Apocalypse: Fairy System, Macronomicon [ebook offline .TXT] 📗

think would happen if we flipped the order? What if, without changing anything else, you were to increase the size of someone’s ball of Impact in the fifth dimension?”

Jeb considered it for a moment. If Impact was the measure of how much a person or thing could affect the future, then having more of it would mean they could affect the future more….

“They’d get more powerful?”

“Bam! Got it on the first try!” Smartass blew her little party-kazoo again. Wonk!

“So this ancient wizard thought to himself, ‘I wonder if I could forcibly move Impact from one creature to myself.’ That’s The System. Normally, when you kill something, their Impact unravels and dissipates into the environment of the fifth dimension in a fraction of a second. Some of it might stick to you, but probably not.

“With The System, though,” Smartass said, hovering inches from his face. “The System exists in the fifth dimension as well, and when someone with it installed kills something, The System takes the Impact that would have been unraveled and lost to the environment and adds it to the User in a convenient, structured way.

“And that, my friend, takes the forms of levels, Classes, and Abilities.”

“…I don’t have The System, though,” Jeb said. What good was telling him all this? It was neat, and interesting to think of, but ultimately useless to him. He’d been blacklisted from The System.

Smartass threw her head back and groaned. “Stick with me, okay?”

“Sure.”

“This next piece of knowledge I’m about to lay on you is much rarer and more valuable and absolutely taboo to spread to outsiders.”

“Okay.”

Smartass flew up into his face. “I need you to swear.”

“Swear what?”

“Swear that you won’t spread this knowledge by any means.”

Jeb eyed the fairy for a moment before raising his right hand. “I swear I will not spread the knowledge Smartass is about to impart on me by any means.”

Click. Jeb felt something shift inside him, locking into place.

“What the hell was that?”

“Good. Means it’s working,” Smartass said with a grin as she fluttered in quick barrel rolls of excitement.

“What just happened?”

“Something that very few people know is that individuals have different qualities to their Impact.”

“Yeah, but what just happened?” Jeb asked again.

“I’m getting to it. The Fate dimension has its own rules, and something akin to the laws of gravity, whereby certain balls of Impact can attract and consume others.”

“You’re not gonna tell me you just ate my Impact and I’m a trusting idiot, are you?” Jeb asked.

“No, shut up.” Smartass scowled at him. “Every thinking, deciding creature has the ability to naturally alter the quality of their Impact. You just got the ball rolling by not speaking any lies for a hundred days. The longer you can maintain that, the better off you’ll be. After flushing all the untruths out of your system, your Impact is now sticky, capable of stealing chunks of Impact and adding it to your own.”

“Like washing off a rubber sticky hand,” Jeb said, nodding.

Smartass stared at him for a moment. “…Sure.”

“Here’s something I don’t get: If any form of power is reflected in your Impact, why not just steal money, lie and sleaze your way to the top?”

“Well, you could, but that kind of Impact—money, status and possessions—are easy to strip away. Real power can’t be taken away from you. Our kind of power, anyway. Fairy power.”

“Explain.”

“Now that you are ‘sticky’ in the fifth dimension, people will start to rub off on you. No, not like that, shut up. I mean a little extra Impact will stick to you with every exchange of power and become absorbed by yours, adding to your intangibles.”

…..

The fuck is she going on about?

“Explain?”

“Deals! I’m talking about deals!” Smartass said with a sigh. “I swear, M&M-Lord, you’re the dumbest human I’ve ever taught this.”

“Also the only one, I imagine?” Jeb asked.

“Correct,” Smartass said, smiling.

“Impact is defined as a measure of potential influence on the future, understand?”

“Yeah. I got that part.”

“So what happens to a person if they enter into a disadvantageous bargain that benefits them little and costs them dearly? Say, paying someone to trim their lawn with all the money they possess?”

“Well, I imagine their Impact would shrink,” Jeb said.

“Not shrink, exactly,” Smartass said. “Shaved away. Taken by the one who benefitted from the bargain, the one who walked away with their money.”

“Take the money away from him, and the extra Impact is gone, though,” Jeb said with a shrug. “I’m not seeing where this is going, exactly.”

Smartass rolled her eyes. “When a fairy makes a Deal like that, a little bit of extra Impact sticks to them, increasing their intangible power, regardless of what happens to the money.”

“So fairies grow a little more powerful from each raw deal they successfully pull off?”

“Yes! Now you’re getting it!”

“And this behavior isn’t limited to fairies. Humans can do it, too. You simply have to never lie, and tempt people into Deals that are against their own interest—two behaviors that are diametrically opposed….”

Jeb frowned. “Is that why you’re a quarter inch taller since we met? Have you been siphoning my Impact away?” Jeb asked.

Smartass’s eyes darted off to the side.

“Well, I don’t need your help, so I guess—”

“Just the tiniest bit!” Smartass admitted, her eyes wild. “Your Fate is so tasty! And it’s only the amount of effort it takes you to find a single pound of sugar each month. That’s not so bad, right? It’s like donating blood once a month! That’s practically a steal by usual familiar rates!”

“How do you gain Impact from me giving you candy?” Jeb asked, frowning.

“You have to spend your time, effort and sometimes money on it—energy that could be used elsewhere to affect the course of the future.