On a warm, clear day in April, and I gather up a pile of pillows and blankets to carry up the central tower.
“Where are you going with all the pillows?” Griffin wonders as I ‘borrow’ his. (It’s only fair. He ‘borrows’ my stuff all the time.)
“I’m going to lay up on top of the central tower and work on some skills while looking at the sky,” I explain.
“Why don’t you put them in your magic bag?” Griffin asks. “Then you wouldn’t have to carry them in your arms.”
“It only holds five kilograms… which is plenty of room for a few pillows and blankets, especially if I clear out some of the tools I don’t need today. Fine, I’ll put them away, but if you borrow any of them please make sure they are present when I need them, ’kay?”
After emptying out my bag of tools I don’t expect to need today (though keeping a pencil and such because you never know when you might need a pencil), I stuff Apple’s Crappiest Knapsack full of as many pillows and blankets as I can fit. With that, I head to the hearth and up the stairs without having to stumble around unable to see where I’m going due to an armload of pillows. Magic is nice.
I don’t care to lay on the stone or sit in a lotus position for an extended period of time. I am not of the opinion that meditation is better without a pillow. In fact, once I learn magic, I’m going to invent a spell that summons pillows. I will be the Pillow Lord. The Archmage of Softness. I will enchant my future skyship with softness so it doesn’t get destroyed when I inevitably crash it into something. (It’s better to expect things to go wrong and prepare for them than merely hope that nothing goes wrong.)
I don’t think many of the ancient ghosts loitering in my soul were soft people. Their lives forced them to become hard. I bet if any of them know Enhanced Muscles (Soften Blows), they were using it to train youngsters in battle or capture prisoners to interrogate. Maybe I shouldn’t be so uncharitable. They all started off as Alexander Fizzlesnipe, like me.
And yet, did they remember Alex’s later life? What happened back on Earth? I have to know, but I have to be able to remain myself as well. Myself, being Drake Corwen, who didn’t remember living those memories. I know Alex’s life up until age 30, and I’m alright with that. I can’t help that now. But I can keep any additional memories I unlock from anyone separate.
Skills increased: Enhanced Soul (Identity), Enhanced Soul (Fractal Consciousness) Skill acquired: Enhanced Soul (Gentle Soul) Description: Allows greater control over your magical techniques, letting you limit damage and side effects.
I’ve absorbed the concept of softness into my soul. And the name is even sappier than I’d expected. Why couldn’t I have just gotten a skill named [Soul Pillow] or something? Not that I was quite sure what this would even do.
I take some deep breaths and watch the sky. It might be harder to get a soul healing skill if I’m doing less damage to myself, but I would prefer to attempt to heal 1 Sanity damage rather than 10. I do not believe it’s prudent or necessary.
In fact, I don’t even think it’s prudent or necessary to push further than this today. I’m just going to lay up here and keep absorbing the concept of softness or whatever, because I can convince Aunt Rosemary that laying around staring at the sky is practicing mind skills and I kind of need a break.
Skills increased: Discipline (Self-Awareness), Discipline (Focus), Enhanced Senses (Celestial Inspiration) Skill acquired: Discipline (Patience) Description: The ability to calmly wait for upcoming events without anxiety and to refrain from action when necessary. Your Willpower has increased.
I’m not sure which I find funnier—that there’s a skill for that, or that it took me 8 and a half years to unlock it. Juniper’s right. I really have been trying too hard. Every moment of my life has been skill grinding, and since I’m a psychic, that included every moment I wasn’t even doing anything.
I need to give some good thought as to what actually causes experience. What exactly Inspiration is. And I’ve spent too much time trying to unlock new skills and not enough time working on the ones I have.
I don’t stay up there all day and go back to practicing other things, but I’m back up on successive days to keep at it.
Juniper shows up today and lays down next to me, not even bothering to borrow a pillow. “What are you trying to do?”
“Nothing,” I say.
“Really?” Juniper asks. “What have you been working on, then?”
“I have a lot of ghosts inside me,” I say. “Most of them are quiet right now. I really only remember parts of one or maybe two of those lives. The earliest life was man named Alexander Fizzlesnipe who lived in a domain called Earth a bajillion years ago. And I want to let the ghosts go. But I have to learn a bunch of things before I can do it.”
“What did you learn so far?”
I explain to her the skills I’ve unlocked. I surprisingly find it easier to enunciate what I’m working on when trying to explain it to a (relatively) normal 7-year-old.
“What’s next?” Juniper asks.
“I need to remember what those ghosts experienced without letting their memories make me somebody else,” I say.
“So you need to talk to them?”
“I guess that would be the best way to handle it. If I could manage, I’d be able to talk to them without having to remember what they remember directly. I still need to unlock a soul healing skill, too. And I have no idea how to do that.”
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“I don’t think I can stab your soul,” Juniper says.
I chuckle. “I’m still not entirely sure what a soul even is.”
“So find out. Are there books you can read? Or people you can ask?”
“I could talk to the nice ghost lady down in the Spooky Grove some more,” I say. “She’s been trying to help with this. But there’s only so much I can grasp at once and I have trouble focusing.”
“Sounds like you need more Discipline.”
“Probably.”
----------------------------------------
We prepare for another trip to the Spooky Grove. I’ve been focusing more on my skills and also trying to figure out the best ways to actually gain skills. Most people can’t see experience, and I still only can if I’m looking very carefully at the right moment. I keep experimenting, though. I don’t think [Psychometry] is the best way to see experience as it’s meant for detecting essence in inanimate objects, but that’s the only thing that gives me any real hint toward it. I probably need a more specialized skill for it that I don’t have yet.
“I’m coming along,” Meadow says. “The Spooky Grove’s just a day trip away and it’ll kill my experience growth if I sit in the Hearth for the next nine months. I’m a [Dabbling Wanderer]. I need to be traveling and trying new things!”
“Well, I’ll be your escort today,” Uncle Falcon says, strapping on his lute. “It would be a shame if the kids didn’t get to play in the Spooky Grove. We’re not going any further than that today, though. We’ll just be doing a run or two and be back before dinner.”
With the assistance of the Heroic Bard, we head down to the dungeon, putting in as much work on our skills along the way as we can get. Today for me, it’s identifying as many plants as I can. I add a book on herbs useful in potions to my [Mental Library] before we head out.
Between Uncle Falcon, Anise, and Meadow, I’m sure they can deal with anything hostile goblins are likely to send so close to the village. My five-kid band having three chaperones would feel like overkill if we hadn’t almost gotten killed last time.
Skills increased: Knowledge (Scientific Method), Enhanced Mind (Mental Library), Knowledge (Speed Reading), Search (Herbalism), Knowledge (Botany)
We reach the wrought iron gate leading into the Spooky Grove, and three fearless seven-year-olds can barely be restrained in going in to do some puzzles. Uncle Falcon is just a step behind us, using whatever Heroic skills he has to make sure there’s no threats beyond what we can handle.
I, however, am going to the inn to talk to Estelle. I don’t want the excitable children to have to wait while I have an extended conversation with a dead Necromancer. By which I mean Willow and Griffin—I’m sure Juniper would be willing and able to sit still and listen. Anise comes in with me just to make sure I don’t get overwhelmed by the three Basic-rank spiders in the common room. I am not yet at the point where I can take on multiple enemies of the same rank, even weak ones, but I do manage to kill one of them while Anise takes out the others. (It’s not like I’m depriving anyone of combat practice when the damned things respawn every five minutes.)
Estelle is waiting for me with tea on the upper floor. She’s not bothering to be visible today, but my mom is completely unfazed by having tea with a ghost she can’t see but I can.
“Hello again,” Estelle says. “It’s always good to see visitors. Did you just come here to say hello while your friends are doing puzzles, or did you just want to ask me more questions?”
“Can it be both?”
Estelle chuckles. “I do not mind either way. How have your skills been progressing?”
I tell her what I’ve accomplished in the past month.
“[Gentle Soul]?” Estelle says. “An interesting choice. Embracing softness is not something I would have considered myself, but it may serve you well in the long run, particularly considering it is not limited to one particular type of technique.”
“I wouldn’t have thought French poetry and art would be… uh… non-soft?” I say. “No offense.”
Estelle is amused rather than offended. “In the right hands, a pen can cut deeper than any sword. Particularly when there’s magic involved.”
I am both utterly terrified and utterly curious about what in the Void she might be able to do should her poetry become popular. Because there’s no way this is just about fame and vanity.
“Estelle, what exactly are souls?”
“Straight to the existential questions today? Fortunately for you, I have an answer.”
She drops a thick book on the table in front of me with a thump. The cover reads* Poèmes variés par Estelle Ledoux*.
I sigh in dismay. “I’ll just figure it out myself.”
Estelle positively radiates smugness. I don’t need to be able to see a face to read a smirk in someone’s aura.
We talk for a while longer, and eventually I detect the auras of my companions entering the Sleepy Raven Inn. I head downstairs to meet them and help them with the spiders. Griffin is practically bouncing off the walls with excitement, which is somewhat hampering his ability to sneak up and ambush spiders. (Not that he’d be having much success with that regardless as they can easily detect his approach.) At best, he manages to flank them while Rowan holds their attention.
“I want to meet the nice ghost lady,” Juniper says.
Once we clear out the spiders in the inn, Juniper, Anise, and I head upstairs while the rest of the party goes back outside. Estelle politely makes herself visible for the little girl’s benefit.
“Estelle, my sister Juniper,” I say. “Juniper, Estelle.”
“Hello,” Juniper says. “Brother says you are teaching him things. Can you teach me things too?”
“What sorts of things are you hoping to learn that your teachers in Corwen can’t teach you?” Estelle asks.
“Drake does stuff with souls. I want to do stuff with souls too.”
“You’re not reincarnated, so you don’t have any spare Soul attribute to work with.”
Juniper cocks her head. “My brother is full of ghosts he wants to get rid of. Can’t I get one from him? I want to do magic with ghosts too.”
“Hmm,” Estelle hmms. “That is probably actually feasible. Necromancers who aren’t reincarnated have to get souls from others to do Necromancy, and some of them do bad things to get them. Reincarnators, on the other hand, tend to have more souls than we can use. But you will need to study hard and get some other skills first before we can try it.”
“Like what?” Juniper asks, pulling out a notebook and pencil from her backpack. “I’ll make a lesson plan. I’ll make one for Drake too. He’s bad at plans. Keeps getting distracted by shiny new skills. Brother is very silly.”
“You will both need to learn Enhanced Mind (Compartmentalization),” Estelle says. “This will let you essentially keep memories in different boxes and will be very useful in preventing memories from bleeding over from other souls. To unlock it, you will need to absorb the concepts of memory, storage, and separation, so it may help to meditate in libraries and storerooms or with appropriate symbolic plants or images.”
Juniper nods attentively, writing that down. Her handwriting is way neater than mine. Estelle goes on with lesson plans and I stop paying much attention as I wander off to take a look at the various art pieces around the inn’s upper floor. I’m quite sure that Estelle is mostly just humoring her in giving her a lesson plan that will serve her well even if she decides she’s lost interest in becoming a Necromancer by the time her skills are high enough. She’s seven years old, after all.
“I think I’ve given you enough to work on for the moment,” Estelle says finally. “Be sure to do all your homework, and next time you’re here, I want to see some results. And do bring me some more art supplies. I’m running low on red already.”