Chapter 56 – Field Experience
It was only a few minutes into the walk, and Maxim had already attached himself to their group with the cheerful permanence of a barnacle.
I’d forgotten how much of a social butterfly he was.
“Why are you following us, anyway?” Orestis interrupted before he could start up a new conversation. “Go back to lazing outside the temple.”
Maxim glanced at him. “That’s not very productive, is it?”
“If it was a question of productivity, what were you doing there in the first place?”
Eleuthera helpfully said, “Lyse had him kicked out of her temple because he was hitting on her priestesses.”
Why does that not surprise me.
Orestis looked at Maxim with disdain. Maxim looked back with the expression of a man who had no intention of being embarrassed about it.
“Useless,” Orestis declared.
“Had to pass the time somehow,” Maxim shrugged. “I figured you’d show up eventually, like always. Never thought it would be as a human, though.” He eyed Orestis, brows furrowing. “What’s that about?”
Orestis scowled. That was not something he wanted to talk about here. “Long story,” he said, then changed the subject. “Why are you still chasing women, anyway? You can’t feel anything—you admitted as much.”
“Yes, my biggest problem,” Maxim said. “I’m sure the curse must have a weakness. Maybe I just haven’t found the right approach yet. If I keep trying new things, I’m sure I’ll eventually find something that works.”
Orestis stared at Maxim with pity. The poor idiot had no idea. Orestis considered leaving Maxim in the dark—letting him cling to that hopeful delusion.
Yes, he’d be happier if he never knows the truth.
… So, naturally, I should tell him.
“Pain and pleasure are signals that the body uses to translate how it feels about what is happening to it. Pain means something is a threat, and should be avoided. Pleasure means the body needs it, and would like more.”
Orestis made sure Maxim was listening carefully before he continued. “Food, water, rest, procreation—these are all things that would normally trigger pleasure signals. However, the curse has made your body immortal. It is threatened by nothing, and it needs nothing.” He grinned and finished with: “Which means, no matter what you try—or how—you will never feel any kind of pleasure. From anything.”
The silence stretched. Maxim’s face slowly changed, taking on the expression of a man who had been handed the most devastating news of his life.
“No,” Maxim said finally. “No, you can’t be right. I just need to try harder—experiment with new positions!”
Denial. Orestis was quite familiar with that too.
Looks much better on his face, he thought. Ah, I feel so much lighter already.
Orestis allowed himself to enjoy it for a few moments more. Unfortunately, there were things to discuss.
“Speaking of experiments—how did you learn to control the regression point?” he asked.
“It’s not something I learned,” Maxim replied, already moving past the shock. Which was expected—no one became a hero with a fragile mind. Orestis was lucky to get what he did.
And I’ll savour the memory forever, he thought with a satisfied smile.
“When I first got the blessing, it automatically set the regression point to sunset of the previous day. Then, one time, I died just after sunset. I was stuck there for months, repeating the same stretch…”
Maxim trailed off for a moment, then continued. “My mind broke eventually. Next thing I knew, I woke up on my tenth birthday. At first, I remembered nothing. The memories came back slowly, over the years. And when they did… I just knew how to. It was like breathing.”
“You triggered a failsafe in the original curse.” Orestis nodded, processing everything. It made sense.
But it’s not a method I can use, since I always wake up safe in my bed. Actually, it probably wouldn’t work even if I could use it.
He had already tried breaking his own mind without success. Orestis sighed.
Unfortunate.
“Let me ask you something,” Maxim said. “How did you convince a god to bless you? I saw what you were doing during our fight.”
“I’m not blessed by anyone. I’m stealing the power.”
“Borrowing,” Eleuthera corrected from the side.
Maxim looked between the two of them. “How?”
“Terrible security.” Orestis said. “I just circumvent and take what I need without any of them being the wiser.”
Suddenly filled with righteous indignation, he said, “You better not be stealing from My Goddess!”
“Don’t worry. It’s impossible to steal from her.”
Maxim pointed an accusatory finger. “So you did try!”
“Obviously. I was curious to see how well she’d secured her reservoirs.” Orestis thought back to when he tested it. “Lyse had contingencies for her contingencies. It was genuinely impressive.”
“Lyse does nothing by half measures,” Eleuthera agreed.
“That’s true. Comparing her to the other gods…” Orestis shook his head and scoffed. “Yeah, there’s no comparison. She’s the only one among them worthy of respect.”
Eleuthera immediately turned. “What? What about me!”
Orestis gave her a sideways glance. “You’re somewhere between annoying and terrifying.”
She brightened immediately. “Terrifying, huh? I’ll take it.”
That wasn’t a compliment, though.
He didn’t bother to elaborate.
***
The Low Market operated out of a courtyard behind a fishmonger’s warehouse near the lower docks—accessible, unremarkable, and entirely invisible to anyone who didn’t know what the inverted triangle drawn in the grime near the entrance meant.
It’s convenient that the sign did not change over the years. Would have wasted time if I had to ask someone about the details.
Inside, it was less a market and more a gathering of people with nowhere better to be, and things to trade that weren’t welcome elsewhere. Information moved here the same way goods did everywhere else—through networks of obligation and mutual interest, at prices that weren’t always monetary.
The information about Kallistrate’s soldiers spread quickly. Eirene moved through the crowd, working with the quiet efficiency Orestis had come to expect from her. He followed suit, asking around and inserting details where they would take hold. Between them, by the time they were finished, the problem had been planted in enough ears that it would travel on its own.
Maxim listened to all of it. He asked fewer questions than expected, but he did consult Eleuthera on some points. By the end, the hero had the full shape of everything: the soldiers, their condition, as well as the Saintess who didn’t know yet that she’d be needed.
“I’ll help,” Maxim said simply.
Eirene glanced at Orestis.
Orestis looked at Maxim. Then said, “Fine.”
“Really?” Eleuthera asked, surprised. Eirene looked as though she had been expecting it.
“Yes,” Orestis replied. He’d already thought about this. “He’s already involved. Might as well make him useful.”
Maxim nodded. “Yes. It’s a worthy cause.”
“And,” Orestis added, “when we find the Saintess, she can use his immortal body to run aura experiments. It will cut down on a lot of research time.”
Maxim nodded. “Yes. That’s a good idea.”
“His uselessly good-looking face is also inherently trustworthy—it would be useful somewhere.”
Maxim nodded. “Yes. I understand you’re jealous.”
Orestis gave him a flat stare while Eleuthera laughed.
“If nothing else, as a Chosen, he’s decent camouflage,” Orestis said.
“He can’t leverage his Chosen status,” Eleuthera pointed out. “Lyse has blocked his access, remember?”
Orestis raised an eyebrow. “He can always use my method to borrow another god’s power.”
This time, Maxim raised a hand and said, “No. I won’t draw from any god except My Goddess.” Then he added, “So you should help me convince her.”
Orestis ignored him.
Eirene glanced between them. “Weren’t you two at odds? Aren’t you worried he might attack you?”
“Why would I?” Maxim asked. “There’s no point. I can’t die; and if I kill him, he’d just regress—which would only make him annoyed and likely to retaliate against innocents to get back at me. And then, I’d have to go and kill him again, just to bring those innocents back to life.
“After that, in order to stop him from killing more innocents in the interim, I’d have to find out exactly when and where he regresses and make my way there while also tracking him down and killing him each time. And then, when I finally get there, I’d have to spend months killing him over and over, just as he regresses, until his mind eventually breaks.
“But even that will be a temporary measure, since his mind will heal eventually. At that point, I’d have to do everything all over again. And would likely have to repeat that forever. I’d rather skip that part.”
When he was done, Eleuthera started clapping, her expression bright with exaggerated admiration.
Orestis gave him an unamused glare. “If only you’d put that imagination of yours to better use, back when it mattered.”
***
They returned to Orthessa late.
Maxim departed with the cheerful certainty that they’d see each other soon, which Orestis did not dignify with a response.
Eirene found an alley that was out of the way of traffic and opened a gate against the wall.
Eleuthera lingered a moment around the gate. Then, just as it closed, she sent a telepathic message: How’s your search for Eirene’s gift going? I’m sure you’ve already found something that puts mine to shame.
And then the gate closed.
She had timed it perfectly so that he could not even retort. Of course she did.
No doubt Eleuthera was still watching. But he could not say anything out loud—Eirene’s aura-enhanced senses were already sharp enough that she would hear the softest of whispers.
Besides, it was not nearly as satisfying when he couldn’t see her face—and Eleuthera would know that.
Annoying goddess. Just got lucky with a stray cat.
Eirene had gone off to make tea—something of a habit of hers, having a cup every evening.
Orestis joined her at the kitchen table. He knew she would not ask anything on her own. And he did promise to tell her things as they came up naturally.
Well, calling today’s events ‘natural’ would be a stretch.
When she settled into the chair across from him, cup in hand, he said, “Do you have any questions?”
Eirene smiled. Then moved straight to the question. “Your original curse—the one Maxim has now. The loss of pain and pleasure. How does it work, exactly?”
Orestis leaned back, thinking of how best to explain it. Then, very deliberately, he ran his hand over the table surface. “When I do this, I can feel everything that functions as sensory input. Texture. Temperature. Moisture. Even with the curse, that wouldn’t change; I would experience the exact same things.”
He paused, then used divine power to bring over a glass of water. He drank it. “Same here. I feel the glass. The water. Everything.”
He set it down.
“The difference is that, now, I also experience the response; the satisfaction. Before, I could not. Under the curse, the body registers stimuli, but assigns no value to them. No pain or pleasure. Just information.”
Eirene seemed to absorb that. She nodded. “I understand. What about the mind?”
“That’s where things get interesting.” Orestis thought back to all of the experiments and research he’d conducted in order to determine everything.
“The self is divided into the mind, the body, and the soul. The immortality curse affects the body and the soul, making both imperishable. But it leaves the mind alone—which is a problem. The mind requires stimulation. It needs things to mean something. And over time, without the reward signal, everything becomes...” He looked for the right word. “Flat.”
“And so, you decided you wanted to die,” Eirene said. A statement; not a question. And yet, she was waiting for an answer.
He did not reply immediately.
When did I decide that it was better to die? That there was no point or meaning to life?
“I ran out of things to care about,” he said eventually. “There was no single moment or event that led to the decision. It was a calculation I kept running, which always returned the same answer. At some point, the ledger simply stopped balancing. Continuing required a reason, and there was none.”
Eirene had a look on her face like she found his answer unacceptable—difficult to process. Then she said, “Do you think the loss of your parents had anything to do with your decision?”
Orestis scoffed, somewhat amused. “It wasn’t the loss of my parents. If anything, that event is evidence that my mind was still capable of attachment. And fury. I was still… doing things for a few centuries afterwards.”
Although, off the top of his head, he couldn’t really remember anything of significance that happened during that period. It was just… hollow.
“But you do remember their deaths,” Eirene said. “Clearly enough to act on them a thousand years later. Which means your mind held onto that even when everything else went flat.”
Orestis went quiet for a moment at that observation. He hadn't necessarily framed it to himself quite that way before.
It… does make sense in a way. It had happened early enough in my life—and it had been traumatic enough—that it is not completely outside the realm of possibility.
That particular observation was filed away before it could become anything inconvenient. “Yes. Well. I suppose it does not really matter now that I have the regression curse.”
“How does that one work,” Eirene said, moving on without pressing.
Orestis smiled wryly. “No matter how I die, I wake up in bed on my tenth birthday. No exceptions. Actually, it’s somewhat interesting—I’ve theorised that this curse affects the mind and the soul, leaving the body alone—which is why only my memories and skills returned to the past.”
“Then how does that explain why Maxim is here physically?”
“Oh. That. His curse will not allow the body or the soul to perish, so his body must have been dragged back along with his mind and soul.”
Then Orestis frowned.
Extrapolating from the fact that he is regressing with me, it would mean that either my mind or soul is somehow connected to that idiot. Or both.
What an unpleasant thought.
Fortunately, he has agreed to be a guinea pig for the Saintess. I can use that time to slide in some experiments of my own.
Eirene interrupted his ruminations. “Orestis?”
“Hm?”
“The shrines where your curses originated. One was here, and the other was on the central continent. One curse affects body and soul, and the other affects the mind and soul. Do you think there is a shrine on the demon continent that would affect the body and mind?”
Orestis smiled. “That does seem logical, doesn’t it?”
He had theorised the same. But searching for a tiny shrine on that huge continent was something very low on his list.
She nodded without comment, then said, “I’m worried about Maxim. Do you think he can really be trusted?”
He huffed, amused. “Despite everything, yes. Maxim is fundamentally a good person. He has the mentality of a typical hero—which is one of the reasons why Lyse chose him in the first place.”
Eirene nodded, accepting his evaluation. She also did not ask anything more regarding the day’s events. Eventually, she finished her tea, bid him goodnight, and went upstairs.
Orestis stayed where he was. Because there was still the problem of Eirene’s birthday gift.
His results so far were underwhelming: the only thing he’d been able to come up with was improving Eirene’s mana strings—refining it into an actual spell, making it viable in actual combat. The work was technically interesting. He’d already sketched out the framework.
But it would never beat a mauthet. He knew that. Eleuthera was giving her a shadow kitten that ate darkness and teleported through its own shade, and he was going to hand her an upgraded tether spell.
That’s not a gift. That’s a training tool with a ribbon on it.
Unacceptable!
He sighed, leaned back, and stared at the ceiling. He needed to come up with something better. Or Eleuthera would gloat about it for the next two centuries—never mind that he would not even be alive by then.
Suddenly, he sat up straight.
Wait… what if I ask the idiot?
Maxim spent enough time chasing women. Presumably, that would mean he gave them things occasionally.
It was a deeply undignified conclusion, asking for that idiot’s help. He was aware of that.
But Maxim has at least three and a half centuries of active field experience. And questionable but apparently functional social instincts. He might actually be useful here.
It was better than letting Eleuthera win. And since Eirene should be asleep now…
Orestis drew on some divine power and teleported back to Nomyra.
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