Aimless Ascension

"Swallowed your vital energy?" Imani repeated, confused. "What? How?"

"I don't know," Doctor Phillips said. "I just drew a little energy to detect if anything was wrong with it, but before I could even detect anything, the mark swallowed the wisp of energy. If I hadn't cut the connection in time, I think it would have continued to swallow up my vital energy."

The doctor's phrase left everyone in the room dumbfounded, some in complete confusion, while some with pensive deductions. Unfortunately, none of them possessed enough knowledge to draw a conclusion.

And then there was me.

"Question," I asked, "What is vital energy again?"

That seemed to pull everyone from their contemplation as a few pairs of eyes locked on me. Nobody answered at first before Imani decided it was time to educate the poor fool about the things.

"It is exactly the thing you imagined," she said. "Basically, the fuel to most magical manifestation."

My eyes widened, and then a frown perked up on my brows. "Correct me if I'm wrong," I asked, "vital energy is the thing that magic runs on? Kind of like mana?"

Imani nodded her head. "That is as far as we are aware," she said. "Only Uncle Phillips among us has access to vital energy and that too in limited quantity. And no, he can't conjure fire out of nothing or anything magical other than treating a patient. That is too limited in his means. Vital energy isn't all-powerful, it can't heal a dying man or even heavy injuries in short time."

That I could guess seeing the health the doctor was in.

I was a bit let down by that, but I was still interested to know how the old doctor managed to gain the magic of this world. I turned my head towards the elderly man who seemed to be a bit aghast, with the whole thing about the mark swallowing his energy. And also perhaps the intensity in my eyes.

"So how did you manage to gain the magical energy, doc?" I asked and remembered to be polite. So I added: "If you don't mind me asking."

"I have had help," the doctor said. He didn't seem interested in carrying on with this topic.

Dismayed, I turned to the others and returned to the woman in the room. "You mentioned only the doctor has access to vital energy. Why is that?"

Imani simply pointed to the collar on her neck. "As long as you have this in your neck, all your efforts are futile," she said with deep resignation. "No matter how much help or diligence you're in your practice, you wouldn't be able to draw even a wisp of energy as long as this collar is still clutched to your neck."

"But the doc has one too."

"Thankfully, the collar in Uncle Phillips's neck is faulty. It doesn't restrict the transfer of vital energy," she said. "Still, we don't have the courage to remove the collar from his neck, just in case."

Apparently, your head would blow off if you tried to remove the collar forcefully. And not everyone could even try to remove it forcefully lest this become a good way to end your misery.

"Hmm," I hummed. "How do you know your collar is faulty, though?"

"There's a fat chance of another one being faulty as we stand now. The guards test them out before putting them in your neck. Unless through some miraculous happenstance, there won't be another case like Uncle Phillips among us. So don't let your hope run wild with this conjecture, Bard."

"What about that Joseph guy?" I couldn't help but ask, remembering the fella who showed some tricks on the very first day of my slavery. "He says he's one of the earthlings and could conjure fire out of nothing. How did he manage that?"

Imani exchanged looks with 196, whose real name I still didn't know. She sighed softly. "We don't know the exact details, but somehow he managed to get a favour from the ones in charge. He probably did some great work that helped them with something, and in favour, they helped him gain some power. That is our best guest."

If that is your best guess, then I must admit you guys are poor at imagining stuff. Of course, I didn't say that out loud, considering they were already going out of their way to help me. I was not an ungrateful bitch, even with my crooked tongue.

"He's here before you guys," I asked instead. "Do you know how many years he was here?"

"Not much," said 196. "A couple of years to even a few months at best. They only stopped with the summoning experiment after our batch. It seems they have started to continue yet again."

I, Cameron and the insane guy were the last batch that was summoned after two years of rest, as far as I was aware. Seems like there was something very specific they were trying to achieve with this summoning experiment, as they kept on going with it.

Well, I think this whole endeavour with the summoning business needs a lot of funds. They shouldn't be doing it simply to gain slaves. Well, after all, slaves were cheap, whereas summoning being from another dimension—creating a hole through time and space—was a risky business.

I wondered how much energy they needed to summon someone intact. Traversing time and space that should take a lot of energy and expertise.

I probably could never earn that much by working as a slave. Perhaps I have to unlock a new achievement to even think about it.

"So, what do we do with this mark?" I asked, taking a deep breath. "I recall. You people mentioned something like a fate mark?"

"That isn't it," the doctor said. "As far as I can tell. I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone can give you confirmation. That includes A'caen too."

Well, I think those men in dark robes could. The ones that summoned me here. I shivered just recalling their silhouette. Nope, not a chance I would ask them, even if I had the chance.

Imani nodded with a contemplative look. "I think it would be advisable that you hide the mark as much as you can," she said in a solemn tone. "Especially from the guards. You don't know what kind of things they would take an interest in."

I nodded. I hesitated for a few seconds to say something, but decided not to. I was just hesitating to know what would happen if they kept on feeding the mark with energy. But I couldn't ask that, not from the Oldman at the very least. He looked like he would die if he spent even a little energy.

Maybe next time.

"As for the injury?" I asked for the real reason we came.

"Let me check again," the elderly man said. "I was so startled by the mark that I forgot to check it properly."

The Oldman drew my palm again and continued on with his check-up. He put pressure on my palm to know the exact spot and also asked me to describe the pain. The doctor wasn't confident enough to draw his vital energy again to treat me again.

After checking for a few more minutes, the doctor was finally able to draw a conclusion.

"The bones in your left palm, it is rather fragile and has a lower density," he said. "I can't be absolutely sure, but I think the potion didn't heal your left arm much. It probably has to do with that spiral mark on your wrist. The mark likely absorbed most of the vital energy from the potion which is required to heal your palm, leaving your left palm rather weak compared with the rest of the body.

"With another injury to the sour point, it was like a nail in the coffin."

"But there was no spiral mark on my palm for the first week," I said. I was confident about that. I only noticed the mark after I bandaged it with the ragged cloth and that was after they hadn't fed me the potion.

"Perhaps the mark developed after absorbing the energy?" the assistant said, her tone was filled with uncertainty.

"We won't know it unless someone more knowledgeable tells us about it," the doctor said pessimistically. "Honesty, I barely know anything, just some bits of info I got from A'caen, piecing together to make sense."

"Imani," the assistant asked again, "shouldn't we discuss this with A'caen?"

A contemplative look appeared on Imani's face as she considered. After a few seconds, she shook her head under the watchful gazes of five pairs of eyes.

"Even if it turns out to be a fate mark, it won't change anything," the dark-skinned woman said at last. "Remember, the collar blocks all uses of vital energy, and fate marks are highly involved with vital energy. It changes nothing."

Her last phrase seemed to reverberate in my mind more than a couple of times. So it changes nothing, even if it turns out it was a fate mark. Wait, what was a fate mark again? I'm guessing it was something that gives magical power. I'm also guessing they would give me a better answer than that if I asked about it again, even if they know it.

Does the doctor have a fate that marks them like the guards? I considered, scanning the elderly man in the corner of my sight. Well, his hands were fair, albeit wrinkled to the point of necrosis. I couldn't detect much as most of his skin was hidden behind the thick clothes.