"Oh? So, you recognize them then?" The Husk's grinding voice came out curiously.
"Not really." The Man said while looking over the rooms. "I found a journal hidden in the shelves." He started explaining while walking around the room, looking over the complex diagrams. "It talked about you, this tower, spells, all kinds of stuff. The one who was writing didn't trust you for most of it." The Man's continued gesturing to The Husk offhandedly. "Right at the end, though, they changed tones. Mentioned everything making sense and reincarnation research." The Man started looking over the models on the shelves, tracing the intricate 3D shapes and runes. "But, they stopped writing after that, so I assumed that the last part was some kind of mad raving." The Man stopped and turned towards The Husk. "What happened to them?"
The Husk didn't respond at first. Instead, moving toward a table on the far wall. When it reached the table, on which sat two very similar models, it turned to The Man and spoke. "He delved into his old research in this room. After he saw his old work, he recalled some of what he was, but it wasn't everything. So, he kept looking." The Husk turned back toward the table and looked at the two models.
"Did he find It, what he was looking for?" The Woman asked in a slightly gentler tone.
"Nearly." The Husk's voice sounded almost natural for a second. "He narrowed it down to two options, took him the entire time he had left, but he was convinced one of these would work." The Husk lifted one of the models from the table and held it above its head, turning its flat face towards it in an almost revenant manner.
Setting the one down, The Husk lifted the other off the table. "But, the other one would erase everything he'd worked for till that point. He'd forget, in exchange for potential and talent." The Husk lifted the model in its hand above its head, similar to the first one. "He wouldn't tell me anything past that. He said he didn't know which was which. But, I knew he was lying." The Husk's hand shifted around the model to hold it in a claw-like grip.
In one swift motion, The Husk crushed the model in its hand and flung its remains against the wall. "YOU lied." The Husk's voice, crafted from the dying breath's of a thousand unfortunate souls, was filled with a sorrow that neither The Man nor The Woman had ever come across. "I am Well aware of WHY you did it. But, that doesn't make it hurt any less, losing you, both of you, again."
The silence that followed The Husks out of character outburst was almost painful. The Man and The Woman knew only so much. And neither felt close enough to the monster in front of them to have any way of dealing with the apparent feeling of betrayal.
In a gamble, The Man moved to try and get closer to The Husk. But, as he stepped forward, The Husk vanished. From one moment to the next, The Husk was present, and then it wasn't. Without a single trace of any kind in the space, it had occupied the instant before.
The Man and The Woman looked at each other in confusion. Neither knew the other well, but it was apparent that the other was just as lost as themself.
This time, The Woman moved to break the silence. But, as she opened her mouth to speak, the tower shook violently.
The shaking didn't last long, more like a massive impact than a continuous assault, so both thought.
"I apologize for that" A Rasping terror of a voice came from the doorway. "I lost myself for a moment," The Husk continued talking while walking back into the room, as the last minute hadn't occurred at all. "Shal we get to engraving the spell formation?" THe Husks' voice contained none of the emotion it was demonstrating moment's before, having returned to the same horrendous, flat, grating sound. "I am fully capable of engraving it for both of you if you are willing. But, if you'd prefer to do it yourselves, I am sure you'd find a guide on finding your soul somewhere around here." The Husk gestured to the workspace, or maybe the tower itself; the two didn't know.
The Man couldn't think clearly. Everything about the situation had spiral further and further out of his understanding. As each moment passed, his mind was tossed about like a ragdoll time and again. The Woman was much the same, but she'd lost track of the conversation slightly before The Man, somewhere around the talk of reincarnation. So, when the time came for one of them to answer the question, neither of them fully understood, she opened her mouth first.
"I don't really get what's going on if I'm honest. But, I have to say I trust you more than I trust him." The Woman gesture to The Man dismissively. "Time spent together and all that. SO, seeing as how I don't get how any of this stuff works." She gestured to the models and pages of magical formations. "I'm going to say that I'd prefer you do whatever this engraving is." The Woman pointed at The Husk in a way that exuded confidence. In what? Only she would truely know.
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"Have you ever gotten a tattoo?" The Husk rasped out a question to The Woman. Lifting its hand with two fingers pointed together.
She lay face up on a table, mostly naked with towels, to keep what was exposed somewhat decent. "Uhh, does it look like I have?" The Woman asked sarcastically, her face slightly flushed. "why do you ask? Is it anything like what you're about to do?" The Woman sounded somewhat nervous.
"No." The Husk's reply came across as flat. At the end of the two pointed fingers, a golden flame appeared. "I ask because it defuses the tension. This will be far less comfortable and much more invasive." The flame on the end of The Husk's finger quickly changed from a golden color to a lightless black one.
"I don't like the look of that thing." The Man said from the edge of the room, where he sat to observe the process.
"You shouldn't." The Husk once again replied flatly. Without waiting for either The Woman, who looked almost panicked or The Man, who clearly wanted to know what the black flame was, THe Husk reached toward The Woman's stomach with its free hand.
Contrary to expectation, The Husk's hand did not make contact with The Woman's abdomen. Instead, it proceeded through her, as if the flesh didn't exist to obstruct it. Seeing the act, The Man moved to intervene, thinking that The Husk was actually stabbing into The Woman. But when he saw only minor discomfort on her face, he held himself back.
The Husk's arm pushed deeper into The Woman at an excruciating pace, taking several minutes to go even an inch deeper. After what felt like hours, The Husk's arm stopped moving deeper, having stopped at a little deeper than its bony elbow.
"Well, this doesn't feel great." The Woman said with a strained sarcasm.
"It will only get worse. The best thing you can do is relax, If you can." The Husk's voice came out as something odd. Not quite normal, but neither was it the unending amalgamation of torment.
"What exactly are you doing?" The Man asked curiously, his vision enamored with the point where The Husk's arm disappeared into The Woman's body.
The Husk did not answer for a while, seemingly deep in concentration. But, after a short time, it did answer. "I am locating her soul." The Husk rasped out. Then the silence persisted again for a short while before it continued speaking. "The space between the flesh and the soul is completely infinite. It is neither vast nor insignificant, but something in-between. The distance is not something one measures, nor is it something you can permit yourself to acknowledge. The space between is something designed to protect you from outside influence. It is a cramped maze and a vast open space."
The Husk began slowly extracting its arm from The Woman while continuing its explanation. "If I didn't care about her well being, I could shred that space and drag her soul into a workable environment. But, That space is a shield that cannot be rebuilt by an outsider, so I am moving to navigate the impossible environment without impacting its function. Depending on the one performing the process and the goal, you can avoid this step." The Husk's elbow emerged from wherever it was located, and as it moved further, The Woman's face showed more significant signs of discomfort. "If I were doing something to someone's class, I wouldn't need to do this. Nor would someone have to do this if they were performing the engraving on themself." The Husk's wrist started coming into view, and The Woman's Face began twisting into a grimace of pain.
The Husk didn't speak again until its hand started coming into sight. Clutched within it was an orb that hurt The Man's mind to view.
It soothed the eyes like the moon above the open ocean but burned them like a desert sun. It was smaller than a finger but vaster than the world. The orb shone in every color one could imagine but was also a blank canvas. Everything about it was confusing, but only for an instant. After a short time outside of The Woman, the orb became something normal looking.
The Husk held an orb slightly smaller than a head. It shone white with a little streak of blackish purple. Streaming off of it were strands of something, each flowing back toward The Woman.
After the orb was outside of The Woman, it seemed to float freely without assistance from The Husk. And, with a newly free hand, The Husk reached out and touched the blackish purple streak with a single finger. When The Husk withdrew that finger, the dark spot followed it, pulling away from the orb and disappearing into The Husk's finger.
"What exactly is that?' The Man asked without thinking.
"It has many names. Miasma, Darkness, Monster maker, and many more, I call it Tainted Energy." The Husk rasped out an explanation as the last of the Tainted Energy vanished. "Now, even if you have questions. I would advise holding your tongue. This part isn't easy, and I think everyone would prefer it if I get it right the first time." The Husk stopped The Man, who'd opened his mouth to ask more questions.
With all the preparations in place, The Husk finally moved the black flame on its finger towards the orb.
What followed was several grueling hours for everyone involved. The Woman experienced having a foreign substance push her soul apart and occupy parts of it. It was painful in a way that left The Woman's mind a wash of searing white, but at such an intensity that she was never able to lose consciousness. The Man Used every bit of his concentration to observe the process. And, while the difficulty for him was significantly lower, the blow to his psyche in realizing he would have to go through the same thing was hefty. The Husk's focus stretched thin with every moment. The difficulty in avoiding the strands keeping The Woman's soul tethered to her mortal coil was immense. Simultaneously, the strain from keeping the condensed energy on its finger intact wore away at its mental fortitude.
At the end of it, everyone was exhausted for their own reasons. And the next day, the exhaustion was stacked upon again, at least for two of them.