Chapter 5: Chapter 4: Placeshifters and Projections

CHAPTER

4

Placeshifters and Projections

THREE YEARS AGO

I

Sigg made his way through the large, arched corridors of the Howling Lion Palace, heading toward Rinn’s room. A couple of runic puppets bowed to him as he walked past them, and he nodded in return, even though he didn’t need to. As usual, he found himself bemoaning the size of the palace court. Relative to the size of the palace, his and Rinn’s rooms were relatively close to each other, but that was only because of how massive the palace court was. It took him almost half an hour, setting a brisk pace, to go from his room to Rinn’s.

This palace hadn’t been designed with mundanes in mind; instead, it had been built for third-step cultivators, who could pretty much get from any one point in the palace to another in a matter of seconds. Thankfully, he’d only have to have to go through this for another year; after that, he’d be thirteen years old and no longer a mundane, and it’d only be a matter of time before he would be able to cross this Pactbroken distance in a matter of seconds like everyone else.

However, it wasn’t as if he minded making this trip that much, or else he’d just have a runic puppet wake Rinn up in the mornings instead of personally doing so himself, even if meant Being able to get Rinn out of bed without her declaring eternal enmity on you. It was a privilege of sorts, and it was a privilege exclusive to him. Even his master wouldn’t come out unscathed if he dared to rouse her now that she was also a cultivator, and his master was not only Rinn’s father but also the strongest cultivator in Khenthor, if not the entire Mortal Realm.

Just as he was nearing Rinn’s room, a woman appeared in front of him. One moment there had been nothing but empty air in front of him, and the next moment she was standing there.

Sigg blinked, coming to an abrupt halt.

“Hello, Siggrann.”

The woman was tall—about as tall as Sigg’s father—and her pale skin, black hair, and dark, almond-shaped eyes marked her for a Kunyuan. He didn’t recognize her, and he was fairly sure he’d have remembered her if he had so much as caught a glance of her before; his mother was considered the most beautiful woman in the Howling Wind Palace, and this woman made her look plain in comparison.

The woman’s clothes didn’t tell him anything. They were plain black robes, without any ornaments or motifs. She also had just spoken in flawless Serrkkorran instead of the Heavenly Tongue, which could mean something. Then again, as a fourth-step, she could easily learn a new language in under a day. Still, the fact that she had learned Serrkkorran could also mean something, as well as her decision to use it.

Much more concerning than her appearance, clothes, and choice of language, however, was that she had just appeared out of thin air. That meant she had just placeshifted, and placeshifting was something only a cultivator at the Fourth Step could do. And that meant that the woman in front of him was an Eirwys-damned fourth-step, which was all kinds of bad.

“Done studying me?” the woman asked, doing nothing to hide her amusement. The way she talked—the way she looked at him—gave him a pause. It wasn’t as if she were looking at a stranger, some boy she had never met before; this was a look reserved for those you knew, those you were familiar with.

“You know me,” Siggrann said in realization, so shaken by the way she had appeared and the implications of it that he had just spilled out his thoughts without thinking.

The woman smiled, all teeth and mirth. It made for a breathtaking sight, not just because of her beauty, but because of how dark and sinister it made her expression. Somehow, he knew that she’d wear the same smile if she were choking you, literally taking your breath away until your lungs were empty and you went cold in her grasp.

Sigg had always had a good sense for people, and every nerve in his body that this woman was dangerous, and it wasn’t just because she was a fourth-step. He racked his brain, desperately trying to think of a way out. In one of the pockets of his robe there was a runic tag that, when torn, would have his master by his side in an instant. The woman was a fourth-step, however, so she’d be able to catch him if he so much as moved even a fraction of a inch. He needed to find some way to get his hands on tag, but for that, he’d need to either distract her first or come up with an excuse to put his hands in his pocket. Without knowing who she was and what he was after, however, that’d be no easy feat.

“There’s no need to alert your master,” the woman said, her voice gentle, her lips slightly curling upwards in clear amusement. “Stop panicking and consider the situation for a moment. Do you truly believe that if I were a fourth-step and wanted to harm you, I wouldn’t have done so already?”

Sigg’s breath got caught in his throat. Either the woman knew about the runic tag, or she had a heavenly skill that allowed her to read his mind. The runic tag his master gave him was a secret, and if she knew about it, that’d mean that the woman had been observing him for quite a while now, and had done so without being detected. That’d tie in with his theory that she was familiar with him. On the other hand, if she could read his mind, then he was truly out of options. His mind was currently all he had, and if that was compromised, he was nothing more than a sitting duck.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t as if the situation was hopeless. If he were facing a nascent first-step, or even a lesser first-step, he could probably figure something out, but even a greater first-step would be beyond him, let alone a fourth-step. She could kill him a thousand and one different ways before he could even blink. He was wholly at her mercy. But she hadn’t done anything yet, even though she could have. It didn’t look like she intended to harm him. Much on the contrary, she was simply standing in front of him, talking with him without a care in the world, even though the longer they spent talking, the higher the chances of someone finding her out were. Any moment now a protector could appear, and even though the woman was at the Fourth Step, she could only be at the nascent stage. A perfect third-step would be able to put up a fight—not enough to so much as scratch her, but enough to stall her for a few moments, which was all he needed to alert his master.

What were her reasons, then? What her were motives? Why was she here, talking to him, and why did she appear to know him? He reviewed all of their interactions so far, every word she had said, every expression she had made. Maybe there was something he could use, something that could—

Siggrann blinked. “Even if you were a fourth-step?” he asked, slowly, his eyes narrowing.

Before, when assuring that she wasn’t a threat, she had said that if she were a fourth-step and wanted to harm him, she’d have done so already, which would imply…

“There you go,” the woman said. She still wore her dark, terrifying smile, and although it wasn’t as wide as before, it was still off-putting. It wasn’t a predator smile, like Rinn’s or his master’s. It was dark in a different, subtler, more insidious way. “As I told you, there’s no reason to be scared.”

You are reading story Warped Wildcards at novel35.com

Siggrann glanced sideways, noticing for the first time that the runic puppets on the corridor had shown no reaction to the woman's appearance, even though they were primed to bow whenever someone came near them, and would even attack outsiders, each puppet being about as powerful as a nascent third-step. Maybe fourth-steps had a magical ability or a heavenly skill that could mask her presence, but the more he thought about it, the more he believed that the most likely possibility was that they couldn’t sense her because she wasn’t there.

“You are a projection?” Sigg asked. “An illusion?”

The woman leaned forward enough to stare directly into his eyes. Her eyes were a brown so dark they were almost black; his, a gray so light they were almost white. And as Siggrann looked into her eyes, he realized he couldn’t see his reflection—or any reflection—in them, even though she was looking straight at him, their faces only inches apart. Had she done this on purpose?

“You can put it that way, yes,” she said. This close, he should have felt her breath against his skin, and he felt absolutely nothing. “I believe I have yet to introduce myself. My name is Meiyue, and for the past twelve years, I’ve been living inside your body.”

Sigg blinked. He wasn’t quite sure what to think of that. “Inside my body?” he asked, incredulous.

There was still a chance that the woman—Meiyue, if that was actually her name—was lying, that she was a fourth-step and not a projection, but everything pointed toward the projection theory being correct. Unless she had a heavenly skill that allowed her to tamper with his mind, there was no way she could make herself seem as if she were an illusion, and if she could manipulate his mind, there was nothing to be done.

Sigg allowed himself to relax a little, though he still kept his guard up, because even if she wasn’t a fourth-step, he still felt she dangerous. Quickly his anxiety and panic died down, whereas curiosity and interest burgeoned. Now that he was no longer in imminent danger—and if he was, there was absolutely nothing he’d be able to do in any case, so worrying would do him no good—he wanted to dig deeper.

“To be more precise,” Meiyue said, “both our minds and souls are coexisting inside your body. As far as I can tell, however, this body was meant for your soul, so I have no control over it; all it does for me is serve as a physical anchor, stopping me from being pulled into the Reincarnation Cycle.”

That raised so many questions, and chief among them was a glaring inconsistency Sigg quickly pointed out. “If that’s true,” he said, slowly, “everything else aside, how come nobody ever noticed you before? Virtually every adult around me can perfectly sense both the spiritual and the mental; I can’t see them failing to notice an extra mind and soul attached to my body.”

“That is because our minds and soul are overlapping,” Meiyue explained. “Spiritual and mental constructs, unlike physical ones, can occupy the same space at the same time, and that’s precisely what our minds and souls are currently doing. Only if someone were to inspect your mind and soul really closely with their spiritual and mental sense would they be able to tell that there was something off about them. Since you’ve never given reason for anyone to do so, I’ve remained undetected so far.”

That … made sense, Sigg had to admit, although there were still a few holes in her story. “How exactly did you end up in my body, then?”

“A great question,” Meiyue said, “and one whose answer I’d also very much like to know. You see, I’m currently lacking most of my memories. I remember dying, then waking up inside your body. I’m afraid I have no idea what happened in between.”

Sigg paid close attention to her expression. As far as he could tell, she wasn’t lying, but it wasn’t as if he couldn’t be fooled. Regardless, even if she knew something and wasn’t telling him, he couldn’t think of any way of getting her to talk at the moment, so he could only settle for asking other questions to get a better idea of the bigger picture.

“If that’s so, what do you remember? You appear to remember your name as well as dying. What else do you remember about your identity?”

“Far less than I’d like,” Meiyue said, though she didn’t seem particularly upset about it. At no point had she lost her amused, indulging look, and even though she wasn’t smiling as widely now, she was smiling nevertheless, seemingly enjoying herself. “There is something I can tell you, however, that should be of great interest to you.”

“And that is?”

“I’m not from the Mortal Realm.”

Sigg went still, whereas his heart skipped. “You mean…”

“I’m from the Divine Realm.”

Siggrann took in a deep breath. If she was telling the truth… this was an opportunity unlike any other. It had been over fifty thousand years since the Cosmic Splitting—since the Four Gods created the Mortal Realm to house the inhabitants of the Divine Realm that didn’t want to get caught up in divine affairs any longer, even if it meant they’d never be able to advance beyond the Nascent Fourth Step. The Four Gods had made it so that there was absolutely no contact between the two realms; not even the gods themselves were able to enter the Mortal Realm, or even interact with it in any way.

Few records of the Divine Realm remained; almost everything concerning it had been destroyed in the Realmheart Wars. When planets were being destroyed, ethertears with information about the Divine Realm weren’t exactly on the top of the list of things to salvage. Anything Meiyue could tell Sigg about the Divine Realm would be of help, because even though he had been born in the Mortal Realm, he had no intention of dying in it. If he had his way, he wouldn’t be dying at all.

As if reading his mind—and considering what she said about their minds being overlapped, he wouldn’t be surprised if she could—Meiyue smiled wickedly and said, “What would you like to know?”

Even if she wasn’t a fourth-step, Meiyue was dangerous; Sigg could tell that much. But he could also tell that she didn’t wish to harm him, so instead of doing the wise thing, which would be to call his master over and have him deal with this situation, Sigg decided to trust his instincts, the same ones that both told him that Meiyue was dangerous but that also told him that she didn’t pose a threat to him, and take a gamble.

It looked like Rinn would get to sleep in today.

You can find story with these keywords: Warped Wildcards, Read Warped Wildcards, Warped Wildcards novel, Warped Wildcards book, Warped Wildcards story, Warped Wildcards full, Warped Wildcards Latest Chapter