Chapter 29: Chapter 28

Amethyst had arrived in the soul space to find her sister laying in the grass, apparently “sleeping”. Or the closest approximation a soul can do given as she approached Hecatolite she sprang to her feet.

“You're back!” She yelled as she ran up to her and threw her arms around her. “I was so bored. Are you ok? I didn’t break the body, did I? did you eat?” She let out a seemingly endless string of questions as she inspected Amethyst.

Amethyst was speechless for a moment as she was prodded, almost forgetting everything that had happened as she couldn’t help but laugh. “I am fine Hecatolite, but what happened here? You nearly gave me a heart attack, you know.”

As Hecatolite launched into a nearly unbelievable story, however, given the wide toothy grin she wore and the no longer visible golden “plug” in her soul it explained a lot. Though Hecatolite seemed to forget just how young the girl was a few times as she explained a few…. More private details.  

The two spent hours talking, for the first time the two had shared a body for their entire lives in this world, finally got to know one another. 

Hecatolite came to know that Amethyst was both young and not at the same time. She seemed naïve and overly kind, yet also understood a great many things not needing Hecatolite to slow her pace or explain anything. This made her happy, knowing her sister was kind and intelligent.

Amethyst found Hecatolite to be… strenuous. She had feared the other soul as a power that even the gods seemed cautious of. Yet after talking to her for an entire night, she knew the Hecatolite was overly intelligent, surpassing even Alexa in sheer knowledge. Yet she was unable to organize herself for longer than a few minutes before she would find a new topic as if bored before circling back around to finish the original thoughts or conversation. This required Amethyst to keep track of the conversation entirely in her mind, not knowing if something said an hour ago was going to come back up. There was one other thing she found very strange as they spoke, this revelation caught the young girl off guard.

“Wait, what?” Amethyst was shocked to hear what her sister said, as Hecatolite fired IRIS into the tree line.

“It's all a waste. The stupid war, fighting, just a complete waste of time and resources.” She said as she eyed a smaller “white” in the trees. “What good does the death of hundreds, thousands, or millions achieve? The war that northern nation is trying to wage isn’t one about who is right but who is left. It’s dumb.” She fired, causing the white to explode into particles, she knew it would reform in the egg so she felt nothing for “popping” them. “I created you a sword and that’s enough, no more. I have seen enough to know I don’t want any part of that war or any war. There are enough weapon smiths in the world without me.”

This had come up when Amethyst had asked about the long sword she had found in her room, shocked when Hecatolite told her it was Dora’s sword and she had enchanted it to nearly overloading it with the intent to give it to her as a memento and in hopes she could learn to defend herself if the need ever came.

“So... You are against fighting?” She asked in disbelief. She had believed Hecatolite would be a bit more unruly given her terrifying list of traits.

“Fighting in general? No. I will fight to protect myself and my family.” She sat next to Amethyst. “But I won’t go looking for a fight, that’s pointless. Honestly if this church just leaves us alone, that would be for the best. I just want to live, you know, a nice quiet life. Maybe make rings, though I’ll have to stop blowing them up… I wonder if I could get some mana stones to help off put the power…”

Amethyst let out a long sigh as Hecatolite began to ramble again, but she was happy to find that she wasn’t some overly violent person. “Better to know how to fight and not have to I guess.” She whispered as she watched Hecatolite draw enchantment rings in the dirt as she envisioned them. “But still… I can’t leave her alone. She's going to do something crazy. I can feel it. I just don’t know what yet.”

“Hey, do you think we could both be in the body at the same time? It's really boring here and the whites don’t talk much unless you eat them… then they squelch a little” she mimicked the noise causing Amethyst to wince, “but I wouldn’t call that talking.” Hecatolite had stopped drawing patterns in the dirt and walked to the soul possession circle. “I mean we should be able to modify this right? Then if anything happens, we will both be in the body and see what's going on.”

“Couldn’t you just take the body if you’re that bored?”

“I would never!” She snapped as she spun on her. “Amethyst that is your body, I will not take it without permission… minus last time but that was an accident… I’m really sorry.” Hecatolite’s whole body seemed to sag as she apologized, her voice quieting to a whisper.

Again, Amethyst was stunned, she had made the comment without thinking and did not expect it to bother her that much. “it’s… It’s fine, I believe you.” She sighed before a thought came to mind. “I don’t know much about soul magic, but I don’t mind if you want to come out with me.” Hecatolite perked up instantly.

“Just leave it to me! I know a lot of soul magic. Hey dumb box gets out here and help me make a new spell… Dual possession… shared consciousness?” She quickly began erasing the old circle by digging up the dirt with…. The terminal that appeared just a tad too close to her. Babylon voiced its complaints about being used a shovel, yelling out in several languages as Hecatolite laughed  

Amethyst couldn’t help but laugh. At least I can distract her easily enough. And if she’s out there with me I can keep her from calling any more gods.

The process of creating a spell was… slow. Painfully slow, as Hecatolite and Inutil argued over circle and incantation placements. In all honesty, a spell circle is not much different than an enchantment ring, both outlined the path the power will take to form the desired results. Unlike an enchantment ring however, a spell circle is much more complex and is typically much more powerful than an enchanting ring. To cast a spell, one needed to form the spell circle in their mind and trace it with mana while maintaining the image of the circle for the duration of the spell. That is why carving spell circles into an object and using it as spell focus was a common practice. If the circle is created correctly the mana will coalesce into the desired effect. If wrong, it could do nothing… or explode. Results may vary. This could all be bolstered in many ways, if one wanted to cast a fireball but with twice the normal mana, they would simply link two base fireball spell circles together. If one wanted a fireball that would fly 35feet out, and explode in 10 seconds, they would need to form and add what are called “conditional” circles for extra mana cost and casting time. But such complex circles were rarely ever used given if you messed up during formation of the circle your spell may explode with all the extra mana that you tried to put into with much more devastating results; not to mention you needed to maintain the mental image of the much more complex circle in your mind for much longer making it more likely to “fizzle cast” the spell losing the spells image in your mind and essentially just defusing mana into the air. This is also why people use chanting to cast spells, by attaching the circle to a string of words helps one maintain focus and often makes spells more potent.

What neither of them knew was the real difference was an enchantment ring created a “static” effect in the world making them simpler in the system to create, where a spell circle forced an effect in the world essentially “warping” reality to force an effect. One could enchant a torch to “burn” on command with a very simple enchantment ring. Given during the creation; you change the properties of the torch in the world typically very slowly and carefully. Then simply provide “fuel” in the form of mana. But if you wanted to cast “create fire” on a torch to light it, you are bending reality to your will using your mana not only as “fuel” but also as the “ignition” of the spell. A chant was just a very polite way of asking the world to let you do this and typically it is allowed and the system opens a path allowing the mana to be used more efficiently on the spell itself instead wasting some to force the spell into existence.

“You will need to fuel this spell yourself unless you plan to drain Amethyst dry.” Babylon said as Hecatolite finished the circle.

“Really? It's not that complex,” She took a moment to look over the enormous circle, it was easily twice the size as the previous one with several small circles intertwined along it, “she should be able to activate the spell with mana.” She said casually as she placed two chairs back-to-back in the center, looking to see if she could spot Amethyst who had gone to explore her soul space while they worked.

“Activate sure, but maintaining such a spell while keeping both of your consciousness separate the entire time will be difficult and rather taxing if done with mana. Do remember that you and Amethyst are sharing a physical body for now, but you are both separate “consciousnesses” given your souls are still separate and maintain a very delicate balance in the soul space. By forcing them both into the mortal realm in the same body at the same time will, in simple terms, squish you together. It is possible the lines between the two of you may blur during this process.”

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“So, this is a bad idea? Why didn’t you say that when we started!” She slammed a chair into the terminal.

“I did.” Its voice exasperated, as a chair exploded against it. “But, given your… skills and traits. It is possible to make this spell work. Normally such a spell would cause a person’s mind to fracture as another consciousness is introduced into it. They will lose the image in their mind of who they are as the two consciousnesses meld. However, if you yourself are the only person fueling the spell it will act as a barrier between the two of you keeping your mind from seeping into Amethyst's as she is only brought into yours. This will create a one-way link between you two as she essentially rides the spell you cast. Not to mention the added fact that it will burn off the excess aether from gathering in the body's mana channels. If Amethyst were to assist in casting this spell or alone for that matter; your power would flood into the body, I do not need to remind you that is bad do I?”

“What about my mind?” She asked as she picked up the second chair, unhappy with the results of the first given Inutil’s tone with its last question. “Won’t her consciousness seep into mine?”

“Your mind is already fractured. That and I severely doubt even if Amethyst's full consciousness entered your mind, you Hecatolite, would lose sight of who you are. However, I do doubt this will be comfortable for you in the beginning. But given your ability to separate yourself and repair your soul through unbelievable odds, I doubt this spell will do much if any damage to your mind.” She slammed the chair into the terminal in an upward ark pouring all of her power into it, this time the terminal went flying into the sky before dissipating. Splinters of the chair scattered about as it reappeared, causing her to think it was messing with her again until she moved towards it, and it floated back. “Please refrain from doing that again.” Its voice sounded… shaken. “If you are worried let me ask you Hecatolite, what are you? What makes you you?” It spoke quickly as it tried to create distance between them.

“What makes me me? I don’t know” she stopped as she thought. “I am just a consciousness. I have thoughts… Are my thoughts me? They must be. I think therefore I am, and I am Me.” At those words her mind cleared, the fragmented thoughts she normally had to piece together or push out of her mind vanished, leaving her standing stunned as she took in her surroundings again. Everything seemed clear as if she was looking around for the first time. “Exactly, I am… who am I again.” Her mind exploded into noise as it filled again with fragmented thoughts, after a moment she pushed them all aside again and spoke. “Hecatolite Lapidary, yea that’s who I am… that was weird.”

“Exactly. No amount of outside interference will change that.” The terminal stopped retreating when she stopped. “This spell will likely do nothing to change that either. I have contacted Amethyst; she will return shortly.”

“Oh, yea need to get chairs, don’t want to lay on the ground.” She sped into the cabin, not noticing the fragmented chairs vanishing as they reappeared in the cabin.

“What exactly happened to you after you ate me?” Babylon’s voice distorted as the image of a man sitting in a dark room flashed before it vanished.

---

Surprisingly it was morning when they awoke laying on the bed in Amethyst room.

“Did it work?” she asked out loud as she looked around.

Ooo this is weird. I can see… I can feel, but I can’t move. It's like one of the really bad dreams where you can’t move your body… what’s this feeling… there's a pressure in our stomach… oh, we have to pee. Amethyst winced as Hecatolite’s voice entered her mind. 

“Yea, yea it did.” She said standing from her bed rubbing her head. It was hard to explain but there was a pressure in her mind as her sister spoke. It wasn’t painful, but it did feel a bit smothering as if she was wrapped in a blanket. Her voice sounded as if it was coming from all around her, yet it did not register in her ears. It was a bit disorientating, but she quickly steadied herself. “How do you feel?”

Strange, you know I can hear you if you think right? When you talk to me out loud I get an echo. 

“Really? I can’t hear you if you think… Can I?”

There was a long pause as Amethyst began dressing, stopping to look into the mirror. The black lines Alexa had described to her were visible on her body as if she had dark veins tattooed across her body, yet she didn’t seem sickly pale, and her eyes had remained their normal purple color. She spent a minute inspecting herself, tracing the markings with a finger as she thought of how best to explain the new development to her parents.

Satisfied with her body; accepting that some strange markings were a small price to pay, she dressed and headed to the bathroom. It was minutes later before the reply came.

Nope. Though I think I may have to come up with a way to give you privacy while we are like this… that… was very weird for me… haven’t been wiped by someone else… well ever, I think.

Amethyst froze as her face burned red. “you… you were…”

No choice like this. If you look at something I look at it, if you feel something I feel it. Like that itch on the bridge of your nose. I feel that. it's annoying… please scratch it. Also, I am hungry, can we go eat? I bet everyone’s awake now, how long do we have until we go to…where are we going again.

Amethyst let out a shuddering breath, she did not consider her privacy when they casted this spell.

It's ok, no need to be embarrassed, I did, you know, drive the body for three weeks. If you want, I can just go back to the void and leave you alone for a bit? Oh, there's the answer, Sandstone docks is where we will find a cart, and it's today!… How did you remember that? Are we going to eat soon? I wonder what maid is working mornings today.

“Just… shut up for one second!” she screamed as the house fell silent around her. “And stop reading my thoughts!” This was the first time Amethyst truly realized what it meant to share a body with someone. And she now understood why they needed a way to split.

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