Mage Tank

Varrin ended up being the easiest person to map once we figured out that his ancestral soul clone was unaffected by whatever was happening. It couldn’t talk, had a very limited capacity to remember anything, and could only make decisions based on the tasks that Varrin gave it, but I could gaze into its soul without issue. There were no areas that were invisible to me, and using the soul clone as a model made it easier to find the areas of Varrin’s soul I was missing.

It was kind of like playing a ‘spot the difference’ picture game. The ancestral clone was already a little different from Varrin, but the ways in which the big guy diverged were subtle enough that I could tune them out as noise. It was still Varrin’s soul, just more distilled towards familial influences.

Also, Etja could point at spots on the clone and my brain wouldn’t turn itself off. Once the problems had been mapped, we just needed to figure out what to do about them.

“Here’s what I’ve got,” I said. The party was sitting at a roundtable in a much more comfortable situation room. There were calming colors, vibrant plants, gentle lighting, and the chairs even had cushions. Everyone had been taking turns helping Grotto build us some better facilities. “The effect that we’re under is re-weighting the importance we place on certain experiences we’ve had in our lives. From what I can tell, it hasn’t implanted new memories or anything, it’s just making us pay more attention to some things and less attention to others.”

“Can we get an example?” asked Xim.

“Sure. Let’s say you want to make someone go and buy ice cream. You go into their soul and look for any experiences you think relate to ice cream and find the ones that represent the best. Times where that person had ice cream and loved it, the greatest ice cream they’d ever tasted. You take the relational threads from that experience and start weaving them into the person’s experience of love, or affection, so they begin associating ice cream with powerful emotional rewards.

“Alternatively, you could tie that memory into a person’s understanding of finance, so they think of buying ice cream as being a smart money move. There are a lot of ways you could make ice cream more important to a person, and thus make that person more likely to go out and buy it. This doesn’t implant new memories, but it creates emotional connections that are… questionable.”

“Follow-up question,” said Xim. “Do we have any ice cream?”

“Yes, it’s in the freezer.” I pointed at a small, mana-woven chest on the far side of the room. Xim danced over to it and started pulling out some frozen goodies.

“The question is whether there’s something foreign inside our souls that’s maintaining this effect, or if something rewired our souls and then they got stuck that way, even though that foreign influence is now gone.”

“It sounds like something is still in us,” said Nuralie. “Souls are regenerative. If they are damaged, they will recover given time. Something must be preventing them from doing so.”

“It’s not really damaged, though,” I said.

“It has been distorted,” said Nuralie. “That is damage. It may not be as obvious as a physical wound, but any unnatural and undesired change to the soul can be seen as harm.”

“As opposed to a natural change, which would be life experience?” I asked.

“I suppose,” she said. Pause. “I am not comfortable giving it boundaries that are so simple.”

“What about emotional trauma? From what I’ve seen with how the relationships form within our souls, a sudden traumatic event might cause changes that would lead to rapid changes in the connecting threads. It’s possible that would lead to distortions like the ones I’ve found.”

“The soul would still heal,” said Xim. “You’ve seen the traumas we’ve all endured in the past during your search, right?”

“Some of them, certainly,” I said.

“Do they match the distortions?”

“They aren’t as… clean as the connections that form gradually. But no, the distortions are more severe.”

“Then if nothing is enforcing the changes,” said Nuralie, “they would naturally degrade or become less acute.” Pause. “Unless we were perpetually in some kind of extreme situation that is causing us to change our priorities.” ℞АŊο฿ËṠ

“Even then, I feel like our souls would adapt given enough time,” I said. “Either way, I’m comfortable running with the theory that an external force is maintaining the effect. But we should be ready to abandon that theory if we find evidence to the contrary.”

“If it is a foreign energy, how do we remove it?” asked Varrin.

“That’s the question. Let’s assume that something is in there, either warping or binding these spiritual threads. We know the approximate areas where this is happening, but we can’t perceive it directly. Theoretically, if we destroy that area of our souls, the foreign energy will also be destroyed and our souls will eventually heal back the damage and correct themselves.”

“Unless the energy grows back with it,” said Xim. “Or if whatever we used to scour that part of the soul doesn’t actually destroy the stuff.”

“It could also be like an infection,” said Nuralie. “If we do not burn it all out at once, it may reinfect the cleansed area.”

“Burning every affected area at once isn’t feasible,” I said. “There are thirty-six locations within each of us. According to Grotto, even hitting one spot would be extremely unpleasant. Hitting every spot at once would be lethal. Our souls would be disrupted until they untethered from our bodies.”

“That’s because we’d be destroying a fairly large area, right?” said Xim. “Since we can’t see it directly, we’re going after the whole area that’s imperceptible?”

“True.”

“So if it were more precise, it might work.”

“Maybe,” I said. “It could be the difference between getting stabbed by thirty-six toothpicks and getting stabbed by thirty-six spears. Since we can’t see the phenomenon, we don’t know what it might take to burn it out.”

“Let’s assume we could find it,” said Xim. “How would we even destroy it? What method would we use to do the burny part?”

“I could create a highly focused Spiritual toxin,” said Nuralie. “One that destroys the soul but does not spread. Varrin or one of his clones could deliver it to the correct locations with Soul Strike.” Pause. “Using something smaller than his sword.”

“But how do you know that whatever this is can be destroyed with the same forces that would destroy a soul?” asked Xim.

“It must exist as a Spiritual force to affect the soul,” said Nuralie. “I can create a toxin that destroys or disrupts any kind of Spiritual energy.”

Xim considered Nuralie’s point, then shook her head. “Maybe blindly stabbing each other’s souls with poisoned knives and hoping for the best isn’t a great idea. The root of the problem is our inability to see the problem.”

“Can Grotto see yours, Arlo?” asked Varrin. “He has a connection to your soul and is supposedly unaffected.”

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[What would you have me do? I cannot guide you to the solution, since any attempt I make is barred from your minds.]

“If Nuralie made the poison, could you do soul surgery on me?” I asked.

[My skills are ill-suited for precise attacks made against the soul. My focus is on Psychic effects, which manipulate the bridge between the brain and the soul itself.]

{I can do it!} Throne interjected. {I’ll stab you in the soul anytime you want! Right now, even. Can I?}

“We’ll save that as a last resort.”

“What if we made your Soul-Sight a deific effect?” asked Xim. “Then you should be able to look at our souls and the problem can’t hide itself from you, right?”

[I do not believe you understand how exceptionally rare and difficult doing such a thing truly is.]

“Pshh,” Xim said, waving a hand dismissively. “It’s probably not that hard.”

“We do have access to a Divine soul fragment,” said Nuralie, looking at Etja. “Perhaps we can use that somehow.”

[Hmm. Even with an avatar’s soul fragment, you would need a potent method of directing that energy. It is not so simple as–]

Xim shot up out of her chair. “I have rituals,” she said, thinking. “I have rituals that can funnel divine influence,” she said more confidently. “They’re meant to draw from artifacts and sacred objects, not literal fragments of a Divine being, but it’s the same kind of power… just amplified by a few orders of magnitude?”

“Was that a question, or a statement?” I asked.

“I need to do some research,” she said. “Can you open a portal to the tribe?”

I drummed my fingers on the table. “You’ll need to take one of our two escorts because of the shit.”

“Grotto!” said Xim. “You wanted to talk to Sam’lia, right? Now’s your chance.”

[While I appreciate your invitation, I am currently keeping an eye on our newest addition to the Closet.]

{Hey! I’ll be fine on my own. Go on, have a good time. Also, where’d you put my Vault Guardian? I want to check in on him! Yeah, make sure he’s adjusting well.}

[I have given Vaulty several upgrades and he will certainly kill you if you attempt to make contact.]

{No! Why would you do that? Free will is a burden my creations should not have to bear!}

“Throne can come too,” said Xim. She issued the invitation as though it wasn’t a recipe for disaster.

“Uhhhh, sure that’s a good idea?” I asked.

{Yeah, why would I wanna go anywhere with you, monster girl?}

[The Goddess of the Seven Organs is a deity of vengeance. I am sure there is much you can learn from her.]

{I see, I seeeee. Yes! Field trip!}

Throne was starting to give me emotional whiplash.

[Regardless, before we go questing through the Third Layer for ancient blood rituals, there are additional matters to be considered. Even if you were able to appropriately direct the fragment’s power, the receiving vessel would need to be extraordinarily durable.]

“Yeah,” I said. “We’d be funneling it into me, right? I’m pretty durable.”

[Granted. However, you would also need some ability to manipulate Deific effects, which you have no natural capability to–]

“I can accept the Dread Star evolution,” I said. “Would that work?”

[It is… a possibility. It depends on how the evolution operates. If the power flows through you, it would require the Dread Star to make certain alterations to your…] Grotto trailed off.

“My what?”

There was a psychic sigh. [Your soul.]

“Something that might, say, strengthen it and make it more resilient when handling Deific powers?”

[Indeed. BUT! You would still need Nuralie's crafted toxin to reliably destroy anything you would find.]

“She just said she could make something to destroy any kind of Spiritual energy,” I said.

[Consider the idea that such a thing may not be enough.]

“Are you being cagey because of the shit?” I asked.

[Yes, I am choosing my words carefully due to the shit, correct.]

“I have made a Divine weapon before,” said Nuralie. “That would probably be strong enough to destroy whatever we find. Even if it is a Spiritual force that cannot normally be destroyed.”

[You made the Divine Arrows used against Orexis with the assistance of an avatar.]

“Fortune supercharged me with Blessed stacks before I made the poison we used against Orexis,” said Nuralie. “I have improved substantially since then, and there are robust entries in the Grimoire relating to drawing power from dark gods.” She pointed at Etja. “If Etja draws from the fragment to enter her partial avatar form, she can channel that energy into my work.” Pause. “We still have several of those arrows as well. They deliver a soul toxin. I may be able to repurpose one, or use it as a catalyst.”

[Assuming you are capable of making the poison, extracting the fragment to thrust it into Arlo in a reckless attempt to empower his Soul-Sight would reveal the fragment’s location to Hysteria. Even if they are imprisoned, the fragment will likely seek to rejoin its main body. The fragment of Orexis sought to do as much.]

“Then we don’t extract it,” I said. “Etja can soul hug me and I’ll be in there with it.”

“That might be really dangerous,” said Etja.

“More dangerous than taking it out first?”

“It’s like…” Etja thought. “If you’re standing next to a fire it can be hot, but if you’re stuck inside an oven with the fire, it’s more hot.”

“Either way that fire will be getting shoved inside me. Besides, you soul hugged me back in Throne’s Delve.”

“I have the soul fragment in its own spot,” she said. “You weren’t in the same place.”

“Yeah? How’d that work?”

She thought for another moment. “I hugged the fragment on one side and you on the other, but you didn’t touch.”

“You’re saying I got a spiritual side hug? I thought we were closer than that.”

“I have four arms,” she said. “I can give full hugs to two different things and/or people at once.” She gave a firm nod.

The analogy was getting a bit confused so I let it go.

“Just to get things straight,” said Varrin. “Nuralie will prepare a soul poison with the assistance of Etja while she channels Hysteria’s soul fragment and enters a pseudo-avatar state so that she may infuse a sufficient amount of Divine energy into Nuralie as she works. One of the Divine Madrin Arrows of Soul Toxicity that were previously created to slay the soul fragment of Orexis will be used as a catalyst in this process, hopefully providing a sufficient base for the poison itself, and perhaps a template for creating a Divine weapon from the poison and other materials.

“Arlo will then allow his soul to be empowered by the Dread Star so that he becomes better equipped to channel Deific abilities, after which he will be encompassed by Etja’s soul wherein the fragment of Hysteria’s soul will be thrust into him. Xim will perform a modified ritual to safely funnel the divine influence into Arlo’s Soul-Sight so that he can identify the foreign energy residing in our souls–assuming that foreign energy is responsible for maintaining the changes we seek to undo–after which he will use Reveal to guide me in executing rapid, pinpoint spiritual attacks against thirty-six affected locations in someone else’s soul, which will deliver a small payload of the soul poison crafted by Nuralie.

“The poison will hopefully disrupt the foreign energy without killing us, allowing our souls to heal and regenerate back to their previously unmolested state, and this process must be repeated for each member of the party, which means that I will–at some point–be stabbing myself thirty-six times. Did I miss anything?”

“See, Grotto?” said Xim. “Not that hard.”

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