113. The Network of Souls (Patreon)

As Grogtilda's body relished the flavors of the tender dragonsteak, my lips making general chatter with the peers from the Searchers of the Infinite Dungeon House I focused my attention to the events unfolding in the Heart of Nemendias far below the dining hall.

The once dark and damp room had been made wholesome and warm by inclusion of colorful lights and furniture. Nemendias had formed a permanent gateway window in one of the walls that was now revealing a sunset view of Illatius from it, making it seem as if the dungeon room was actually incredibly high up. I presumed that the gate connected to an actual window somewhere in the tallest tower of the Arcanarium.

Gold-plated light of the setting sun spilled over the ramparts of the Basq Empire's capital, washing the stark stone walls in a burning hue. I stared at the beauty of it, mesmerized.

"So?" I asked, turning to face Nemmy.

"Lambert is now my Inspector," Nemmy smiled. "I've brought his position back."

"Excellent!" I exclaimed, clapping my armored hands together and feeling sparks of joy dancing on my cheeks. "And moi?"

"You are now the Lord Protector of Nemendias. My domain is under the jurisdiction of your kingdom, unless challenged by greater forces," she said, her voice tingling with both amusement and caution. "Just be aware that we must not let anyone know of what had truly transpired, lest the autocrats of Illatius turn their eyes towards us."

"Well, many of my house-mates think that it's an excellent joke worth the subtraction ten points, I shrugged with a sharp smirk of my chimera canines. "While many others on Emerald's side seem think that I'm a childish, uncouth, buffoon, a class clown. Mundane comedy is pretty good at hiding the terrible truth of the matter."

"We do have an issue," Nemmy noted.

"Oh?" I raised my eyebrow.

"Dean Octavia intends to sack Keeper Nora," Nemendias sighed. "I... really like being her. She's dragging Nora's duplicate to her office now."

"Gate me a few classrooms ahead of them," I said. "I'll deal with her."

. . .

Dean Octavia angrily marched forward, her colorful robe fluttering behind her. The bald security man was dragging Keeper Nora after the Dean, hid vice-like hand clamped over Nora's wrist.

“Why hello there,” I spoke, stepping into their path.

"Who..." Octavia froze.

Her security was quick to act. His armacus unfurled pointing at my head in but an instant. A paralyzing spell shot out of the magitek weapon and fizzled out right before it hit me.

"Tsk tsk tsk," I said, shaking my ruby mane. "Trying to take down the Eighth Arch Cendai. That's a paddlin'."

"Cendai Juni," the Dean's eyes narrowed. She glanced back in the direction of the Grand Dining Hall, not sure how I managed to get ahead of her and switch bodies so quickly.

"In the flesh," I smirked. "Let go of the Keeper please."

"You're too late," the Dean hissed out. "I've terminated her employment here at Nemendias."

"Well, I'm un-terminating her," I said, waving my arm. "Let go of my Keeper or else."

"Or else what?" Octavia raised an eyebrow. "You're a student here and I'm the Dean. You might have acquired Sanctuary at Nemendias, but it does not extend to Miss An..."

"Can't you claim sanctuary?" I asked Nemmy.

"No," the Keeper said. "Sanctuary law does not extend to staff. It is protection for students only."

"Well," I stepped forward. "I'm claiming sanctuary over you then."

"You..." The Dean hissed out. "Bolas! Don't let her..."

Before she could complete her sentence I stepped into Nora's arms who had embraced me.

Bolas, the bald security guard was too slow to stop me. The ward of Nemendias warped the space around me, making me untouchable.

He tried to resist the ward, tried to fight the pressure being applied to his body, muscles tensing up, face turning red. With a flash he was flung away from Nora and I and slammed into a wall with a thump.

I stuck my tongue out at the Dean.

"You can't cling to her forever," Octavia ground out, pink eyes digging into me. "By the order of the Ward of Nemendias, the ex-Keeper, Nora Frid Antienni is hereby banned from the grounds!"

Spikes of red started to dance on the ward, trying to slowly push the copy of Nora away from me and out of the building.

"By the order of the Ward of Nemendias, Nora Frid Antienni to remain as its Keeper of Keys forevermore," I said firmly.

The red spikes forming around us suddenly fell apart into colorful sparks.

"What," the Dean looked stumped.

"I'm the Eight high-cendai, the most powerful of Eunisii's students, you infernal imbecile," I said. "I destroyed my Master's domain with but a flick of my wrist when she went against me!"

"Nora Frid Antienni is hereby banned from Nemendias and interacting with students! I command it!" the Dean growled.

Nothing happened.

I started to laugh as the old woman's expression became confused and then angry.

"Do you really think that I cannot overpower the ward of Nemendias with my will, Octavia?" I snorted. "The Sanctuary claim was just a little practical joke I was having on you."

The Dean's eyes became thin, pink-tinted slits.

"Are you not aware that Nora Antienni is property of Baroness Amadea?" I asked. "My partner would be very fret with you if you irritate her."

"Your... partner?" Octavia blinked.

"She is my one true love, the lovely order of my heart," I smiled, fluttering my eyelashes. "Were you not notified of our relationship? A pity!"

"I..."

"Go ahead. Make one more move against me or Nora," I said. "I dare you. I am a very polite archmage and won't sully my hands slapping little motes like you, Octavia... but Amadea on the other hand. She will tear out your heart and eat it whole as you take your last breath upon this weary earth if you lay your hand on her pet again. Amadea is just an armacus call away, you know."

"Nemendias won't let her in," Octavia muttered.

A cruel smirk twisted my lips, "Do you really want to take the chance? I can easily instruct the Ward to turn a blind eye when Amadea decides to have her fun with you. Her diamond Heart grants her near-Immortality and I guarantee you not even the most arcane spells will be able to stop her once she's in a mood to play with you until she's peeled the flesh off your bones."

Octavia stumbled back, her face a pale mask of fear as a sheen of sweat glinted under the dancing lights of the hexagrammic candle light. She appeared to know the consequences of running afoul of Amadea's wrath.

Bolas glanced at the Dean and seemed to hesitate.

"This is the part where you two skedaddle," I sneered.

The Dean turned and departed, with the security man following. I watching their backs as they fled down the corridor.

I exhaled deeply, relieved they had gone.

"You're playing a very dangerous game," Nemmy commented.

"Yeah," I shrugged. "I'm aware. I like dangerous games. Can we not just banish these two idiots from my kingdom?"

"No, we cannot," the magic-woven avatar shook her head. "The people responsible for hiring the Dean of Nemendias are a committee of Illatius High Lords. We don't want to make waves that are too big."

My eyes sparkled as I made my decision. "Let's just keep pranking them then... until she gives up and leaves of her own accord."

"Pranking?" Nemendias raised an eyebrow. "I doubt that mere pranking will make the Dean quit."

"At least it'll keep her on her toes," I shrugged. "As long as she's sufficiently distracted she won't be able to bother me. I have more important things to do than to fight with a school Dean."

"I have never pranked someone," Nemmy confessed. "Where would I even start? Surely an archmage would not be so easily deterred with a prank?"

"You've already had a ghost haunting your halls. Simply create a very annoying poltergeist with the ward and harass the Dean with it," I suggested. "Whisper at her from the halls in incomprehensible gibberish. Make a tense atmosphere. Flicker the lights. Move her stuff around when she's not looking. Put a glitter bomb in her office. Make her bed slightly lopsided. Sprinkle spiders on her while she sleeps. Surely you've seen students prank each other over the centuries?"

"I have," Nemmy nodded.

"Well, there you go," I said. "Let your imagination run wild. I'm sure you can think of something even more creative!"

"Right," the Keeper agreed.

"Make her socks slightly wet," I suggested. "That's like super annoying. She might be an archmage but surely she doesn't know a spell to prevent her socks from getting wet if you randomly gate a bit of water inside her boots."

Having armed Nemmy with a mission to bug the Dean and her minion, I retired to bed. 

Grogtilda's body settled on my bed in the Lawmaker's tower while Juni's body relaxed under the twinkling lanterns deep in the Heart of Nemendias.

I closed both of my eyes and dove deep into my soul.

. . .

The four distinctive copies of me sat around a table. The old power plant around us seemed less decayed. I spotted soft green moss growing here and there, little colorful flowers making the place more homely and less desolate.

"Things are starting to look nice," I commented.

"The soul-damage is being repaired," Junezia said. "I'm taking apart the hexagrams Eunice set into our soul."

"Oh? How's that going?" I asked.

"Slow," she replied. "They're very small and particularly hard to spot. I believe they're the reason why you're often acting like a child."

"We're thirteen are we not?" Juneberry raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong with being a carefree teenager? What's wrong with enjoying our youth?"

"I don't think you get it," Junezia said. "The hexagrams are forming a distinctive pattern to make us more gullible, more suggestible. We wouldn't have trusted Gattaca, wouldn't have tried to make her our friend if it wasn't for these damn things. We can't, rationally shouldn't try to make everyone our friend and yet... we have been trying."

"Oh," I blinked.

"You didn't notice it?" Junezia asked. "The more our soul has been decaying the more childish our actions are getting."

"I have not," I muttered.

"Well, I have," the Intelligence Officer said. "Being an Astral Phantom has a price. We've absorbed the souls of Juni and Grogtilda. It would be silly to think that doing such would not have an awful impact on us, not affect our actions. About half of the decisions we make are that of a thirteen year old teenager."

"Are we not pretending to be a thirteen year old teenager?" Juneberry asked.

"We are," Junezia said. "However, we've already died a whole bunch of times by making poor choices. Even if we do not remember Grogtilda's parents fully, the part of us that's Grogs still cares for Lic and Nandine immensely. We're drawn to the house filled with garbage. Baroness Georgia was able to blow us up because of that."

"You're right," I sighed.

"Eunice wanted us weak and broken so that she could manipulate us just like Gattaca," JP interjected. "She wanted us to be stupid and carefree. If it wasn't for Infi's millennia-long machinations drawing Lambert, Voltara, Nemmy and others into our orbit we would definitely end up permanently dead."

"What are our options?" I asked. "How can we get more focused and be less affected by what Eunice has done to us?"

"Here's the thing," Junezia said. "I cannot remove the arch-cendai's hexagram from our soul because it is so complex and well concealed, but I believe that we can anchor ourselves better, to spread our sense of self across more souls to... stabilize ourselves."

"Oh?" I raised my eyebrow. "Are you suggesting what I'm thinking?"

"More Infinite Mirrors," JP grinned with her shark-like teeth.

"More open, live connections," Junezia nodded. "Making a connection to Cali from Wert stabilized our soul a little bit. I believe if we keep going, we can create an entire network of connections to our alternative selves across the Dead Zone boundary and beyond it. A spider web has greater tensile strength than a mere single strand or two."

"Well," I said. "I'm convinced. Lets open more doors to infinity."

The four of us put our hands together.

Another Infinite Mirror ignited in my soul, reaching out across the limitless boundary of Eureka.

I didn't know what guided it exactly, didn't know how the Infinite Mirror worked... but I was hoping that the world it would open into would give me the strength and wisdom to renforce my sense of self.

. . .

"Good Tomorrow, Leon!" A bright and exceptionally cheerful female voice sounded in my ear. "Wakey-wakey, my love! Get up and make breakfast!"

I yawned and opened my eyes.

"Curtains go whoosh!" she said and the blinds retreated.

The view of the city of Harbin greeted me visible through large windows. Skyscraper towers glittered in pale pink morning light, white clouds slowly making their way across the blue sky.

Another exceptional day was here.

I stretched and got out of bed, sinking my feet into my fluffy, pink slippers with a yawn.

"The weather outside is 28," the girl with long black hair and violet eyes announced from my phone. She re-positioned herself, wiggling her feet. "I believe I found the answer to your inquiry while you slept."

"Oh?" I asked as I trudged to the bathroom. "What inquiry?" 

"I've found the luckiest man in the world," she said.

"You did?" I blinked, distantly recalling how I blearily asked her to see if she could locate the luckiest person in the world last night after a very long and tiring work session with fractal mathematics. "Really?"

"Yep," the AI avatar said from my phone. "Don't get too excited though... He's dead."