Chapter 23: Chapter 22

Hecatolite and Amethyst sat in silence after sending the message, neither knowing what to say to the other or how to tell if the message was delivered to anyone. Amethyst watched in curiosity as the featureless blackened soul seemed to lose interest and began muttering to herself.

The strange colorful lines on Hecatolite seemed to pulse as she turned her face to Amethyst. She noticed that the only features on the soul were its bright glowing white eyes, aside from that there was nothing else. No mouth, it was as if someone was wearing a skintight bodysuit.

How can she talk if she doesn’t have a mouth? She ran her hand over her head, I have hair, just as she does, and fingers. But no mouth? Can she read my thoughts? No, I can’t read hers and we were talking. She continued to watch Hecatolite as she thought. She seems so different from me, her soul looks… broken… like its pieces being held together. She remembered a broken vase they once had at home, one that Alexa and her quickly mended with some sealing paste after a magic incident. The vase though whole had jagged lines on it that clearly outlined where the cracks had been. And that strange humming when she held me earlier… I don’t think anyone could make that sound; it was so… strange. 

“So, I am thinking, even if it’s only for a few days maybe you should try driving the body for a bit. I’m sure Taaffeite and Alistair will be happy to see you.” The sound came from Hecatolite, even from her head if Amethyst had to guess, but there was no indication of a mouth or movement as the sound came.

Her voice… it's strange. It was subtle but if Amethyst listened closely, she could hear a very faint echo as Hecatolite spoke, it was barely a whisper of another voice just behind hers. 

“You… you aren’t human, are you?” Amethyst asked meekly, catching Hecatolite off guard.

There was a long pause. Just as Hecatolite went to speak, a screen appeared before her, causing her to jump and lash out at the screen running her claws through it causing it to flicker and fall to the floor with a loud thud.

“Oops...” She said poking the screen with a hand sized hole in it as it began to dissolve into mist like smoke. “Inutil what’s with this terminal?”

With its customary thunderclap Inutil appeared. “You had sent a message to someone with the world voice skill, that was their reply.”

“Oh yea, well out with it what do they know about… stuff?” Hecatolite brandished her claws at the Inutil terminal in a treating manner.

Did she forget we were waiting for a reply? Amethyst thought. Is… Is she that easily distracted?

They watched as the Babylon screen flashed yellow before a reply was displayed.

“Reply from Siofra. Hello Hecatolite Lapidary, it is a pleasure to meet you. To answer your questions, I am very well versed in both soul magic as well as the gods, however, I did not know Valor was a goat. I will be sure to spread the word, it would be a shame if people were to continue to misrepresent a god in such a fashion. As for your other question I regret to inform you that it would be very difficult if not impossible for two souls to share one body. Both souls would constantly be struggling for dominance over the other with the more powerful one absorbing the energy of the weaker. With that in mind, one cannot “eat” a soul, a soul is in simple terms, just pure energy. One could absorb that energy but the soul itself would be left behind for reincarnation.”

Amethyst nearly lost consciousness when she read the message, anyone would recognize that name. “its… its… its…” she stammered but couldn’t seem to get the words out.

Hecatolite could hear her sister struggling to say something and proceeded to activate her new skill, her soul emitting a low hum as she walked over and hugged her. “It’s all right, don’t worry I will take care of it.” She gently rubbed her back, being careful of her claws. 

Amethyst simply nodded, there was no way Hecatolite actually contacted a god, right? It must just be a person named after the goddess, that’s not too uncommon right?

Siofra… sounds elven. Elves are good with soul magic I think… all the soul magic books were in elvish. Hecatolite thought as she turned to the screen. How much should I share? This is a lot easier if I could see the person, then I could look at their soul, that normally lets me know if I can trust them or not. “Is… is there any way for us to see one another?” Hecatolite asked, sending the message to Siofra.

This time the reply was almost instant. “Reply from Siofra. That would also be difficult. It is possible for me to see you however, if you are on this planet I can, let’s say use a spell to see you.”

“On the planet? We aren’t on the planet, we are in Amethyst void space. Couldn’t I use the same magic to see you.” 

“Hecatolite,” Amethyst called out shakily as Babylon turned a multitude of colors. “This might be a bad idea.” She couldn’t help but be concerned, there was a very slim chance that with the voice of the world someone could in fact contact a god.

“There is a two-way scrying spell that uses mirrors as a medium. It can be recreated using a terminal as a medium. This spell requires two people of considerable power to fuel it from both ends and given the distance between Siofra and Hecatolite it would require a considerable amount of aether to perform.”

“How much is a considerable amount?” Hecatolite patted her sister's head to reassure her. “I don’t exactly have a lot of aether to throw around right now do I?”

“You currently have 2/5th of your power at your disposal, if you wished to use this spell for an estimated 50 minutes it would use 1/5th of your total aether. This would also add another day to your recovery time.”

“Perfect, Amethyst gets another day and I get to see if this person is trustworthy. It’s a win win. Let’s do it, Inutil send Siofra the spell… and show it to me too.”

Before Amethyst could protest any further Hecatolite had separated from her and began inspecting a complex spell that appeared on the terminal.

“Wow this looks a lot like the dumb box enchantments. No wonder it takes a lot of power… can we add this to all the Babylon terminals? Taaffeite would like that.”

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“That would be possible, but impractical. The amount of power to utilize this spell would be overly taxing on the Babylon system and it would make summoning the terminals much more difficult. That with the added draw on the user’s mana pool would be very wearing on anyone aside from Hecatolite lapidary given the fundamental difference in aether and mana.” 

“You keep saying that but what is it? They are both just magic power?”

“Aether and mana are structurally the same, however, aether is a much denser form of “magical energy”.  it is more condensed and as such more powerful. If two people were to cast the same spell, one with aether and the other with mana, the spell fueled by aether would be more effective, cause more destruction, and be less taxing on the user’s energy stores.”

“So, they are the same, just aether is better?” Hecatolite asked, running a claw through her hair. “Then wouldn’t it be better if people just learned to use aether instead?”

“The average soul is not strong enough to house aether, the difference in power would tear the soul apart.”

“Couldn’t they just, you know, adapt to it. Slowly, like building up a… a little at a time?” Hecatolite found herself at a loss for the word but was able to convey the thought.

Hecatolite didn’t notice that Babylon had started displaying a different language, the transition was seamless as her own words transitioned to match the words displayed.

What? She just started speaking gibberish. Amethyst thought as she watched, this went on for minutes as Hecatolite went back and forth with Babylon. Every so often Hecatolite would hiss and swipe at the screen before Babylon flashed yellow displaying the spell circle from earlier.

“Siofra has completed preparations for the spell. Would you like to open communications?” the words scrolled across the bottom of the screen as Hecatolite casually swiped a claw through it and re-summoned the screen.

“Sure, thing Inutil… 27 yeah, that’s the number.” She said as she scratched the new number on the bottom. “Let’s get a good look at them, Amethyst would you like to see too?”

“We might want to at least go outside; we can’t move the soul book from the table.” Amethyst rubbed the bridge of her nose exactly like Taaffeite when she was annoyed, she really is just all over the place, how did Alexa get her to sit still long enough to teach her Solresol?

“Great idea! Wait, we can't move it?” Hecatolite said as she walked towards the table only to be intercepted by an Inutil box. “oh you don’t like the number 27?” 

“The soul book is the center of one’s soul space, it is the anchor that holds a soul to its physical body. If you were to remove it both Amethyst and Hecatolite will be detached from the physical body.” The screen flashed, Hecatolite’s claw mere centimeters from the screen as it continued. “It is normally very difficult to remove the soul book from its podium however given Hecatolite’s ability to destroy souls it is most likely if it were to try it could remove or destroy the soul book. Please refrain from such actions.”

“27 is a dumb number.” She finished her swing and carving into the terminal. “Being without a body would be very bad. And I don’t think we have any food in the void… I will leave it. Come on Amethyst.” She called as she ran from the house. 

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“Sister, you do know this is insane right?” Soter asked as his sister looked over the spell circle displayed on the strange terminal. “That is clearly not a system terminal, at least not from this world's system. Not to mention the dangers of contacting the mortal plane, the soul eating creature… the list very literally goes on.”

“Yes, I understand brother, you were so kind as to inform me the moment I agreed to it.” She cleared her throat, “it's against the system for us as gods to directly contact the mortal plane, it could be dangerous if an aether soul opens any form of portal to the mortal realm, bla bla bla” she mocked imitating his voice. “If it truly is an aether soul like us brother, and it is in a “void space” as it called it, it should be fine. it’s safe to assume it means a soul space and if that is the case then its in its own pocket realm just as we are, or did you forget how a god’s realm was created? I know it has been a long time but to think you’d go senile at the young age of 5000, truly sad.” She stuck her tongue out.

“Of course, I did not!” He snapped; it was a sensitive topic for him since he gave up the mantle of God of knowledge, he had lost most of the knowledge that came with the title which Siofra never tired of reminding him of. “Maybe it is you who had gone senile sister, being at least a hundred years older than myself, or did you forget that if that creature was in anything resembling its own realm, we could just travel to it?”

“Now it is rude to mention a lady’s age but being the kind older sister I am, I forgive you.” Siofra’s voice had an edge to it that caused a shiver to run through her realm, Soter knew this would not be the end of this small argument but dared not press his luck as he felt his sister's power wash over him. “And what worries me about that is the questions it asked. Why would it ask about two souls inhabiting one body unless it either knew of someone with that very unlikely condition or…” she paused letting her brother pick up her trail of thought.

“Or it was itself sharing a physical body… but the only way that is possible is if one of the two souls was an aether soul and the other a mana soul. Even then it would be impossible, the aether soul would devour the mana instantly… wouldn’t it?” He asked as he sat back on the log, scratching the rough patchy blond facial hair he had grown a few years ago.

“You should remove that disgusting growth. It is unbecoming.” Siofra said, wrinkling her nose at her brother. She did not approve of him reshaping his soul, removing his elven features seemed like an insult to their race even if it was to “better fit” his godly role. “And that’s exactly why I want to look into the soul space and see. But if it is indeed sharing a realm with a mana soul, I would hate to upset the very delicate balance by just popping in for a chat. If we do that it is possible, we could tip the balance and cause it to absorb the other soul, that is of course if we don’t absorb all the mana ourselves. And given this is a creature that not only can eat a soul, but also deface a system terminal.” She pointed to the claw marks on this terminal that clearly displayed a 27 that was slowly fading as if it were mending itself. “Whether these are system terminals from our world or not, anything that can damage with such control as to write a number on it is truly not something I wish to find myself at odds with or do you wish to see if your “protection” is stronger than a terminal?”

Soter trembled as he thought about the concept. He was confident that he could in fact reinforce himself to be stronger than a terminal, but for how long would he be able to hold it? And given it was able to do it with such control as to deface the terminal and leave it intact means it was not trying to break it. The only conclusion he could come up with in his mind truly caused the god of protection to fear the creature. If it can easily cut a terminal like that, just how strong would it be if it truly wanted to damage something. Unlike the system terminals his power was not infinite, he would eventually run out of aether to reinforce himself. And if this creature is the same one that shook the whole world and can now casually open a viewing portal between planes of existence, just how strong is this monster? Why did Eryl not banish it the moment it showed up? Does…. Does she want it to get rid of Valor for her? Or is it under Valor's control? 

“Let's just get this over with.” He sighed, “hopefully this will answer some of our questions about it.” He stood straightening his gray armor like clothing and donning a large heavy looking cloak. 

Siofra shook her head as her younger brother took up a position behind her, “hopefully mister broody back there doesn’t spook it.” She said as she activated the spell.

With a faint popping noise, the terminal's crimson screen seemed to turn hazy as a slight fog gathered on the surface of the screen.

“Mirror link, scrying.” Siofra’s voice rang out, the words seemed to echo as a voice came from the mirror.

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