Chương 68: 66 - The Tsukar People

Emily tried to follow them upstairs, and Jonny noticed Igrette looking mildly distressed as she tried to come up with a reason not to let her. Fortunately, Haley seemed to notice as well, and called her back.

"Emily, you need to help me with putting the food away."

"But Mom!"

"Now!"

"Ughh!" said Emily, turning around and stomping off toward the kitchen. Igrette shot the redhead woman a grateful look, then turned to follow Oliver up the staircase, Jonny right on her heels.

"Oliver," said Igrette as they entered the room upstairs.

"Thank you for what you did down there."

"Hmm," said Oliver, closing and locking the door before rushing over to a desk in the far corner. The room was more or less exactly what Jonny expected from an obsessive researcher. It wasn't totally messy, but it was extremely chaotic. There was a bed in one corner, a desk in another, and every single other inch of wall space was covered in bookshelves. The desk was large, and covered in papers and books stacked multiple feet high in some places, but the center was mostly clear, with only a few papers and quills.

Oliver shoved all of them aside except for a single quill and an inkwell, then he grabbed a small stack of blank papers from one of the desk drawers. He set them on the desk beside the ink well, taking great care in making sure they were perfectly aligned with the bottom edge of the desk, then headed over to a bookshelf and looked for something while muttering to himself.

"I'm sure you're wondering how I got here, and what happened a few years ago," continued Igrette.

"We can talk about that later," said Oliver, waving a hand dismissively.

"Where is it…?" He rummaged through the shelf, then switched to the next one, then the next, running his fingers along the books of each shelf until he finally stopped on a particular tome on the top shelf.

"Aha!" He pulled it out, and though it almost looked normal-sized in his massive hands, it was easily the biggest book Jonny had ever seen. It was probably the size of his torso in height and width, and it was at least three inches thick. It made the math textbooks he used to use in high school look like middle grade fantasy books. Oliver opened it, flipping through a few seemingly random pages with a manic half-smile on his face.

After half a minute or so, he finally reached whatever he was looking for, evidenced by his smile widening. He opened the book wider, then walked over to set it open on his bed. Jonny and Igrette watched in silence as he went around the room, grabbing a dozen different books, sometimes setting them on the bed with the first, and other times shaking his head and muttering in disappointment before putting them back.

Jonny was immensely curious, and really wanted to walk over to the bed and see whatever was in the books, but he was worried about getting trampled with how Oliver was moving. And Igrette hadn't moved yet either, so he decided to wait until she decided it was time. Finally, after almost five minutes, Oliver had nine books flipped open laying on his bed, and after double checking all of them, he turned to Jonny with a wide smile on his face.

"Alright, come here, Jonny." Without waiting for a response, he turned back toward the bed, kneeling down and pulling two pillows out from under the bed. As Jonny nervously approached, he set them out beside the bed, then patted one while looking at Jonny.

"Have a seat here."

"Oliver–" started Igrette.

"Later," he said, waving her off again.

"You can't bring a magical miracle like this to me and then expect me to focus on anything else, can you? Let me at least take a look before we talk business. Jonny, have a seat. Don't be shy. I want to get a closer look at your mana." Jonny glanced back at Igrette, who looked slightly annoyed, but she nodded to him, so he kept going. He sat down on the pillow that Oliver had set out for him, and then let Oliver turn him so he was facing the desk.

Jonny felt some mana move behind him, then flinched as a ghostly hand floated past his shoulder and grabbed the quill, dipping it in ink. At the same moment, he felt Oliver's hands suddenly settle onto his shoulder, and more mana tendrils extended into his body. The tendrils quickly snaked through his entire body, extending to the tips of his fingers and toes, and up into his head, but this inspection only took a minute, and after that, they retracted and settled in around his lungs and mana core.

The whole time, Oliver was muttering incomprehensibly, and the mana hand was writing on the blank paper, periodically dipping into the inkwell before continuing. One page was filled up quickly, and the hand set it aside, immediately starting another. The tendrils in Jonny's body were constantly moving, but he had no idea what they were doing. They seemed to be especially interested in his lungs, so he did what he thought was best, cycling and condensing his mana slightly so he could inhale more.

He was basically already full on mana, so there was no better way to show Oliver the way he inhaled mana, which he assumed was what the man was so interested in. Oliver's muttering seemed to get more excited as he did this, and the tendrils got more active, so Jonny assumed he had done something right, and kept going. In the months since descending from the mountain, he had not actually improved that much.

His heart was stronger, and he was able to move the mana a bit more quickly than before, but it was clear he still had a long way to go before he would be able to reach the third layer. It was still much better than before, though, and he felt a sense of smug pride at Oliver's fascination with it. It took about ten more minutes before Oliver was satisfied with whatever he was doing and retracted his tendrils. Jonny thought it was over at that point, but instead, he found himself suddenly picked up and spun around.

Oliver set him gently back on the pillow, and stared into his eyes.

"Tell me everything," he said.

"How this happened, what you were doing, how it felt… I want every single detail. Don't leave anything out." Jonny told Oliver the story of the duel with Tommy where it had happened, trying to give as much detail as possible. It was nowhere near enough detail for Oliver. Oliver was stopping him almost every sentence to ask questions, sometimes for clarification, and sometimes for context. The timeline bounced all over the place, as Oliver kept jumping backward to ask about past events.

"How did you come up with that original breathing method?"

"When did you start training your body?"

"Why?"

"How did you know you weren't going to be using your core?" This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Did anyone tell you to do any of this?"

"How did it feel?" The questions were endless, and the interrogation went on for well over an hour. Emily showed up at some point, and at first, she tried to listen, but soon grew bored and started looking through the bookshelves for something. Igrette sat patiently next to him the whole time, answer the few questions that Oliver directed at her, and helping Jonny clarify some things he wasn't explaining well. Near the end, Haley arrived to call Emily out, as it was bedtime.

The interrogation paused as Emily whined that they hadn't even done anything yet, but her mother did not budge, and soon, it was just the three of them alone in the room again. Eventually, Jonny finally managed to get near the end of the story of the development of his condition, bringing Oliver up to speed with the most recent changes.

"... but then I tried to fight a bear, and my heart rate got really high. Like, crazy high. I passed out immediately after, and later we messed around with it, and Igr– uh, Iggy said it was because my heart isn't strong enough to keep up with my mana, so we came to you. We thought that maybe it would kinda like my lungs, and that maybe you'd know something about it."

"Hmm, I see," said Oliver.

"Have you tried another mana surge?" Jonny stared at him, then looked over at Igrette, who had her hand on her face.

"…No?" said Jonny, turning back to Oliver.

"Isn't it too dangerous?" Oliver blinked.

"Oh yes. You're right."

"Yeah… So that's why we came to you. Do you know anything about… all that?"

"Hmmmm," said Oliver, stroking his beard.

"I might. I don't know exactly how to fix the issue. However!" Oliver leapt to his feet, gesturing for Jonny to do the same, then went to his bed, where all the open books were all still laid out.

"My research all revolves around one central theory," said Oliver.

"I believe that the term 'Null Syndrome' is a misnomer. A very frustrating one. It makes it sound like there's something wrong with people who have it, when in reality, there's nothing wrong with them at all. They are not missing something. They are simply different.

"People with so-called 'Null Syndrome' are actually descended from the ancient Tsukar people who were all the same way, but they were not considered weak or disabled. No, in fact, they were a very strong people, with an empire stretching further then even the High Ferian empire ever did. It has been thousands of years since then, but remnants of their civilization still remain, and if you know what to look for, you can see the clues.

"Many people believe that Tsukar was a nation of mages, but if you look at the archaeological evidence, there is actually no proof of them ever using magic. The stones that made up their houses were carved, not shaped. Their ancient battle sites have no remnants of battle spells. Many researchers believe that they simply were not powerful enough to leave such remnants, but if that were the case, how did they ever slay the dragon whose bones are buried beneath Dragon Mound?

"No, the Tsukar were not mages, but they were not 'Null' either. They were a unique group of people with a unique way of growing in power, and I intend to uncover those secrets. I will discover how the Tsukar became as powerful as they did, and I will help their descendants understand what they were meant to be." He reached toward the first huge tome he grabbed, pointing to the open page. Jonny looked at it, seeing a drawing that looked almost photographic.

It showed a partially broken stone wall with a person sitting cross-legged. It was clearly ancient, and the style looked kinda similar to ancient Egyptian stuff. Jonny stared at it in confusion for a second, then noticed where Oliver's fingers were pointing. There were lines going from the air around the seated person into their nostrils.

"There are many records of the Tsukar people having a focus on breathing." He stepped to the side, pointing to another book, showing a replica of a different carving. The person was dressed differently, but they were sitting in the same pose, and once again, there were lines of either air or mana going into their nose.

"Other scholars thought it represented the way that they meditated to form their cores, since in a few of them–" He pointed to another book "–they were clearly shown sitting on top of mana wells." Jonny looked closer, and the picture in this book had the same pose and breathing, but the person was now sitting atop a stone circle.

"However, if the Tsukar people were all Null, this didn't make sense. Why would they be sitting on mana wells and meditating if they couldn't absorb mana? I knew that there was something about it. I've had Emily meditating on the local mana well for the past year, and she says she likes it, so I knew I was on the right track. A mana surge in the lungs…" He stroked his beard a few more times.

"There has to be a safer way. It doesn't make sense for that to be the only way. And I couldn't make Emily try that… There has to be a way to do it naturally. And likely the same for your heart. But how…?" He stood in silent contemplation for a few seconds, then grabbed one of the books off the bed, flipping through it at random before setting it down in frustration.

"I'll need to do more research. This changes everything. I think I've been going about it all wrong. Now that I know what the lungs are supposed to be like…" He stroked his beard for a bit longer, then spun on his heel to face Igrette.

"I need to study him. For a long time."

"We had assumed as much," she said.

"But there are a few things we need to discuss before we finalize any plans." She nodded toward the empty sleeve where her left arm had once been, and Oliver glanced down, as if only just then noticing it.

"Your arm? Am I misremembering, or did you always have only one of them? Is it related to why you're going by Ignacia?"

"No, this is recent," she said.

"And yes, it is related to that. Did you hear anything about me in the past few years?"

"I heard something about you dying, but clearly that's false. I was disappointed because you had reached out about this boy already, but I didn't look much more into it. I was dealing with my own issues at the time."

"I understand," said Igrette.

"But if we're going to stay here, I need you to understand how important it is that our presence here remains completely secret. Unless you want inquisitors showing up on the doorstep."

"Inquisitors?! What did you do?"

"Nothing. The church believes Jonny is a demon."

"That's–" Oliver sputtered.

"That's absurd! Did they even bother to check? He's clearly not a demon!"

"No," said Igrette.

"They just sent a High Inquisitor. Hence, this." She gestured toward her missing arm.

"They sent a High Inquisitor without bothering to check? And you fought them?! Wait, are you the reason that High Inquisitor died??"

"We fought a Holy Duel, but the church claims it was an ambush. Fortunately, they think that we died in the mountains, but if they find out we didn't…" Oliver massaged his temples for a few seconds, then sighed.

"Alright," he said.

"This is fine, actually. They think you're dead, and there's no way they would bother to look way out here. As long as you don't do anything to call attention to yourselves, you should be fine."

"That's the hope. But we'll have to remain Ignacia and John."

"What's his real name?"

"Jonathan."

"That's… Okay, nevermind. This is fine. We can handle this. You'll stay here as Iggy and Jonny, living quietly while I continue my research… and that's it."

"That's it," agreed Igrette, nodding.

"Okay, good," said Oliver before taking a deep breath.

"We should be fine then. Although… no, nevermind. I'll get things sorted with Haley and Alden for you. I was serious about paying for your stay. I have more money than I can spend, and this is the very thing I've worked my entire life toward, so don't you dare try to deny me that."

"We won't," said Igrette.

"We're happy to live off your generosity."

"Excellent," he said, rubbing his hands together.

"Uhhhh…" He looked over at the books on his bed, then his desk, then at one of the bookshelves.

"My research might take a while," he said.

"So you two… settle in, I suppose?"

"We will," said Igrette.

"And don't worry. We have plenty to keep us busy."

"We do?" asked Jonny.

"Yes," she said with a small smile.

"You didn't think you had nothing left to learn, did you? Just because you can't push for third layer right now doesn't mean you can't do anything else. In fact, this delay could be a blessing in disguise, since it will give us time to work on yet another project that I haven't had time to bring up."

"What project?"

"We need to get you a proper shieldbreaker."