Chapter 50: 47. Dictated Direction

"You are back and so soon! It must have gotten ugly in there for you to flee so quickly." Gene greets me as soon as I appear from my shadow. 

"Yeah, it did get quite ugly in there. I might have been a catalyst for a skirmish amongst beasts. No, that is not why I'm back so soon. I want you to meet my new totem and your new host." I say, trying to keep my pride and excitement at bay. 

"You brought me a fox. A beautiful shadowy fox, but still a fox." Gene says as she circles around the fox, inspecting it. 

"Nonsense!" I interject immediately. "I saw it shapeshift and said it was a shade."

"Did it shapeshift, or were you deceived by simple illusions?" At this point, any pride I have is wiped. Even more so when I see the look of disappointment Gene is hiding. "Foxes of shadow are even more devious than those of our realm."

"Well, crap. There was a nice man who even said it was a shade. Curse my eager disposition to trust the words of a stranger. How do you feel about the bone wolf now? I got some upgrades to my bone summons. Your form will be even more durable than Bones." 

Uncontrollable laughter seizes Gene as she laughs and laughs. The fox lurking around the nexus room even seems to be grinning. "I'm so sorry," Gene says with a fit of laughter. "This is, in fact, a shade! I just couldn't resist a bit of levity. Please forgive me, T'am."

"Names no longer, T'am. It's Liam. No apostrophe. I didn't even consider the fact that it could have been illusions. Then considering the fox hasn't shapeshifted since I first sensed it..." I say as I semi-laugh along.

So the deceiver has shown her face. Her joke, while executed well, only brought back to mind the conversation I had with Draxxo. I probably should address it, but it doesn't seem like the right time to do so. If the deceiver is bound to me through a warlock contract and a totem bond, she will only deceive herself if she chooses to deceive me. "So this is really a shade?" I finally ask, feeling comfortable with my decision to move forward.

I am, in fact, a shade. And I take slight offense at this ghost, comparing me to a tricky fox. The shade speaks for the first time now as a wolf. "If this is the spirit I will be bound to, I might have my doubts." The shade impresses upon me.

"If it makes you feel any better, she is or once was a queen." 

Oh, royalty? Never mind. I'm back in. Let us no longer delay. The shade's acquiescence is full of entitlement.

I look to Gene, who hasn't heard any conversations between me and the shade. "The wolf is ready for the contract. Are you?"

"I am eager to join this new form and would do so now if it weren't for more pressing matters." 

"Aren't you on limited time?"

"I am. Which should tell you how important I believe these matters are." 

"And what is it?"

"Why, it is you, of course. Upon making the contract, the shade and I will need some time to complete the process. Or I think we will need some time. This is all new territory for me. If that is the case, I don't want to leave you more in the dark. I believe that I have enough time to offer you training and council. I know you have questions." 

"What if we start with some basics: What is a lich? Why are my cores empty? What are these cores? Did you see me when I arrived on this island? Was anyone with me?" The questions I have been waiting to ask burst out of my mouth.

Smiling, Gene lifts both hands up, "Hold on, give me a chance to answer a few questions before you ask more. Fair warning, this is going to get heavy. You might want to pull up a chair." I consider her wise counsel and do, in fact, conjure up a bone chair of sitting and enhance it with a plus two in concentration. The plus two is, of course, arbitrary. Still, I already feel more intelligent.

"There is not much I know of liches. Your soul is bound to an object or place. As long as the thing or place exists, you will not die. If your connection is based on a place, you need to control your location more to gain greater power. I do not know how you created this bond. If I did, I might have chosen that outcome over spirit walking. 

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"Your appearance on this land was not something I noticed. I think it was part of your bonding process, but I'm not sure how that would have happened without you ever coming to this land. I also think your empty cores and memories have a part to play in your bond. Being bound to a place usually takes a great sacrifice on behalf of the binder."

"Hmm…So maybe I wasn't abandoned by some girl after all." The initial theory of my origins is tossed aside in an instant. Guess it wasn't much of a theory. "Hold on. You're saying I've never been here before? How'd you know that?"

"Being the powerful spirit, I am, I have a way of watching this land closely. My shadow veil that cloaks the entire island also helps to inform me of any intruders. This is how Fury and I kept this land hidden and protected for so long. The fact that you appeared randomly and alone in the desert is also a mystery to me."

"Can I be destroyed if my place is destroyed or I lose control of my domain?" 

"It is challenging to destroy a place. It is more likely you lose power due to a lack of dominance. I'm not sure if you will be destroyed, but your power will greatly diminish. The fact that you have no power within your prime core, your lich core, indicates that you currently have little to no rule over these lands. Establishing a dungeon directly connected to you and eliminating hostile forces will influence your dominance over your domain." 

"So if I take out the horde, I can gain access to power granted to me by my lich core? What do you mean by prime core?" Getting answers to my many questions is as refreshing as water is to desert parched lips. 

Gene is patient with my questions, not once belittling anything I ask. Not even her face is showing signs of annoyance. "Indeed. The more you rule your land, the more power you can access. Regarding your prime core, what do you recall about cores and progression?"

"Honestly, not much. I know that I have a core and eight additional layers to that core. Three are filled while one of those three, my prime core, you call it, is unavailable. I can tell that I should be powerful physically and with mana. I can see the layers of my core and the essence they have been built on…." 

Gene saves me from having to dig up more answers about my core. I have a strange familiarity with my soul, except there are gaps in my knowledge. I'm happy when she starts with the basics with no condescension in her demeanor. 

"There are five major stages of cultivation, each with minor stages of progression. It begins with common. These are normal animals we encounter in the wild. They are only concerned with survival.

"The next stage is enlightened beings. These are typically beasts and monsters that possess a core. They are actively seeking power through consumption. These are creatures like Annette's spiders, Fury, and the druid bear before eating you numerous times.

"After the stage of enlightenment is the stage of awakened. Most all sapient beings fall into this category. Annette, bugbears, goblins, kobolds, and the druid bear in his final moments of life. You and I are also awakened though we fall into a further stage, that of rulers. However, in your case, the knowledge that will be most beneficial to you now is a better understanding of the stages of awakening."

"What about the fifth?" My curiosity doesn't allow the question to go unasked.

"The next stage is Transcendent. That stage is so far beyond us that spending time on it will do us no good now."

"That's fair. So what do I need to know about being awakened?"

"Everything, however, we don't have time for everything, so we will go over the basics. Cultivating on the path of an awakened is to absorb mana. Absorbing mana can be done in many ways. The easiest way is to take from others. However, before we can absorb and hold mana, we need to be able to hold it."

"This is where the core comes into play, right? We develop our essences, creating a core?" I ask with an air of undeserved confidence.

"Not quite." And just like that, the air gets knocked out of me. Thankfully Gene is quick to fill me with knowledge. "The core that you see is a summary of your soul. Your soul being, the three essences, and your channels. Even your channels are an abstract representation of how mana flows through your body."

"Wait a moment. You are saying that I don't actually have a core?"

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