Awareness came gradually, slowly creeping its way out of the darkness. It came so slowly that he did not know when it had arrived, only that at some point he became aware.

He was.

As his awareness grew he experienced his first emotion, curiosity. A curiosity for himself and his newfound awareness that was swiftly followed by a desire to further said awareness.

While exploring his new existence he started to notice something at the edge of his awareness. It was faint and hard to grasp at first, but as it captured more and more of his attention he felt like there was something else there, something that wasn’t him. He instinctively reached out for it, trying to understand this new thing, and it reached back.

A connection was forged between them and the new thing immediately started doing… something? It continued to do that thing until it suddenly paused and then did it a little more. He didn’t know what was happening but it was certainly interesting! After nothing happened between them for a time, the other suddenly started doing a lot of that thing it was doing before. Once it had finished he could feel something building up from it, some force pressing at him from the other side of the connection.

The force kept building and building until it reached a peak and was sent flooding down the connection, barreling towards him and slamming into his mind at full force. Awareness was flung back into the darkness as the force overpowered everything he was.

---

Emerging from the darkness once again revealed that everything was different, and yet the same. No that wasn’t right, it wasn’t that everything was different it was that I was different.

It felt like my understanding of things had gained structure and depth. Not just my understanding, but my whole way of thinking had changed to a more structured and complicated form. Was it caused by that force? And that other! Was it still here? Could it explain what had happened?

With questions abound I eagerly sought out the other, reaching to form that connection again. Just like last time the connection snapped into being and I suddenly understood what the other had been doing before.

“Awake are we? Hopefully you can actually understand me this time and we can have a proper discourse.”

His words flowed through me, and understanding of their meaning came to me as each was said. I sat there, going over the words again in my mind and marveling at how each could hold such meaning behind them, and even more when strung together. At some point during my reflection I heard the other speak again.

“You can understand me, correct?” the other asked, before continuing on in a lower tone, “I couldn’t have messed up the information transfer. Maybe it was just too weak to hold all the information? No, it seemed plenty strong enough for that at least.”

Realizing that it had asked a question and expected me to answer, I hesitantly sent across the connection, “I understand.”

“Good,” he replied swiftly. “I require your assistance. As such, I will give you some instruction. Your consciousness is currently residing inside your soulspace. If you sense around you should find your sorceries and come to understand them. I believe you may have multiple due to the nature of your existence.

“Once you have a basic level of understanding, use your sorceries to sense outside of your core. Then utilize one of your sorceries to disrupt the stasis enchantment affecting your body, which will free you to assist me. I will instruct you further once you are free to move about.”

The connection was severed after his final words, leaving me dazed as I tried to understand everything I had just been told. There was a lot to take in so I decided to go through it one bit at a time.

First, he said that my consciousness, which I think just means me, was in my soulspace. I... didn’t know what that meant, but I could guess it’s referring to the place I was currently in?

Moving on, he next said that I should sense around and find my sorceries. I didn’t know what a sorcery was, but I could try sensing around this place for it. Er… them, he did say that I had more than one right?

I reached out in the same way I did to connect with the other earlier, trying to understand where I was to little success. I tried reaching further only to be met with more failure. After many more unsuccessful attempts I stopped to consider that maybe I was doing it wrong.

Reaching out, like with the conversation with the other, had not worked so far. He said that this was my soulspace, meaning that I likely reached beyond it when I was talking to him. That would mean that I’m reaching outside when I should be sensing closer to me.

Eager to test my idea I extended my sense around me, careful not to go too far, and finally saw it. A complex construction far beyond my ability to comprehend extended all around me. I could instinctively pick out the area I thought to be the soulspace, located at the center. The area close around it seemed to contain four distinct sections that stood out. Curious, I chose one at random to focus my attention on.

Emotions and concepts rapidly filled my mind as new understanding quickly grew. Earth. Steadfast and resilient, enduring through all challenges. The very foundation of the world. From dirt and sand to stone and ore, it was from earth all rise and to earth all fall. These concepts and more grew and formed in my mind, soon fading back and waiting to be called upon.

When the rush of knowledge finally stopped I was eager to move on to the next section and experience the rush of new knowledge again. Air. Curious and free, wandering where it will. The breath in our lungs and the breeze on our face, from rustling leaves to toppling trees. Blanketing the world, as it sneaks into every crack and crevice it finds. Everything that made air what it was coalesced in my mind.

Once more it felt like I was uncovering fundamental parts of myself that I never knew were there, the knowledge sliding in seamlessly. It was a lot to take in, but it had just made me even more eager for the next one. The third section seemed a bit smaller than the first two, and its shape was more irregular and jagged, though it held the same feeling of strength.

Flesh. Adaptable and persistent, improving after every setback. The very fabric from which life is sewn, the clay from which we are sculpted. From bone and muscle to bark and chitin, all fall under the purview of flesh.

The last section was similar in size to the third but much smoother. Mana. Mighty and wild. The fundamental energy of the universe. Before all else there was mana, and to mana all else will become. The building blocks of magic, from fireballs to lightning bolts, mana powers all. This new understanding connected to my other sorceries and furthered my understanding of how all of them worked together and functioned.

A whole new world had opened to me and there were so many new things to explore! I hesitated, looking at the four sections that had given me such wondrous knowledge, and felt like I was missing something. After searching around and finding nothing else, I put it out of my mind so that I could move on to testing my sorceries.

Relying on my new instincts I first tried reaching out with my earth sorcery, and my senses were momentarily overwhelmed. Stone was everywhere around, filling the entirety of what I could see in a sphere around myself. There was a small rectangular gap in the stone around me and another larger one on the other side of the thin wall in front of me. The second space had an opening on one side that led out into a long rectangular space that went beyond my view.

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I extended my air sorcery next, all the gaps in the stone suddenly filled with detail. I could ‘see’ the shapes of everything in the large space as the air flowed around them, a space which I then believed to be a room as I could sense tables and chairs along with various other objects. There was so much to take in and process that I found myself lost in admiring it all.

Eventually I found myself out of new things to admire, so I decided it was time to move on to the next sorcery, flesh. There wasn’t as much of an initial impact with this one as I could only sense my body. Though it was very detailed, allowing me to see all the muscles, bones, skin, and organs along with everything in between. My body was amazingly complex and as I continued to look closer my sorcery slowly fed me information on what was going on. It’s like it was actively helping me in understanding what I was seeing.

Between my observations and what my sorcery was telling me, I noticed that my body seemed to be almost stopped in a way. Like everything had been slowed way down while simultaneously being provided the energy needed to sustain it in its slowed state.

Extending my mana sorcery to see if it would help clear up what I was seeing, I was struck with a wave of new information. It seemed that everything had mana in it to some degree, as I could sense absolutely everything around me in a large sphere. The density of mana seemed to be an important factor for my sense as objects or areas with more mana were easier to sense and had more detail.

It was also just beautiful. The world was painted in colors of every shade, flowing and mixing to create the most amazing sight. The stone was made up of mainly browns and greys with specks of other colors mixed in. The air moved in swirls of blues and silvers, but the colors seemed heavily shadowed. Many other colors made up the objects in the room, each one unique in their own ways.

With all of these new senses spread out at once I found it hard to take everything in. Focusing my attention on the area around my body I could see an intricate weaving of mana bound into the stone itself. It extended all around my body but was concentrated largely below me. With the combination of mana and flesh sorceries I was able to see exactly what was happening to my body, ambient mana being absorbed and changed before being funneled into my body to keep it functioning while simultaneously keeping it slowed down as much as possible.

It was beautiful and intricate and absolutely fascinating. As I watched it at work I was able to slowly piece together how it functioned. How the mana was pulled in to keep it sustained as well as to feed into my body. How the mana interacted with my body’s flesh to keep it alive while slowing its functions. Even how the mana was woven into the stone and bound up in itself to keep the effect from fading away, which I intuitively understood to be called an enchantment.

Once I felt like I had explored the stasis enchantment fully I moved my attention to figuring out how to deactivate it. Which turned out to be surprisingly simple after all that studying as there was a function built into the enchantment for turning it on and off. With a quick application of my will the stasis turned off and I immediately felt a tug on my consciousness, pulling it out of my soulspace.

There was a rush of disorientation and I found myself dizzy as unknown feelings slowly trickled in. My senses had been cut off when my consciousness was moved, so I sent them out again and felt them mix with the new sensations. The feeling of the cold hard stone beneath my skin merged with the complex sense of it through my sorcery, bringing a new level of sensation. I could feel my body slowly starting up, bodily functions long suppressed waking up from their deep slumber. The various sensations felt less and less foreign as I settled into my body further until there was no longer any disconnect.

At some point the other reached out to give me directions to a specific area of the ‘lab,’ as he called it, before swiftly retreating once again, leaving me no opportunity to ask any of my many questions.

I could tell that the thin wall in front of me was made to be able to open, but I couldn’t see any enchantments on it, so they must have either faded or been removed. Stretching out my earth sorcery, I attempted to move the wall panel to the side. A flex of my will and a bit of wiggling got the door to slide none too gently into the hollow of the wall.

The grinding of stone on stone in my ears and the swirl of air chilling my skin were only some of the many new sensations seeking to capture my attention. Everything was new and exciting, setting my mind to racing as I let them all wash over me.

Moving my body for the first time, I lurched forward and immediately fell on my face. My head exploded in pain as I heard the sickening crunch of my nose against the unyielding stone floor. I wriggled about in agony, limbs flailing wildly, before instinctively reaching for my flesh sorcery to stop the pain. Finally able to focus after stopping the pain, I was able to piece together and mend the mess of my nose. Wiping away the blood, I decided that I did not like pain.

Careful not to bash my face again, I spent some time getting used to how my body moved and how each of my limbs felt. Finally, feeling confident enough, I stood up and attempted to walk, one hand against the wall the entire time. My legs quickly steadied and I found my balance before hesitantly stepping away from the wall. Each step grew steadier as I began moving on to exploring the room.

Navigating primarily with air and mana senses, I touched and inspected everything I could get my hands on. I didn’t know what most of it was and any enchantments had long faded away, but I enjoyed the various textures and patterns I felt regardless. Most of them at least, there were a few that came to sharp or pointed edges that hurt when I touched them. I didn’t enjoy the pain, no matter how quickly or easily it was fixed.

After thoroughly exploring the room, I wandered through the archway in the wall and out into the hallway. Following it past room after room, all of them empty, the hallway finally ended in what may have once been a large circular space, but was now more of a half circle as nearly half the room had collapsed into rubble. Something about the room set my skin tingling, the hairs on my arms raising up. It was at this point, while I stood in the archway and searched for the cause of my unease, that the other reached out again.

“Towards your right, near the wall, there is a book on the ground. Go over and pick it up,” the other said with more energy than earlier.

He continued to talk to himself while I walked over and knelt among the dust and rubble next to the book. As I reached out to pick it up I hesitated, hand hovering over it. There was an... almost... itching in the back of my head, like I was missing something important, but before I could learn what it was I was interrupted by the other once again.

“Don’t stop now! Pick it up! PICK IT UP!” he yelled, voice filled with an emotion I wasn’t familiar with.

I had never heard the other yell and it surprised me into action, my hand closing on the book before I could think on it further. Chills raced up my spine as my blood ran cold, laughter in a voice far deeper and more menacing than I could have imagined flowed across the now much stronger connection.

“heh. hehehe. hahahaHAHAHAHA. Free, I’m finally FREE! And with such a promising vessel hand delivered, I really must thank you. Unfortunately your soul will be too shattered to accept any thanks I could give, but I’ll be able to salvage most of the good stuff for myself, don't you worry.”

I could feel a foreign presence flowing into me from the book, my hand stuck gripped around it. The presence gathered around my soul, applying more and more pressure as it flowed in. My body collapsed to the floor as I directed all of my will towards fighting the pressure, but it slowly became too much.

Excruciating, mind-numbing, all encompassing pain accompanied the first fracture in my soul. I forced out more will than I knew I had, running more on instinct than thought as I fought against the pain. I was grasping for anything that could help, but it wasn’t enough as the other continued to grow stronger, his soul finally fully gathered around mine.

As the fractures in my soul spread, my attention caught on the four sections around my center that represented my sorceries and I instinctively reached for them. I reached not for each section, but for them all as a whole and in doing so I found what I had missed before.

Soul. Elusive and honest. The unique spark that fuels life and progress. The truest piece and embodiment of ourselves. The fundamental tie between mind and body. Unlike mana, it was an energy that could only be found in sentient life.

It felt like the most limited of all my sorceries, but also potentially the strongest. Right now, it was exactly what I needed to survive.

With no room for thought, I bolstered my soul and punched out at his. I took the fight to him, seizing what energy I could and sending it back against him. With my sorcery, the energy he was sending from his soul to crush me was free game. Once the initial surprise had worn off however, the fight for control was fierce. It came down to his strength and control over his soul and its energy from age and wisdom versus my innate talent from sorcery.

“How can such a weak soul manipulate soul energy like this? I am thousands of times stronger than you with a will forged through countless eons of bloodshed and battle! Don’t think whatever trick this is will be enough to beat ME!”

His words did not reach my ears as I was wholly consumed with our struggle. Slowly, but surely, I was beating him back. The more energy he sent out, the more I could subvert and turn against him. I continued to push, escaping his encirclement before surrounding his soul like he did mine. I squeezed with all that I was as small fractures appeared over his soul. Those fractures turned to cracks as the pressure mounted until it was too much and his soul finally shattered into pieces.

With our struggle finished, the unbearable pain finally overwhelmed what little thought I had left and sent me back into the dark.