Adamant Blood

Mark stepped off of the hoverpad at Blackthorn's at 4 AM, along with all of his team, while Eliot remote-piloted the spiderbot hovercraft down into the garage. Tartu and his guys had been dropped off elsewhere. Blackthorn and his people were all still downstairs at their own party at Villain's Headquarters and they'd be there for a while, still. Mark did a small Union with Blackthorn, and Blackthorn gave a 'welcome back' sort of signal. He stayed down there, though. He had a party happening.

Soon Mark was yawning as he got out of the shower, wearing boxers and nothing else, and headed toward bed.

Isoko caught him outside of his room, saying, "Several things: Merchandising with Noel tomorrow afternoon, Eliot got a reply from Noel about the drone video of us dancing tonight and Noel wants it to be the credits scene, also Sergeant Hamburger's training is getting put off for a while. But mainly: Lola said a few things about healing training, and Titanfist has been talking to COFR and Badaira about speeding up his healing timetable. He's bedridden. Injured himself the other day. Set back everything by months."

Mark felt a chill. "Okay. So… No sleep for me tonight. I'm going to go out and see what I can do for Titanfist."

Isoko nodded. "Give me 20 minutes for a shower myself, and I'll join you and drive the hovercraft."

Mark paused. And then he smiled. He hadn't expected Isoko to go out with him, but… yeah. Mark said, "Sure. I'm gonna take a power nap, then. Wake me when you're ready."

"Sure sure."

Mark laid down in bed, put himself to sleep—

And then Isoko woke him up, saying, "It's been an hour. There's some breakfast if you want some, and Lola is coming, too."

Mark got up.

- -

Mark yawned a little as the hovercraft took off into the sky.

Isoko was driving up ahead, while Lola sat in the bucket seat across from Mark.

Mark was wearing his adamantium armor, but it had undergone a few apparently-easy revisions as he lived and worked inside of the adamantium scales. Mostly, it was 'softer'. Not actually softer. The adamantium still had a natural PL of 79, and more like 85 when he was casually using it with his PL 97 Shaper Kinesis. But they were smoother and less pointy… mostly. The scales around his ass and back and various other surfaces that touched other soft things all the time, like the seat Mark was sitting in, were sort of rounded right now.

The scales on his elbows, knees, thighs, chest, shoulders, and neck —basically any large, easily-struck-or-able-to-strike-back surface— were all much sharper. They were 'keeled' now, according to what Quark and some internet searches had turned up; they had ridges running down their centers.

Mark was not quite sure when all of this differentiation had happened with his scales, but it was easy, kinda, to make it happen more. With a bit of 'harsh thoughts', Mark's scales turned pointy. With 'soft thoughts', and not feeling in danger too much, his armor turned smoother. 'Smooth' did not mean 'does not bite into furniture', but it did mean 'doesn't destroy the furniture as fast as it could'. He could make an entire 'webweave' of smooth scales and wear it easily enough as he would wear normal webweave, as long as any given social situation was smooth-sailing.

… Maybe Lola would know why his adamantium was doing this, now, and Mark had to tell her about his Incorruptible Body anyway. One's Body Power had a major influence on how easy —or how impossible— it was for a person to heal others with Union.

Isoko didn't know, either.

Mark said, "So Lola, and Isoko. The night before last night I stepped into a scanner and it turns out my Body Power broke through from 'Health Body' to 'Incorruptible Body'."

Isoko scoffed. "A breakthrough! Congrats!"

Mark grinned. "Thanks. Do you think that will have much of an influence on healing others, Lola?"

Lola had been collected and calm, but now she was a little miffed. "… I am almost tempted to call off healing Ben Daucourt to explore what this shift in your astral body means, but you were likely healing others using your shifted Body Power for ten or so days, so the shift cannot be that large… I need a moment." She was mostly talking to give herself time to think, and to admonish Mark for running around with a breakthrough and acting like everything was normal, when it wasn't normal at all.

Isoko excitedly asked, "So how do you feel!"

Mark said, "Normal. I honestly didn't think anything was different at all until I stepped into that scanner. What is 'healthy' compared to 'incorruptible'? Not much of a difference, right? Eliot's breakthrough was more concerning— Oh shit. Did you step into a scanner yet? I only did it because Eliot wanted to check himself out."

Mark and Eliot did not go out to see a Hearthswellian priest the other day, when Eliot found out he had a 97 in Castellan and Mark found out his Healthy Body had become Incorruptible. Eliot had decided to put that off until they were back at the settlement, with High Paladin Azocar Sanchez, of Hearthswell, who was pretty much Eliot's mentor. They'd be back at the settlement soon enough, but they didn't know when, exactly.

"I did step into a scanner," Isoko said, feeling a tiny bit of quiet joy. "89 in every category, including Union."

"… 89? Wait. Holy shit?" Mark laughed in joy, once, then said, "That's fantasti— That's a lot higher than Platinum Body should go, right! You got Union overcapped?"

Unlike Mark, Isoko and most Union users had specific Unions that Freyala granted them when they Chose to become paladins. Normal paladins, like Isoko, were granted a 75 in Natural Union.

Isoko said, "77 is the usual cap for Platinum Body, and yeah, my Union was technically at 75, which is basic-paladin level, though my Natural was at 77. Not much of a difference. But now it's all at 89, and Union is still at 75, technically. I need to talk to a higher up about all of that, actually. I, uh, haven't gotten around to it, yet. Eliot told me he was going to wait till the settlement, with Azocar, and I was gonna do the same-ish."

Mark almost said something else—

But it seemed that Lola was ready to pounce.

"Do you wish to become an Inquisitor as well, Miss Kanno?" Lola asked, "Because there are lots I can teach both of you, if you desire it."

Isoko kinda grinned a little, as she turned and bowed in her seat, just briefly, because she was still driving. "I will have to think about that, but my initial thoughts are toward 'yes', Inquisitor Lola Turner. There is a lot I don't know about cultists, and that lack of knowledge likely cost lives in the Battle."

Lola nodded, giving her own little bow in her chair. "We shall discuss the particulars in private, then, if that is agreeable."

"It is, thank you." Isoko went back to driving.

Mark was kinda really happy to hear Isoko was going to do the Inquisitor-thing, too—

"Oh!" Mark asked, "Did Sally step into a scanner, too?"

"She did," Isoko said, "But she's all secrets until she stops holding it in and she's holding it in right now."

Mark frowned, sad to hear that Isoko had seen the same thing Mark was seeing. Sally was different from 2 years ago, back when they were both shorties growing up as neighbors and in Tutorial training together. Mark softly said, "She never used to be like that."

A quietude filled the spiderbot hovercraft.

And then Lola spoke, "You've all experienced a great deal of hard times recently. I would encourage both of you to run a Union of Good and Bad whenever you can, just to keep yourself and those around you on an even footing, so that the next time something big happens they —and you— are not weighed down by trauma. Also talking. Talk to each other, if you can. Talk to adults, if you can trust them. If you decide to become an Inquisitor through me, Miss Kanno, then know that I will always be available for talks of any nature at all." She said to Mark, "And that goes for you, as well, of course. With you choosing to become an Inquisitor, and I as your teacher, I will always be there for you, Mark, until the day I die."

Mark's heart swelled with a quiet, solid happiness. He smiled a little. "… Thank you."

Lola sniffled just a little, and then she nodded. She asked. "What is the PL of your Incorruptible Body at now?"

To business, then.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Mark supplied, "75 Power Level."

"Rather normal there," Lola said, "In that case, this lesson is for both of you, but at a much lesser rate for you, at this current time, Isoko. In the future it will be simple enough to cleave this lesson into your Platinum Body, though there is no way you will be allowed the use of the Union I am about to give Mark until you become a high level Inquisitor. You can still get use out of it, though, through sideways-understandings of Purity/Impurity, through imagining 'Impurity' as 'Corruption', which is the true form of Freyalan cleansing."

Oh, shit. She was gonna talk about the Key Word 'Corruption'.

Isoko and Mark were both attentive.

Lola said, "To start, Union is a Natural Power, and it works according to Natural understandings, so 'Corruption' can mean many things for many people, but for the purposes of our talk, it means soul damage or mutation or mutilation. Corruption can also refer to Wilding.

"Castellan Fire burns out Corruption, in a 'make a thing burn away' sort of way. This is the most normal way for Corruption to be purged; through Castellan Fire. Castellan Fire is the safest way to deal with Corruption, which is why they likely didn't teach you about Corruption, Isoko, and while I told Mark to never use that word at all… But now we're going to talk about that word.

"Union can draw out Corruption in a transfer of power, as Union does. For this reason, this makes the use of the word 'Corruption' by anyone other than a master of Union a very bad idea.

"Freyala keeps Unions involving 'Corruption' out of the hands of almost everyone, and the reasons for that should be obvious. A Union of 'Purity/Impurity' is sort of like a low level Union of 'Purity/Corruption', though, in that it does not touch damage to the soul, and does thus not allow Corruption to spread to another person, but it still helps clean out bad things, and it will be used when we heal Mister Ben Daucourt today.

"You can still heal minor soul damage, Isoko, if you do a Union of Purity/Impurity but think about healing the soul most of all.

"This is why you can use Purity/Impurity to heal Goblin Bite. The Goblin Bite is a matter of soul transformation and infection, and Cleansing cleans that away just fine. Purity/Corruption will heal Goblin Bite even better, though, but it is dangerous for reasons we'll go over.

"Mark doesn't have the limitations that you or I have, Isoko, which is why I warned Mark from ever using the word Corruption in any of his healing before now.

"I still warn you away from using 'Corruption', Mark, but with Incorruptible body… Yes, you can already see that the normal issues of 'Corruption' will not truly apply to you… or at least not in a long term sort of way, as long as you go slowly with such a Union. No braindancing. A Union of Heart should be fine, though.

"If you do a Union with Purity/Corruption you will experience a rather caustic sort of reaction, which usually resolves itself as deadly miasma.

"We'll go over that more in a bit.

"First, I want to talk about when you should use Purity/Corruption in a way that directly draws out the Corruption, which is the fastest way to heal someone, and which you might need to do eventually, versus putting both yourself and your target on the Purity side of the Union, and giving Corruption to the world. Giving Corruption to the world is actually a very dangerous thing, which is also something to go over later, after we've seen what happens when you do that.

"Basically, you, Mark, with your Incorruptible Body, should be able to be the receiver of Corruption in a Purity/Corruption Union, when the target has a PL in Body that is 50 points lower than yours, at least. In such a case any Corruption you draw out of them will crush against your astral body and flake away. An example use of such a methodology would be healing the Goblin Bite. As long as a person isn't fully transformed in whole, you should be able to rescue them from the Goblin Bite, and crush the Bite against your own Incorruptible Body.

"You will likely be able to rescue people who are even partially goblinized, too."

Mark's eyes were wide at that.

Lola continued, "Also, when it comes to children who have been Wilded, or mana touched, it would be relatively safe to draw the Corruption directly out of them. And yet, any child with Corruption in them is no longer automatically a low-PL. Do not assume someone that looks like a child is low-PL, especially because… Well. That is a much longer conversation, and it involves cuckoos and shapeshifters hiding out as children."

Mark and Isoko both jolted at that.

Lola nodded, and continued right on, saying, "Shapeshifters and cuckoos do happen but you never hear about it because we Inquisitors deal with it. As far as healing actual Corruption, mostly —95% of the time— you want to give Corruption to the world, because the world does a lot better at handling Corruption than the human soul. Also, with Eliot right there, he can simply burn the Corruption for power." Lola asked, "Any questions?"

Mark and Isoko had a few questions, but they got most of the lesson the first time. A Union of Purity/Corruption was a dangerous, yet powerful tool, for healing soul damage caused by malignant effects.

Soon, Lola asked, "I believe Grand Healer Badaira is waiting for our phone call, yes?"

Mark asked, "Quark? Is Badaira waiting already?"

Quark spoke so that everyone could hear, "Grand Healer Badaira is still in a meeting with another. COFR is saying we still have 15 minutes, still."

Lola nodded, and then asked, "Can you please ask your AI if they know of any good french bistros that serve breakfast with good croissants, Mark? I could do with a spot of breakfast, and Badaira always runs long."

Quark did know of several good places, and soon Isoko was pulling through a hovercraft drive through, and getting breakfast delivered by flying drone through a window of their hovercraft.

They sat down in a parking lot of a rather empty part of Memphi and discussed cleansing magics and Union and healing some more. Soon, Badaira was finally able to join the conversation via hologram, in a room of the hovercraft that Eliot had set up for such things, and they began to talk about the case of the day.

About the many problems of Ben Daucourt, of Titanfist.

Badaira was also all too happy to hear about Mark's new Body Power, and how he was going to go into the Inquisitors, but she was also angry. Mostly at Lola.

Badaira's hologram scowled at Lola as she said, "And 'Incorruptible', too!"

Lola smirked.

Badaira told Mark, "Forget the Inquisition. Go to medical college! Better yet, come back here and let me be your mentor. Together we can discover how to conquer death itself!"

Lola chuckled, though there was an edge to it. "No stealing protegees, please, Badaira."

The conversation moved back to talking about Titanfist.