The New Arrival's Guide to Common Things

by Jorbon Delivas

The canny being will be questioning, at this point, how enforcers are trained and where their legitimacy comes from. Particularly when considering the decentralized nature of the variable societies in the world. An excellent question which has several facets to its answer.

First, enforcers are always capable of defending themselves and disabling those in 'breach' - either of contract or law. No enforcer you ever meet or hear of will be incapable or weak. This is not to say every enforcer is monstrously powerful in a direct confrontation.

Many enforcers have subtler paths which provide them capabilities beyond a simple fight. Many have incredible investigative talents which allows them to track ne'er-do-wells across planets and, in the realms beyond the origin, across universes.

Another rather common example of an enforcer's path may be one dedicated to directly enforcing their particular responsibility. Some are empowered ten, or even a hundred, times beyond their base strength when acting to enforce a law or contract.

Peek enforcers generally follow a path which has mixed aspects of all three terrifying talents. Tracking, responsibility-based empowerment, and sheer martial might.

All this to say, the first criteria of any enforcer is extraordinary independent capability.

Willow

On Bedroll, Second Layer, Chimera M 63

Tattered edges of reality ripped and spun, odd and confusing, as Willow's mind bobbed up from the dream. Its tendrils maintained a slippery grip for the first few moments of wakefulness, feeding her a confusing mix of feelings and thoughts. She was failing, her friends hated her, all her abilities turned out to be delusions of grandeur she- … Blinked. The last vague memories fled, the cavern's ceiling some four meters up coming into sharp focus. Small animals, probably insects, skittered about in the shadows and crags of the uneven surface.

The last few days was blurry, nearly as dreamlike as… Whatever it was she'd woken from. The actual dream was gone entirely, whatever lingering snippets were too disordered to make sense of. The running battle was, at least, still solidly present within her mind's eye. Running into ambushes, despite Jonah's oversight ability. Taking many injuries, running on mana dregs, using her last vestiges to command Poli's shields to stay and make it to her bedroll.

Forcing herself to sit, she noticed Piper slide down to her lap without reacting. Apparently even the guide was knocked out cold. As she took stock, Willow found it odd to note the absolute lack of any pain or stiffness. Her skill, back into it had clearly continued working through the night. Willow sort of remembered turning on the passive mode for that exact purpose before passing out. Maybe. Looking around, the small plateau of dusty earth they'd waded onto just contained their group comfortably. Everyone had a bit of room to spread out.

Willow's lips twitched upward seeing some took that concept much further than others. Loivl was spread like a star, each limb just about as far from its opposite as possible. Given the minotauress' already impressive proportions, she was nearly touching each of her neighbor's.

Nearly brushing the woman's massive left hand, Jonah was sleeping on his side snoring very lightly. On her other side the usually-invisible Koll was sleeping in a tight ball, reminiscent of a pill bug. His ash gray skin seemed to be doing its best to blend with the environment even while the gremlin slept. It shifted between shades, matching shadows cast by the small lights setup around the perimeter.

Sighing softly, Willow carefully picked Piper up and set her on the edge of her own bedroll, then stood and begun to quietly stretch. She didn't want to wake anyone, but should be ready in case of trouble. It was honestly surprising someone had thought to setup the perimeter lights that Frella's group carried with them. Strike that, it's surprising Naomi even thought to interrogate Frella and the others about their capabilities while we were being hunted…

Remembering the many sudden and unexpected attacks from random corners, directly from above, and even a few instances of entire cave sections caving inward as they approached, Willow's stretching became just a bit more jerky and violent. Although from the outside it may have seemed as though they'd won each battle, Willow wasn't so sure.

The enemy had gotten a bit better at fighting each of them individually with each strike and had successfully retreated with fewer casualties each time. The last few fights had nearly been stalemates, with only a couple monster deaths to show for the fight. When Naomi asked Koll and Jonah to find a place they could defend to make camp, everyone had been skeptical but hadn't argued. Everyone knew things couldn't continue as they had been. The monster army might have recycled some combatants, but it was certain they were being refreshed. Meanwhile, Willow's entire party was dead on their feet. Even Naomi had seemed a little slower than usual, despite using energy sapped from their enemies to keep herself moving.

Speaking of… I should relieve her. Willow decided, standing from a low back-bend which helped loosen her spine and core. It only took a moment looking around to find where Naomi had stationed herself. She was sitting on a stala - ctite/gmite, the one that goes up from the ground - with its top edge sheered off flat. There was no sign of the cut off tip, so she assumed it'd been like that before Naomi made it her throne.

Making her way over, Willow couldn't help but admire the straight back almost regal way Naomi held herself. Sometimes she wondered why her friend acted so careful and dignified. She certainly hadn't acted like that when they first met. Then again, she also cried and experienced emotions for the most part… I still wonder why arriving made her emotions stronger than they were for her back on Earth and why they faded away again.

Not that it mattered overly much, but it was curious. Willow assumed Naomi acted all poised and such in order to solidify her position of leader, or maybe justify it. Or maybe this is just how she normally sits? That could be. They hadn't talked much about either of their childhoods, just small stories here and there. Maybe her parents had been super strict or something?

Deciding speculation was unnecessary and that she was close enough to be heard without her voice disturbing the others, she asked, "Were you trained to sit straight up like that somehow? Or is it just natural to you?"

Willow flashed Naomi a grin as her head turned to her. Naomi's smile was tinged with exhaustion, or maybe Willow was just projecting, but she answered without betraying any weariness in her voice, "When I was a little girl my parents sent me off to a 'polite ladies retreat' every summer. They taught us how to sit and stand straight, how to serve and sip tea, and other useless things." She looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing, "I rarely bothered to remember their lessons before though. I've found that falling back to those old lessons and teachings tend to make others look at me in a more serious light than they might have otherwise."

Nodding along, Willow sat on the small edge of stone protrusion left over from Naomi's seat and gently pushed. Her friend shifted a bit, making room for them both on the flat surface. Doing her best to mimic Naomi's perfect posture, Willow quickly realized it was a much more difficult kind of workout than she was used to. Maybe she'd add sitting still and straight to her dailies. Hah - as if!

"Was that before or after you got into the survival stuff?"

"Much earlier. That was before I had any choice in what my daily activities were. Before my final year of high school, my entire life was planned out for me. I followed a rigid schedule my mother put together for me. My brother too. We had 'play time' penciled in for two and two thirty on Saturdays." A nebulous smile floated on Naomi's lips. The expression wasn't one Willow was able to confidently parse. Somewhere between regret and reminiscence.

Her voice was hesitant as she replied, "That sounds… Pretty horrible?"

Naomi's soft huff was as unexpected as it was rare, "Yeah. Looking back, it wasn't a very good way to treat a young child. It was just how things were, though. I didn't really think about it. Sometimes I complained and cried to my mom about how unfair it was that I never got to visit or play with my friends outside of school… But she always just ignored me so I eventually stopped bothering to express any upset."

"Anyway," Naomi stood and offered another maybe-tired smile, "If you're good to keep watch for a bit, I'm going to get caught up on some sleep myself. I saw the orange barrier Poli left shiver about an hour ago and connected to one of the earth manipulating monsters with my mana. I took it's desire to get past the barrier and curiosity about what it was away and it left. Hopefully, lacking curiosity and desire to get through, it won't bother reporting back to whoever is in charge."

A slight frown crossed Naomi's face, "Have you seen Piper? I asked her to look for the attack's source and she ran into some trouble… She was… Wounded. She was supposed to wait to continue until you could check on her and maybe infuse some kind of regenerative ability into her."

"Oh? She's asleep on my bedroll. Seemed fine. When she wakes up I'll have a chat with her and make sure everything's fine."

Naomi nodded, then turned and headed off without another word. Willow watched with a little amusement as she scooped Piper up and fell onto Willow's mat, presumably falling asleep as quickly she herself had some time ago.

Checking her UICI she was surprised to find she'd been asleep for nearly eight hours. Her estimation of Naomi's willpower took a sharp leap upward. There was absolutely no chance Willow would have managed to stay awake while sitting and watching the entrance for eight hours in her previous state of exhaustion. Even with her back into it skill able to heal her back to perfect condition, her mind had been worn down to a point beyond being able to stay awake.

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Standing from the little throne of stone she'd shared with Naomi, Willow made her way across the shallow water back to the entrance. Unlike Naomi, she wasn't confident in being able to do anything to an enemy so far away.

Fortunately, this little bit of downtime was the perfect opportunity to work toward remedying that lack. The most obvious possible ranged weapon, at least in her opinion, was figuring out how to use imperative command remotely. She had a few ideas about how she could extend the spell's reach, but hadn't had time to test since it became a necessity.

Once she'd found a dry-ish spot near the cavern's entrance, Willow continued her earlier stretching while planning out her upcoming experimentation session. As she lifted a leg up toward her ear, she checked her mana levels. She promptly dropped her leg.

Her mana was extremely low. Both her instruction and discipline mana were less than a fourth full. That was… Not good. Willow had emptied her mana pools entirely before sleeping in the past, only to wake with them both filled to the brim. The lack was concerning in the extreme.

Could my body have been in a lot worse shape than expected? Was back into it draining my mana all night as it recharged? Or is it not recharging as fast as it normally does?

Feeling just a bit panicked, Willow entered her focus. This time, without using any mana. She fell back to the original form of the now magical ability, sharpening her mind and forcing distractions out. Taking the panic, she shoved it through her ability and… Her discipline mana regenerated, though more slowly than she thought it might have previously.

What is going on? She pushed every emotion and distracting thought into the ability. Her mana level begun to trickle upward, tick by tick. Soon, she reached half way. Relief washed through her and she channeled that in as well.

It took perhaps an hour of meditation for her discipline mana to reach capacity. When it did, Willow peeked within her soul nexus. She gasped at what she found. The small dojo room had expanded dramatically. There was now a dedicated little area setup for grappling practice, something she recognized from coach's own gym. The main floor was split into four entirely separate sparring mats, with twice as many training weapons on the racks. Another new area was walled off on two sides, with mirrors setup on each wall to allow her to check her form as she used the small collection of weights and resistance bands.

All of the equipment was an impossible mix of old and new. The dumbbells were solid chunks of iron, but each had a little nob on one end which allowed the user to select the exact amount of weight it should be. Free-standing resistance bands could be twisted into complex shapes, the rigidity and amount of resistance of any arbitrary length adjustable at will. Even the mirrors were weird and complex in their simplicity.

Performing a squat while holding two of the magic dumbbells , Willow concentrated on her lower left thigh as she felt a bit off balance. The mirrors shifted and twisted to show the exact part of her body she needed to examine. Finding a muscle bunched a bit too much, she relaxed it slightly. The position felt better, but she wanted to compare to verify. Even as she had the thought, the mirror split into two, the left side showing her left thigh while the right showed the same on her right. It only took a moment to balance the tension of both muscle groups, able to see them.

"Almost better than a personal trainer!" Willow cheered.

A snicker had Willow dropping the weights and spinning around, shocked that someone could invade her nexus! She found herself. Rather, a cartoony version of herself wearing a familiar black gi with a phoenix path on its shoulder.

The avatar's eyes were like literal chipped ice, lacking sclera or pupil. Her lips were an exaggeratedly lush and full red, while her hair was so full and shiny that the brown tone leaned toward amber as the light hit it. The cartoon version of herself didn't have much skin exposed, but the areas that were glistened and shone with an inner glow, the deep caramel color of her own skin brightened to something like dark gold.

"Whoa, you're pretty!" Willow blurted, eyes wide.

Her counterpart snickered, "Self serving compliment much?"

"I don't look like you."

"Sure you do! I'm just an exaggerated version of yourself. The essence of Willow, as it were."

Half way through considering that, Willow realized something way more important. "You can TALK?!"

The avatar's bright white teeth quite literally sparkled as she grinned, "I sure can! Finally! You brute forced my advancement a bit." She raised a perfectly manicured finger and waggled it under Willow's nose, "Shortcuts aren't our path, stop channeling massive amounts of raw potential into your insights." The Willow caricature's voice was severe, her face suddenly full of inky black lines expressing anger and disappointment in equal measure.

"Uhhh… I didn't know I was doing that." Willow admitted. Thinking back, at some point she'd stopped consciously choosing what to do with the potentia gained from each of her kills. She'd just kind of pushed it into herself without much thought. Apparently, that had caused at least some of it to go into her insights? At least according to her alter self.

"I'll… Try not to do that in the future, I guess. Why's it bad? Also, we need a name for you. I can't just keep thinking of you as 'cartoon me' or 'my avatar' and so on."

"Agreed! Gimmie a name!" The figure's face transformed from a sharp lined and detailed illustration, to something more akin to a chibi. Bright blue stars replaced the eye-shaped chips of glacial blue. She hopped from foot to foot in excitement, glitter-like sparkles wafted off the exuberant woman like steam from a hot surface.

Willow ignored her antics and spent a few moments thinking. Finally she decided, "How about Hazel?"

"Hm? Why?" The chibi softness faded back to the previous illustrator-like drawn representation of Willow.

"Well, you represent my 'instruction' mana, right?"

"Right."

"And Hazel trees are often related to knowledge and wisdom. I want my instruction to be well informed and wise. Thus, you should be those things."

"Wow!" Hazel's eyes widened in apparent shock, "I didn't realize you had it in you to think so deeply!"

"Shut it. You're me, still. You think just as puddle-shallow as me."

Both versions of Willow fell to snickering.

"Anyway! Thank you for the name. I think it's appropriate and it shows surprising insight into the next steps of your path."

"My path? It does?" She blinked, "Erh, I mean, yes! Of course! I'm full of insights!"

Smiling indulgently, Hazel explained, "I'm a representation of instruction, so part of my job is to instruct you. I don't think most beings get such a cheat, so be mindful for my greatness!" Her chin raised, nose growing ridiculously sharp, as a beam of light fell from who-knew-where to illuminate the woman's smug expression.

"Nice!" Willow couldn't even bring herself to make fun, that actually sounded fantastic. "So you can tell me how to get stronger really fast? Oh! Can you help me with a ranged attack?"

"No to the first, yes to the second!." The back-to-normal Hazel answered brightly. "I don't actually know more than you, per say. I'm just much more in touch with the more… Spiritual… Part of your soul and the world itself. I can give you advice, tell you what's working and what's not working, and help build your soul nexus in a direction that will fit with your desires."

Hazel lifted a finger, "So I can't tell you any more than you already know about the advancement steps and requirements than you already know. I can reframe some of those things and also help you develop your capabilities, though. And I can also make sure that the way you do things is correct. For example, if you give me permission I can forcibly restrict raw potentia which tries to enhance anything that it shouldn't. I can also make sure when you're training you don't forget important things."

With the last, Hazel waved and the nearest mirror shimmered and shifted into a moving picture. A picture of the barrier and the entrance behind it that Willow had been responsible for watching. A responsibility she'd… Well, she hadn't forgotten, but she'd been swept up in all these unexpected changes to her soul nexus and hadn't paid as much attention to it as she should have. It'd probably only been like five minutes, anyway. No way anything could have changed.

As if reading her mind, Hazel told her dryly, "You've been playing around in here for almost an hour."

Oops.

"Uhhh… Thanks for the magic mirror!" Willow swiftly moved on, though she did carefully keep an eye on the mirror which showed her eye's point of view. "I know I said I would try not to send more raw potentia into the insights since you got mad but… Why?"

"Good question! Because enhancing insights artificially will cause them to develop in ways you don't expect, and potentially won't understand. If your insight grows beyond your ability to comprehend, it will break. You'll lose it entirely and will need to restart from square one."

That sounded exceptionally unpleasant. "Why? Doesn't my achievement protect me from soul damage?" The last she added in the slight hope that she had a cheat which would let her rocket past every other being and-

"No. It protects you from external soul modifications. You funneling potentia into your insights is a choice you're making. You are perfectly capable of messing up your own soul. Think of it like having a lid on a pot of gumbo. Nothing's gonna get in there that you don't allow, but that doesn't help you at all if you take the lid off and throw in way too much salt."

"I miss gumbo."

"Me too."

The two stared at each other, taking a moment of silence to mourn their lack of soul food for the last many months.

Once their mourning was complete, they got to business.

The next few hours were spent chatting with Hazel about anything and everything soul nexus and path related. It quickly became apparent the enhanced avatar was invaluable. While she didn't know anything about the outside milestones and concepts behind advancement, she was by far the most knowledgeable - or maybe just open - being she'd had the pleasure to talk to about the actual specifics of how to advance and improve.

For example, Hazel had explained that the potentia added to her insights and their related mana had been split equally and each had their purview expanded. Instruction had expanded to include self-instruction and teaching. Aka, Hazel. Discipline had expanded to encompass introspection and monitoring. The idea that one had to know oneself in order to be disciplined. The concept wasn't alien and so Willow found it a simple thing to accept and agree with the changes.

Finally, purpose had expanded to include the concept of planning. That one had been more difficult. Mostly because Willow was still not entirely certain about how the purpose mana itself worked, really. That had been another thing Hazel helped with. She helped split what Willow would have thought of as a hair between instruction and purpose.

"Here's how each of your mana aspects differ. First, your discipline mana. It's all about enforcement. It's a demand, a kind of domination through will, expectation, repetition, and habit. Your instruction mana is all about explaining the mechanics, translating intention, ensuring your vision of both what and how something is done is followed. You already knew these, of course."

She took a deep breath.

"On to your purpose mana. You're pretty much just being dense in not having figured it out, honestly. It's literally there to give things purpose. Why. You have how and what with instruction mana, you have a way to enact or demand that the thing is done with your discipline mana. Now with purpose mana you can give a reason, an end-goal or objective. If you get clever you can probably even do things with just the purpose mana. Though, so far you've proven a distinct lack of cleverness that makes me worried about my own mental capabilities."

Willow had started scowling halfway through the insulting explanation, but waited until the end to growl at her soul nexus counterpart. "Done insulting me?"

"Not yet! Uh… You… You're also bad at flirting!"

The glare turned to a flush and Willow decided to just concede defeat this one time. "Anyway, let's talk about how to use purpose mana beyond just enhancing Piper… And my ranged attack."

Willow and Hazel had moved to the library for the comfort of chairs. As they worked together over the next hours, Willow kept half an eye on a hanging television she'd willed into existence showing the outside world. Hazel's method of using an object inside the soul nexus was way easier than splitting her concentration fully. She'd continue practicing that later, but for now all she needed was to keep basic watch as they worked.

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