“This stuff is a bit more potent,” he said, “so it should get past that poison resistance of yours. It’s also horrifyingly sweet, the way you like it.”
“Thanks.”
He took a sip, nodding appreciatively, at the taste.
Poison [Plime Fruit Liqueur] has inflicted [Alcohol] on you.
You have resisted [Alcohol].
[Alcohol] does not take effect.
You have gained an instance of [Resistant].
Jason sighed.
“No?” Jory asked.
“No. Tastes good, though.”
“That’s not what booze is for,” Jory said, pouring himself something amber from the second bottle. “You look kind of tired. I thought feeding on the sick freshened you up. Which is still creepy, by the way.”
“I’m not tired,” Jason said. “Or creepy. Weary, maybe. That woman had cancer, and I just took it away like it was never there.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Of course it is. But back where I come from we don’t have essences. Or alchemy, for that matter, although we have something similar, I guess. We just call it pharmacology.”
“You don’t talk about where you’re from, much,” Jory said. “I remember you said there wasn’t a lot of magic. No monsters, right?”
“Never even heard of a monster surge until I came here.”
“That’d be nice,” Jory said. “Like most things, the poor take the brunt of a monster surge. What happens when people get sick in your homeland?”
“We have medicine,” Jason said, “but without magic it has limits. Recovery can take a long time, and a lot of the options are bad. Take cancer, for example. Now I can just suck it out of people, but back home it isn’t that easy. They slice people open, try and cut it out of them. Poison them and hope the cancer dies before they do.”
“That sounds barbaric.”
“We don’t have better options. I think about what I could do with the power I have now. All the people I could help.”
“Are you going back?”
“If I can,” Jason said. “Home is very far away, and I have no idea how to get there.”
“How did you get here? You said something about a magical accident?”
“A summoning spell went awry. It reached into my magically desolate home and plucked me right out of it. That’s how I met Rufus, Gary and Farrah. I got dumped right into the middle of their mess.”
“Have you tried the goddess of knowledge?” Jory asked. “If anyone knows the way home, she does. There’s no guarantee she’ll tell you, but anyone can go to her temple and ask questions.”
“I don’t know,” Jason said. “I’m not really the religious type.”
“Even if there might be a way home?” Jory asked. “What will it cost you to try?”
“That’s the sort of question someone asks right before they bury you in debt.”
Jory laughed. “That’s fair. But give it some thought.”
“I will,” Jason said. “Thanks.”
“I can’t believe you hid it from me,” Belinda said.
“It’s not a big deal,” Sophie said. “I had gloves on.”
“Heat goes through gloves. Your hand is the wrong colour.”
“It does feel a bit weird.”
They went through the door of the Broadstreet Clinic to find the receptionist packing up to go.
“Didn’t this place used to be full of people?” Belinda said. “I remember coming in here of an evening and was still packed to the door.”
Janice looked up at the pair.
“Since Mr Asano started coming, we get through everyone quicker,” she explained, “even with all the extra people.”
“Why are there extra people?” Belinda asked.
“We just need some healing unguent,” Sophie said.
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Janice said. “I’ll go see if Mr Tillman is available.”
After a few moments they heard a voice loud with drink.
“Janice, why are you still here?”
“I wanted to finish up the records before I went home,” they heard Janice reply as she led Jory out from the back. His unsteady gait and expression of general bewilderment said he was well on his way through a bottle.
“I should pay you more,” Jory told his receptionist.
“You just started paying me more, sir.”
“Yeah? Good on me, then.”
He looked up at the two women.
“Ladies!” Jory greeted. “It’s been a while. Hello, Lindy. What brings you to my door?”
“Sophie’s fighting again,” Belinda said.
“Well, that’s no good,” Jory said.
“It is what it is,” Sophie said.
“Then I suppose I’ll be seeing more of you,” Jory said, beaming at Belinda. “That’s nice.”
“We just need some ointment,” Sophie said.
“Here,” a voice said.
A tin sailed through the air, Sophie reaching out to catch it. The man who threw it was human, but neither woman recognised his ethnicity, so he was unlikely to be local. His frame was narrow and his features were a little too sharp to be handsome. His dark hair had a silkiness to it, but it was hard to see cropped short as he had it.
“That’s not one of mine,” Jory said to the man. “Where did you get that?”
“From a monster,” the man said.
“You can’t just give random monster goo to two beautiful women.”
“It’s healing ointment. I’ve used a lot of it myself.”
“Sounds sketchy to me,” Jory said. “Janice, find me a jar of the good ointment.”
Sophie pulled the lid off the tin and sniffed at the contents.
“It’s fine,” she said, putting the lid back on. “What do we owe you?”
“On the house,” the man said. “It lets Janice go home instead of updating the inventory.”
Sophie nodded and walked out the door.
“Soph, wait…” Belinda said. “And she’s gone. Bye, Jory. Thanks, person I don’t know.”
“Bye, Belinda!” Jory called out with a wave as the door closed behind them.
45
So Much For Atheism
Jason had not explored many of the Island’s districts. He took the loop to one he had never visited before: the temple district. His new world had no shortage of gods, which as a long-time atheist was more than a little disconcerting. He had been assured that gods existed, but he’d been hearing much the same from his Great Aunt Marjory for years. He wanted to see for himself.
Walking out of the loop terminal, he immediately saw a sign with directions to the Divine Square. Following it, he walked down a street where temples lined both sides of the road. Looking at the prominent signs and banners, Jason quickly gained a sense that gods had hierarchies of their own. The Temple of Roads, he saw, was nestled behind the larger and more impressive Temple of Journeys.
Soon the street opened up onto the square itself. It was a huge, crowded space. Green stone was prominent everywhere in the Island, but in the Divine Square even the flagstones were made from high-grade material. The square was filled with booths and tents, most of which seemed to be hawking religious paraphernalia to the faithful.
“Kind of the same, wherever you go,” Jason mused to himself.
There were people proselytizing to anyone who would listen, and street thieves cutting purses. Jason had originally kept a small pouch of coins hanging from his waist so he didn’t draw attention by plucking coins out of thin air. After the second time it was stolen in as many days, he stopped bothering. Even if using his inventory drew attention, there were enough people with similar abilities around that it wasn’t a lot.
Jason bought a sandwich from a street vendor, some kind of meat with cheese and a spicy sauce. Food was one of the ways in which Jason was most reminded he was on a different world. While the preparation was often similar, like bread, soup, sandwiches or cake, the ingredients were more often different than the same. Farms raised different animals and grew different crops. Trees sprouted different fruit. The bread was heavier than he was used to, the beer lighter. The meat was all different. Most of it came from the large lizards Jason had seen roaming in the delta. Even the crossovers, like apples, were not varieties he recognised.