Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Vigor Sickness

Or Marrow can cause all sorts of problems, Nay thought, as she remembered what Nom said after they consumed The Frog Leg Marrow of the Mewlipped Tode.

They were in the middle of dinner service when Nay collapsed, almost smashing her head against the edge of a table. She lay there, dizzy and lethargic, as a blinking red light filled her vision.

---

[Error Message]

[Error: Marrow Ability Detected at Base Rank]

[All Marrow Abilities Require Minimum of Iron Rank]

[Not Enough Vigor To Sustain Abilities]

[Please report to a DMA Agent]

---

Nay swiped the error message away and another replaced it.

---

[Error Message]

[Worldtripper Anomaly Detected]

[Please report to a DMA Agent]

---

She closed her eyes, and the imprint of the flashing red light and text prompts lingered on the inside of her eyelids. It was making her head pound.

“Fuck,” Nay said, groaning. She turned onto her side and curled up in the fetal position. “Make it stop.” She directed that at the mysterious quest giver who communicated to her through the HUD, whoever or whatever it may be. It was a plea. “Please make it stop.”

There was commotion around her and she cracked her eyes open to see Nom looking down at her, holding a raw cut of tomahawk steak in one of his protuberances. “Chef down! Chef down!” Nom said. “Little help over here! Are you okay? What happened?”

“I…fell...” Nay said.

“I can see that. Did you trip or something?”

Nay ground her teeth. She felt nauseous. She didn’t have the strength to explain that she had been using her new Chef’s Thermometer ability to cook half a dozen tomahawk steaks to rare perfection, when everything felt wrong all of a sudden and went felt light-headed. At first she thought she was having a stroke, because her head didn’t feel right. But that’s when her HUD went haywire and she collapsed.

She finally managed to say, “Get…Quincy.”

She glanced at Nom who was gesturing at Gracie. She took one look at Nay and heard her request and she disappeared through the double-doors.

“I’ll be fine,” Nay said. Her voice a whisper. “Just…my blood pressure…take over…the kitchen…”

And she lost consciousness.

/////////

When Nay woke up, she was in her room and Quincy was in there, studying a map he had rolled out on a table. When he saw that she was awake, he rolled up the map. He walked over to her and picked up a cup of water from her night stand. “Drink.”

She drank some of the water. It was still cool and refreshing.

Next he handed her the other cup there. This one was full of some kind of juice. “This will help you pep up.”

She drank the juice. From the taste and coloration she knew it was citrine juice, which came from a citrus fruit that grew in the cold climate. It was like the cross between an orange and a lemon. The sugar would be good for her blood. “Thanks, I don’t know what came over me. One second I was fine, the next –“

“You consumed another Marrow, didn’t you?”

Nay was quiet for a moment. She looked at him, not denying it. “How did you know?”

“You collapsed from Vigor Sickness. I can tell.”

“What’s Vigor Sickness?”

“It’s when you exhaust your vigor because you’re pushing yourself beyond your limits. You have all the signs.”

Nay processed this. “Remember how I told you about the magical words I see?”

Quincy nodded.

“Well.” She sat up in the bed. “It was warning me that something was wrong. It said I was supposed to be Iron Rank to be able to use Marrow Abilities. That there would be side-effects if I kept using them.”

Quincy pulled on one end of his mustache. He murmured something, staring into the distance. Then his eyes re-focused. He had just decided something.

“We have to cultivate your vigor,” Quincy said.

“What?”

“You have to get your vigor to Iron Rank. Especially if you want to keep using your abilities. If you keep consuming Marrows without advancing your rank, you’re going to kill yourself.”

“And how am I supposed to do that?”

“Quickly.”

/////////

Nay had instructed Nom through everything. He was to be in charge of the kitchen while she was gone, and Bryja was going to be de facto bartender in Quincy’s place.

“Where are you going that requires you being away for several days?” Nom said.

“I’m not sure where exactly,” Nay said. “He says we’re going to meet someone who can help me cultivate to Iron Rank.”

Nom’s eye glinted in excitement. “Cultivation…I see!”

“There were cultivators on your world?”

“Many. I served one, well, my host served one who had attained godhood. He was supposedly immortal, and had surpassed diamond rank eons before I was even spawned.”

“Diamond rank? I didn’t think it went above Gold.”

“There were a lot of old and powerful beings in my world. I suspect there’s no peak of cultivation. Just your own personal limits.”

He seemed to be more exuberant than usual.

“Why are you so happy?”

“Two reasons. One, it was only a matter of time before you became a cultivator. Two, I can visit the House of Sacharine Delights and you won’t be here to judge me.”

/////////

Before they left the Lodge, they met Bruennig at the stable. The stable master procured Al, Quincy’s old fauglir, and for Nay, he had retrieved a young female fauglir.

“I don’t know how to ride these things!” Nay said.

“Then you better learn because we sure as nether hell ain’t walking,” Quincy said. “Also, she’s not a thing. She’s a fauglir and her name is Juniper.”

Juniper nuzzled her large snout against Nay’s shoulder. Her nostrils flared as she took in her scent, then she licked Nay’s face with a sandpaper tongue. The animal smelled of clove and fresh pine. “Alright, alright there,” Nay said. “Juniper it is.”

Before they left Lucerna’s End, Quincy gave Nay a quick lesson in fauglir riding in front of the Lodge. This included showing Nay how to put on Juniper’s saddle.

“Now lay the skirt across her back,” Quincy said. “See this underneath the seat? That’s called the skirt. Yep, lay it across her back just like that.”

Then he pointed at a strap. “That’s the billet.”

Nay grabbed it. “This?”

“Yep. Now bring it underneath her, and slide the end of it through that buckle on the other side. Make it snug, but not too snug. There you go.”

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Nay examined the saddle on the fauglir. “Now what?”

“Now you grab the horn in the front, put your foot in the straddle, and pull yourself up.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“It is once you get used to it.”

He demonstrated for her on Al. Even though Quincy was a large man, he swung onto the fauglir with grace.

Nay, unsure, grabbed the horn with both hands and put her food in the straddle. Then she yanked herself up, swinging onto the saddle belly first. Juniper let out an annoyed yip.

There was a clumsy moment where Nay had to pull herself up by the horn and off her belly to properly straddle the beast. Juniper snorted, finally content.

“Now, grab the reins,” Quincy said. “Pull back on them when you want her to slow down. To make her go faster, give her a little tap with your feet.”

“That doesn’t hurt her?”

“Not unless you’re looking to hurt her. Believe me, a fauglir will let you know when you’re hurting them. Now, here’s the key. Relax your body. The more uptight you feel, the more she’s going to pick up on that. So take a few deep breaths and clear your mind. Be relaxed, and she’ll be relaxed. Got it?”

“You say that like I wasn’t on anti-anxiety meds half my life.”

“Just, whatever you do, don’t panic. The last thing you want is a panicked fauglir. You’re mood is her mood.”

He tapped Al with his heel and the fauglir started walking down the road. Nay did the same with Juniper, and she had to steady herself when her fauglir followed Al.

She got used to her gait. It was like being atop a wolf the size of a mule, and somehow it had the stride of both. It moved with the loping stride of a wolf, and the steadfastness of a mule. She carried Nay through the mud with a steady trot.

“I’m doing it,” Nay said. “I’m riding a giant wolf thing!”

“Fauglir,” Quincy said.

“I’m riding a fauglir!”

/////////

They headed North out of the valley and followed a wagon road Quincy said was called Twelve Trail, because it once led to Twelve Stones, a town near an ancient meeting place of Stitchdale’s frost giants.

The town itself had sunk into the mud during the Nether Thaw, an event where several clans did battle with a Nether Being and their under realm horde. The Nether Being had summoned nether fire which resulted in the permafrost melting on the battlefield, flooding the area.

Quincy mentioned this was all a long time ago, before the clans of men and the survivors of Paleforge had joined and produced the stitchmen.

The Twelve Trail was built as a trading route between Lucerna’s End and Twelve Stones, but now it was rarely used except for the few travelers who headed north each year, which was few.

Even further beyond the sunken town of Twelve Stones was the icy wasteland of the Caraxe Strait, a shifting mass of broken ice that led to the Norwaith Sea.

“Are you going to tell me whom we’re headed to?” Nay said.

“We’re going to find Caer Ilyawraith.”

“Who’s that?”

“The Wraith of the Moving Ice, former leader of the Banshee Sect. I believe she has a cultivation technique that will help boost you to Iron Rank in a short amount of time.”

“Is that cheating?”

“No. It would take you a while to advance your vigor the way you have been. Which is semi-blindly. There are certain sects who have developed effective techniques for rapidly accelerating the process without loss of purity. It’s not cheating, it’s more that they’re secrets. Each sect protects their own knowledge. Of course some techniques can be quicker, but sacrifice purity of vigor. Meaning the cultivator’s abilities aren’t as strong as they could be.”

“Sounds like sacrificing quality for quantity, in a way.”

“Quality for speed, perhaps.”

“What makes you think this person is going to help us?”

“Because she owes me a favor.”

/////////

At mid-day, they had stopped by a frozen stream to feed and water the fauglir, and also themselves. Quincy cracked the sheet of ice over the stream so Al and Juniper could drink.

Nay had brought some carnitas burritos she had made earlier. Since her and Nom came up with the recipe together, they called them Nay & Nom Carnitas Bombs.

They were imbued with Strength, Stamina and Dexterity Buffs to aid with the travelling. She shared half of hers with Juniper and she watched as the Buff Icons appeared over Juniper’s head. The fauglir had curled up at Nay’s feet and was happily eating.

She gave a whole one both to Quincy and Al, since she figured Quincy would want a burrito all to his self. She was right. As he ate the whole thing and fed the separate one to Al.

The Buffs would perhaps double their speed of travel, if at least make traveling through the cold and harsh land more bearable.

"Is it wise for us to leave Lucerna's End?" Nay said.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Quincy said.

"What if, I dunno, there's another attack?"

"Then let's hope it doesn't happen until we get back."

Nay frowned.

Quincy picked up on her mood. "You're not telling me something."

"I have reason to believe that the Nether Sister isn't dead."

"Oh? And what reason would that be?"

"Magical text again," Nay pointed at her head. "It's still in my log of quests."

"Doesn't change our plans. We still need to get you to Iron."

"But --"

"If she's still alive, she's going to attack you and I. Not just the town. She'll want revenge. So more reason for you to be Iron."

The ground beneath them shook and snow fell off the branches of the nearby trees. The fauglir stood up, alarmed, but Quincy was unfazed, chewing on his burrito.

“Easy, easy,” Quincy said. “It’s just a frost giant. Far away at that.”

“Frost giant?” Nay said.

Quincy produced a retractable bronze spyglass and extended it. He stood and thumbed one of those gnomish agate stones on the side and peered through it. He turned in an arc, slowly sweeping the spyglass across the landscape until finally pausing. “Aha!” he said.

He handed her the spyglass. When she looked through it, in the direction he pointed, she was surprised by two things.

One, the visual clarity was like viewing a high-quality camera feed. The spyglass was enhanced in some way by the agate stone. Quincy would later explain these were aptly named vigor stones. Why? They were imbued with vigor.

Two, the blue-hued giant humanoid loping across the landscape in the distance. A monolith in motion. The wind was blowing through its mangy white beard. She zoomed in and could see shards of ice and frozen birds stuck in the hair. The eyes of the frost giant were an ocean blue and seemed full of sentience.

“Should we be concerned?”

“No, we’re upwind of it. Plus it’s really far away. Now, if we were downwind and it was hungry? Different story.”

Nay watched the giant disappear into the frost and mist, a dark enormous shadow fading into the horizon.

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