Technomagica 42. A Man (Patreon)

I blinked as the view of the interior of the tent sitting between Leemy’s enormous roots slowly swam back into my view.

I was back... back in my 12 year old body.

Someone was hugging me fiercely. I blinked again, the view focusing as my eyes started working. It was my sister.

"Hey," I said. “Guess who’s got their soul back?”

"Slava," Delta buried her face in my shoulder.

I noted that her cheeks were streaked with tears.

"I almost gave up," she said. "Your soul was damaged, would not wake up. I've been stitching you together for days and days!"

"Thanks," I said, feeling rather parched. "Can I have some water? Have you been feeding my body while I was gone?"

"Your body fed… itself," Delta huffed as she let go of me and brought me a leather canister with water. "He was like you, but... also not really."

I looked at my stats. My mana was at 0.01.

"Do you still have that overpriced wine?" I asked.

"I do!" She nodded and rummaged through her backpack. "Here!"

I chugged the wine, watching as my Mana slowly refilled. My body felt weak, slightly too small for me. I stretched. My hands felt cold, tingled with numbness.

"How did you find your way back to our Phylactery?" Delta asked. “Was it… hard?”

"Giovashi pushed me out of my body with her spell," I began. "I fell right through an Astral imprint of the Fox and the Fiddle pub into the catacombs, or whatever the Astral version of the catacombs was..."

I finished with my Astral misadventure tale in about ten minutes of a brief narration.

"You killed an Astral whale from the inside?" Delta blinked. "That's… impressive. I can't even infect those things. They’re absolutely massive."

"Right," I nodded. "How long were you in the Astral when you searched for me?"

"I dunno," she shrugged. "I leveled up a few times, killed some things and rode some whales. Not like you, mind you."

"You rode... whales?" I asked.

“Like a suckerfish,” Delta explained. “I stuck to their underside and let them fly me around so I didn’t have to waste energy. Energy is precious in the Astral.”

“I… see,” I said, feeling surprised by my twin’s bravery.

"I've been diving into the Astral for 12 years," Delta rubbed the back of her head. "I never told you. I'm an Astral Hunter. You saw my… real shape when I chopped up those fake commissars in your dream, right?"

I nodded.

"There's a lot of holes around Skyisle for me to dive in and out of while my body sleeps," she confessed. "It's... exhilarating, dangerous… it’s like flying, but better.”

I squinted at her.

"I've always returned," she said. "I've been very careful. I'm faster than most things. I know how to hide between the hollow bodies, how to mask my presence."

"Have you encountered the Hollow Mother?" I asked.

"Yeah," Delta nodded. "That thing is legit stalking Skyisle. The magogenic fault is her domain. Her children are all over the place, but they're pretty stupid and bound by magic… compared to her. She is clever, dangerous."

"She almost got me," I nodded.

"She's a menace," Delta nodded. "She hasn't been after me though. It seems like she's after you for some reason though."

"Yeah," I nodded. "I suspect she wants to eat my rare skills."

"I'd avoid the Astral if I were you," she said.

"And what about you?" I asked.

“I’m a little, quick fish in the big sea,” Delta shrugged. “I can throw up a bunch of spores in the air and get away. Chrysalis is handy for that sort of thing.”

I decided not to chide her about it. Delta was going to do things regardless of whether I pressured her not to. She was determined to fly and nobody managed to stop her.

"So," I asked. "What happened to Kliss and Giovashi?"

"Kliss has a friendship Vow on her now," Delta said. "She was weird and scary before but now... she's weirder and scarier. I don't like her. I think that she’s around… here, somewhere, stalking the perimeter of the Tower.”

"She's a victim," I pointed out. "Bound by a Vow since she was seven."

"She's a freaking menace is what she is," Delta said. "Even more so now."

"How?"

"She has two conflicting Vows on her. One is demanding to kill us, the other to protect us because we’re her ‘friends’," my twin explained. "Giovashi... broke her. Not that she was super functional before... but now she's really friggin' messed up. At least she hasn't tried to kill your body or me, so we have that going for us."

"And Giovashi?"

"Giovashi told us to behave," Delta sighed. "I haven't seen her for two weeks. Hell if I know where she is."

"Did she… interrogate you after she banished my soul from my body?" I asked.

"Yep," Delta nodded. "Right in front of Kliss. I confessed that I was level 12 and an Astral Phantom. Not a good time. The confession nearly gave Kliss a heart attack. Giovashi was very happy though, like it's all part of her grand plan. She asked me what I want to do with my life and I told her that I’m going to cry and search the Astral until I get my brother back. It got her off my back. I am pretty sure Giovashi’s plan is to raise me as an Astral Phantom to later kill me or something. I have no idea. The Ishira Arch-Priestess is an insane, dangerous monster."

"She's more than a thousand years old," I said. "She can pull spells above her level because there are hundreds of souls chained to her."

"Yep," Delta mulled. "She's big trouble."

"Why does she do it, though?" I mulled.

"What?" Delta blinked.

"People have motivations," I explained. "She's a person. There are no Vows on her."

"Wait what?" Delta mulled. "There's really no Vows on that damn woman?!"

"None that I could see," I shook my head. "She likes putting Vows on people but she has zero Vows herself."

"Dang," my sister blinked. "I... didn't really think about that. Wait... she said something before she left."

"Which was?"

"I... I asked her why she had to take away your magic," Delta sniffed. "She said it's for the Greater Good of Skyisle and humanity, because it takes sacrifices to defeat the biggest God of all."

"Who's the biggest god of all?" I arched an eyebrow. "Equality? Omniscience?"

"The Soul-Song of Novazem," Delta whispered. "Giovashi called her… Infinity. The System that grants humans magic skills and calculates how much they're worth."

I gulped.

In hindsight, this revelation should have been obvious. Everything in the Astral Ocean seemed alive on some level, had some purpose and function. Animism, the magical personification of every concept was actually possible in the Astral. Souls and magic could be attached to any object. Anything could be made into a Phylactery.

"The System doesn't seem evil though," I mulled. "It… she? hasn't done anything evil as far as I am aware. Did Giovashi provide any evidence for her claim of this ‘Infinity’ being evil?"

"She did not," Delta huffed.

"Right," I nodded. "I'm going to keep investigating things until I discover the truth, then. Where's Kliss?"

"I don't know," Delta said.

"Hrm," I pursed my lips and tried to launch an Infoscope. The action failed. My soul was still weak, exhausted from the activity of squeezing from the Astral to the physical reality.

I heard footsteps.

"Friggin hell," Delta hissed. "Speak of the Devil!”

Kliss appeared in front of our tent. Her entire body was twitching like she had Parkinson's.

She raised and then lowered her armacus and then raised it again.

"Come out of the tent, you two," Kliss ordered.

We did.

"Yes, Overseer?" Delta asked. "How can your best friend be of assistance to you?"

Kliss twitched.

"I felt… something," she said. 'With my [Astral Sense]."

“You have a skill like that?” Delta raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. It helps me spot aberrations. I felt a massive pulse of spatial magic about ten minutes ago," Kliss growled. "Something dangerous came out of the Astral, right where you’re sitting. Are you… safe, friend?"

"Perfectly safe," Delta nodded.

The answer didn't mollify Kliss. She spun the Armacus at [Truth] and fired it at my sister and me. I didn't have enough energy to intercept the spell and my Infoscopes weren’t cooperating. Argh.

"I want the truth, friends," Kliss hissed. "Remember, this is for your own protection."

“Be more specific? Which Truth?” Both Delta and I spoke at the same time.

Kliss twitched. "Speak one at a time, please," she said.

"Friends don't shoot [Truth] spells at each other," Delta snapped.

"Yeah, I agreed. "You're being a bad friend, Kliss."

Kliss hissed like she was in pain, grimacing. She looked like she hadn't slept in days. One side of her face spread into a malicious, lopsided grin. The other looked like it was frowning. The crooked expression made her look a bit insane.

"I'm just really worried about you, friends," she ground out.

"There are many truths," I said. "Which Truth do you want to know exactly?"

“Yeah,” Delta nodded.

"You are Destiny and Dante of the Alan family?" Kliss demanded.

"Yes," Delta and I answered a second apart.

Kliss frowned a bit.

"But you are Astral Phantoms, yes?"

"Yes," both of us replied.

"Do you want to eat human flesh?"

"No," we said together.

"What?" Kliss blinked, nor expecting this answer.

"Perhaps you've been misled about Astral Phantoms, friend?" I asked.

"Yeah," Delta added. "We didn't do nothin'. We're not evil. We don't plan on eating human flesh like Emperor Gabon."

"I'm a nice Astral Phantom," I said. "Didn't you hear what I told Giovashi? I want to save Skyisle from her."

Kliss's frown deepened. She didn't expect the conversation to go in this direction.

“But you want to eat souls, yes?” She pressed.

“Yes,” Delta nodded. “I want to eat all sorts of souls very much.”

Well, shit. I glanced at my twin, worrying about her.

“No, I have no desire to eat human souls,” I said.

“What?” Kliss stared at me. “Are you lying, Dante? Tricking my Truth-spell somehow?”

“Believe whatever the hell you want to,” I shrugged tiredly. “I just got back into my own body and everything hurts.”

“You… just got back into your own body?” Kliss growled.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Giovashi kicked my soul out. It was unpleasant. I just got back.”

“Who are you?” Kliss demanded. “Tell me the truth, Dante!”

“I’m Dante Alan Skyisle,” I said. “I was born to Cassandra and Georgi Alan in Skyisle in 8049.”

“What about before? What were you before you were born here? What the hell kind of demon are you?” Kliss growled, her armacus folding and unfolding as she danced between the desire to kill and to protect me, torn between two distinctive Vows.

“I’m not a demon,” I said simply. “I am a man.”