“I guess it’s possible to power up using primordial chaos,” Hector said.

  Evelyn pulled the handle of the slot machine. “That sounds promising.”

  “Well, it seems like it poisons the soul.”

  “Less promising.” She pulled the handle again.

  “Yeah. I guess it’s a maximum of five years until you drop dead.”

  “Let’s call that Pn B. No, Pn C. Pn B is going to be ‘do Pn A harder’. And the card is out of money. Can we be done with the casino now? This pce sucks.”

  Hector was so close to reaching level two after cultivating in the dive bar the previous night. A few more hours at the casino would probably be enough. “I suppose. Where to next?”

  “Rooftop bar?”

  “I really worry about your drinking, Evie.”

  “Uh, the end is nigh. I think hitting the sauce might be a little justified, thank you very much.”

  After they had reached their destination and were seated, Hector began pulling in energy and squinted at Evelyn. “What level are you at?”

  “Get your jaw up off the floor, my soul level is four.”

  “Were you trying to rap just then?”

  Evelyn winked at him. “Don’t tell all my groupies I betrayed metal like that.”

  “I know I’m going to hate the answer to this question, but how long did you do the ‘realization process’ to reach level four?”

  She opened her mouth to answer, then blinked a couple of times before frowning. “It’s not an apples to apples comparison, Hector. The realization process is about defining an identity and inhabiting it. Illusory energy… it’s not actually an illusion, but it isn’t exactly real, either. Arahants are different from the other varieties of human. We harness the force of existence. Not Star Wars ‘force’ stuff. More like… the tendency of things to be things. Does that make sense? I don’t think it fits into words the right way.

  “It’s about the world being perception. Our minds construct this eborate story out of what our senses report. Then we believe the story. Then we tell other people the story and they believe it. At some point, reality itself gets convinced because all the people are telling the same story. You can make a lot of weird stuff happen when you get to that point. Consensus reality! That’s the term.

  “Except it’s not just a metaphor for common experiences for Arahants. Get enough of my kind together thinking the same thing and all of a sudden that’s how things are. If we cp hard enough, Tinkerbell won’t die. It’s almost a power of belief kind of thing.”

  Hector rested his head in his hands. “You’re telling me you just have to believe you are powerful and it happens?”

  “I wish it was that simple. I have to carve myself a pce in the narrative of an entire world and permanently limit my future options. If you’re sloppy about it, you hit a roadblock in the realization process – you can’t advance because there’s no narrative space to grow into. And if your world cks the vibrancy to support your chosen path, then you get stuck, possibly forever. Then there’s the whole thing about illusory energy. We don’t actively suck it in like a Xian, but that doesn’t make it instant. It takes time for an Arahant to grow into the potential of their role.

  “I’m not sure I can advance much more on Earth. At least not with how things are right now. If everyone starts embracing the new possibilities, there might be a lot of room for me to grow in ten years. If Earth is still here in ten years.”

  The waitress arrived and Hector preempted any problems by pcing an order for two beers. Evelyn made a pouting face which he ignored. “How good is a level four Arahant in a fight?”

  “Worse than a level one Xian.” Confidence imbued Evelyn’s voice as she answered. “On Maya, it was generally accepted as true that an Arahant warrior below level six had no business traveling to other worlds. At the highest levels, an Arahant can warp reality like a god. But until they reach a critical mass, all they do is make illusions and mess with people’s minds.”

  “So you don’t think we should recruit Arahant into the campaign?”

  “We don’t have ten years for them to realize.”

  “Do you have any idea how long we do have?”

  “Like I said st time you asked, it doesn’t work like that. Monsters could rip a hole in the sky tomorrow or in six months. It’s sooner than years, but I can’t say by how much.”

  Hector grunted. “Well, what about Jinn? Their technology powers could be useful.”

  “Technology powers?” Evelyn scoffed at him. “Who is your dream guy that you don’t know anything about how the greater universe works?”

  He didn’t want to rehash Volithur’s shortcomings. “I read they use legal energy.”

  “The Arahants consider the Jinn to be their mirror image,” Evelyn said. “We each directly manipute reality, but do so in very different ways. The Jinn manipute probability. That’s the basis of everything they do. They put their finger on the scale of reality to get outcomes they prefer. It’s not as flexible as what an Arahant can do, nor as direct as what a Xian can do. They use technology because it fits well with their way of doing things.”

  “Then the question I have,” Hector said, “is can we use Jinn technology to fight the monsters?”

  “You don’t think the government is already enhancing the armed forces with Jinn tech?”

  “Right,” Hector muttered. He turned his concentration back to packing cosmic energy into his already filled soul. He had been on the verge of advancing all day. The anticipation had worn thin after many hours of ‘almost there’ passed.

  “I wish we had a more concrete pn than me getting stronger as fast as I can.”

  Evelyn slouched back in her seat. “I look into the future every day. Eventually, I have to see something useful.”

  The option of trying to channel primordial chaos increasingly seemed like it would be necessary. Hector tried to weigh the situation rationally. Die in about six months from horrible monster attacks? Or die in about five years when his soul crumbled? He did not want to die at all, but that might not be an option.

  At least if he powered up he would be going out on his own terms. Like his father had.

  Before his mood could sour, Hector felt the cosmic energy in his soul grow taut and knew he was right at the threshold. “Hold onto that thought, I’m about to advance,” he told Evelyn.

  She almost fell in her haste to lean across the table. “I want to watch.”

  Hector pumped his aura hard and forced in a sliver of cosmic energy. The familiar soul-quake temporarily disrupted his consciousness and Hector came back to himself feeling weak and empty. “See anything interesting?”

  “The walls of your soul grew denser,” she said. “Otherwise, I didn’t see anything.”

  “Well,” Hector said, “I’ve had all the cultivating I can handle for the moment.”

  Evelyn stared at the drink she had barely touched. “How long do you think it will take you to reach level three?”

  “Best case, I get there in about six weeks. Then I can start enhancing my body. It’s hard to say how my speed will compare to Volithur’s, but I can’t imagine that process being done before the six month deadline.”

  “I never said we had six months. It could start in five minutes.”

  “Evie, we have to assume there is time to prepare, because otherwise there are no meaningful actions we can take. Unless you want to risk talking to someone in authority?”

  “They either don’t take me seriously or they lock me up as a ‘strategic asset’. It won’t help things either way.” Evelyn gnced out at the city skyline through the rge windows. “Maybe Volithur can help you out.”

  “The main character from my dreams?”

  “Go home and sleep as much as you can. Get to the end of the dream to see if he knows anything that might be useful.”

  Hector nodded. He was tired from the te night, so he could do with a little more sleep. Whether Volithur could provide him worthwhile skills or knowledge was debatable. The boy was engaged in actions that could only be considered long term investments. Things Hector wouldn’t have time to properly implement.

  “Sounds like a pn,” he said.

  “I need to catch up on my work,” Evelyn muttered. “Just in case I need to pay my bills before the world ends.”