman level, the energy costs started to drop. It was already halfway through the Novice levels.

  I ended up taking a potion to heal enough to run. We ran for six more nights before Kiri and I thought we were safe. Neither Pānihi nor Kahz had sensed anything for days. We slowed to a steady trot and started training Kevin.

  Kevin is supposed to be bright, but I think he just loses focus. His body will eventually do these things with little thought, but for now, Kevin needs to focus!

  “Kevin, that is an entire footprint you just left. Not a partial, not a broken leaf, an entire footprint!” I think even Kiri is getting tired of it.

  We moved more slowly and during the day now.

  As we moved, I occasionally travelled in my bear form. I liked it, especially at the slower pace we were travelling at. I used Purify Blood on myself and the others once a day to level it. It could purify all the blood in the body in about half an hour. Now that it is apprentice level, I can spend more energy speeding that up.

  I looked through my skills, and Solar Bloom was sitting at the upper Novice level. I hadn’t even got it to the Apprentice level on Goldie's herb garden. My underlying thought was that it was not a useful skill, as its effect was minimal on anything other than plants. Minimal, but not nonexistent. I learned it easily as it was aligned with my Astal affinity. It is also an area of effect skill that is useful in sync with my aura.

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  Could I use it to alter Revitalise? Solar Bloom isn’t even at Apprentice, and Skills need to be Journeyman before you know them well enough to modify and evolve them. But I am not trying to evolve Solar Bloom, but Revitalise, which is at Journeyman. What I want to do is infuse it with my affinity, as demonstrated in Solar Bloom.

  I spent several nights experimenting with Solar Bloom when we were running. It costs more to use at night. That wasn’t noticeable when it was a Novice, but getting it to apprentice was. The sun has an effect, and one of the things my Cosmic Aura can sense is light passing through it. If I create a light filter like my gravity filter, it will reduce the amount of light coming in. I can’t focus or enhance the light… but maybe when it gets to apprentice level, I can, like I can shift and focus gravity.

  A Light Filter became my focus for a while, as it should also help my camouflage. Spiritual Agility and Spiritual Perception were the keys to a Light Filter. It was an Astral Skill. In the Novice levels, I can make it darker, but in the apprentice levels, I can apply a growing number of different filters to the different parts of light.

  And none of that helps me amend Revitalise.

  While learning Light Filter, I increased my awareness of the light passing through my Cosmic Aura and gained the Light Sensing Skill. I was confused by this as I thought my eyes were my light-sensing organ. As I thought about it, I realised my eyes use light to see things but don't sense light directly. I now do through my Cosmic Aura and beyond. Light is much more complex than I initially thought.

  There are bands or types of light. At the novice level of the skill, I used my eyes and Nightsight to comprehend the visible bands of light, as there was more than my eyes could perceive.

  Nightsight was now Master Level and was a key to my understanding of light. If I had Darksight like Kiri and Kevin, this would have been much harder, if not impossible. Darksight does not require any light to see, as it utilises Spiritual Perception. Nightsight always need some light to work, which I had always thought was a limitation.

  No, as Nightsight moved to Master, it was utilising the tiniest particles of light, which made me very sensitive to it. Master's level was also pushing the boundaries of the edges of visible light, but I didn’t realise it. I took the skill for granted, but it provided me with the foundation to understand light and the clues to take it further. As I explored this, Nightsight moved up a level in the Master's ranks.

  Light Sensing took everything from Nightsight and jumped to Apprentice levels. My senses were such that it seemed light wasn’t a particle, or maybe not just a particle. It acted like a wave in the ocean. The shorter and choppier the waves, the more I could see past the purples and violet colours. The longer and smoother the waves, the more I could see into the reds, and it looked like I could see heat from everything.

  See is the wrong word here, as I couldn’t see, but I could sense the light. As we jogged through the day, our bodies heated up, and I could sense more heat/red in the light. Frigid Void made that heat/red disappear completely and suddenly.

  The shorter violet light revealed more detail on things and small imperfections. I could see the remains of blood stains on Kiri’s leathers that were not visible to even Kevin’s Keensight. It was almost like the light was not bouncing off something but partially passing through.

  This had more implications for Void Sensing. Again, I was taking the skill for granted. If light can pass through things, then there are voids there. I need to push the skill to the level it is now. It was Journeyman level. After all, Journeyman level means you are now competent at it, not a master or beyond.

  Light Sensing was most effective inside my aura, like other astral skills. Using my Aura like this pushed that up another level as well.

  But Light Sensing also affected my Nightsight and Farsight. They improved it beyond the skill level, and Nightsight was getting glimpses of heat/red. In my Lore reading, I knew some blacksmiths had a heat-sensing ability, and some nocturnal species, esp Gnomes and Dwarves, developed an Infrared sensing. I think they were both based on this Heat/red my Light Sensing was observing. Would I develop such a skill, or was Light Sensing the same thing, but more versatile?

  I quickly levelled Light Filter to Apprentice and then started playing with more than just light and shadow. The filter was not perfect. I could use the Light Filter to only let through red light, and it would tinge everything inside my aura red, but it was not a complete block. I would need to work on it. I could not block all the light either. I would need the skill at Journeyman level for that, and that would only be for visible light.

  I was hoping that when my understanding of both Light and Gravity Filters gets to Journeyman level, I might be able to learn each of the Manipulation skills.

  And none of that helps me amend Revitalise.

  Solar Bloom is a slow, over-time effect that boosts plant growth and health in everything, but only in small amounts. If I had explored the skill further, I would have gained a deeper understanding of what it does and how it works.

  Revitalise is a short, sharp energy boost. I want to add the solar effects from my Affinity to Revitalise. Solar is slow and steady, covering the entire area. At least the Solar I want to use is slow and steady from Solar Bloom, not like Solar Flare.

  My understanding of all this is limited, particularly concerning the solar aspect of my Astral Affinity. I need to utilise and refine my understanding of Solar Bloom and the sun's gentle growth aspect.

  My highest Skill is Solar Flare, and I don’t understand that, as it is so hard to use in a controlled manner. My Spiritual Skills have been rising, giving me more control, but I am scared to use Solar Flare. Additionally, it will reveal our position.

  There was a skill called Solar Flame for high-level blacksmiths. Are my attributes enough to learn that? They might be. With Mass Executioner levelling and Field Medic giving me Spiritual Agility, I think it is worth a try.

  Then I realised the Astrologist class had also levelled. Mapping the stars was now giving very little toward the level; it seemed to be when I was experimenting with Cosmic Aura and light that levelled the class. That is interesting.

  I look around, and there is nowhere to practice it without setting everything on fire. I expect mistakes, and I can’t afford to give away our position by doing something stupid.

  I settle for practising Solar Bloom, as that is the direction I want to go anyway. I try to stretch the skill and adjust it to the different plants following my Plant Lore, which need more or less sunlight. That starts it levelling again.

  That brought my thoughts back to Goldie and her grumpy limericks, Yoboc and his way of bringing together the team, and, of course, my companion and helper, Felix. I missed them.

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