109 - Man in the Mirror

"Eeek! Don't hurt me! Please don't hurt me!" A timid shriek came from the foliage at the base of the nearby trees.

On his back, crawling on the ground away from Magnus until he hit a tree and could back up no further - shivering and holding his arms over his face . .

Dong-Geun! Prince of the Segye Imperial Palace! A cultivator of the Martial Courts!

Magnus could barely reconcile the previous image of the high and noble cultivator in pristine white robes with the pathetic figure now cowering beneath a bush at the base of the trees.

A sunken sallow face and two black eyes - Dong-Geun had been within the sleeping forest for a good while - almost as long as Magnus had had the forest itself, the changes wrought upon him were nothing short of shocking.

Gone was any indication of a noble bearing, gone was any sign of a cultivator, in its place . .

A wretch!

A true wretch!

Ragged and torn clothes, stained with black earth and blood, his hair knotted and covered in mud, a rough wispy beard . .

If Magnus hadn't known better he would have thought Dong-Geun was some beggar or thief who had been living in the wild for a couple of years - had it only been a few weeks? Dong-Geun, reduced to such a pitiful condition after only a few weeks . .

For a moment Magnus forgot why he'd even entered into the forest, walking towards the cowering prince and calling out "Hey, relax . . I'm not going to hurt you."

"No! No! Please! No more!"

"No more what?" Magnus frowned, looking around the forest clearing. "Hob!" He yelled, and again "Hob! Come out!"

"Eeek! No! I'll do it! I'll do it, please don't hit me!" Dong-Geun hadn't seemed to have heard a word Magnus had said, instead getting unsteadily to his feet and facing Mangus. "I'll do it again . . I'll get it right this time!"

From his sleeves Dong-Geun produced four smooth stones, still trembling, he threw them up into the air and began juggling.

The stones rose and fell, Dong-Geun caught and threw them in a halting unsteady manner, his attention entirely focused on keeping them moving and not making the slightest mistake.

"It's the best I can do, Master Hob! Hue . . hue . . I can't, I can't do it with five yet, but I'm getting better! . ."

"Hob!" Magnus roared, causing Dong-Geun to flinch in fear and drop all the stones. "Ho-oob! Come out, where are you, damn your eyes!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'll start again!" Dong-Geun scurried around, picking the stones back up and juggling once more.

"Knock that shit off," Magnus strode up to Dong-Geun, pushing his arms aside and sending the stone scattering. "Did you see him? Hob - he looks just like me, did you see where he went? Not that long ago, did he come through here?"

"Don't hurt me! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'll do better next time Master!"

Magnus shook his head, letting the pathetic wretch fall to the ground. Dong-Geun instantly set about gathering the stone back up and attempting to juggle once more, looking at Magnus and smiling desperately.

"See? I can do it with four . . I can do it . ."

Looking around the clearing Magnus saw no sign of Hob - none at all - he tried to call out, both aloud and in his mind - again, and again - to nothing. There was still no response . . he tried to circulate his Logos feeling a slight response from his core.

Now, in his spirit form within the Ether he could once again feel a connection to the Logos. But, no matter what he tried - what technique he employed, Magnus quickly came to realize that he had no way of detecting or communicating with Hob if Hob did not want to.

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A strange sense of dread arose in Magnus - a feeling that he could not place, as if his own shadow were turning on him . . Hob . . he looked and sounded exactly like Magnus, he claimed to share his thoughts - he had said that they were inexorably linked - in mind and in spirit, that's what he had said, right?

Now . . . now a void - a gaping abyss of doubt had opened up. When the silver suited Borges appeared Hob went into a panic, didn't he? He took control of me - forced me to abandon my Celestial form and did something to my body to make me unable to move or circulate my Logos . .

I am completely at his mercy, ain't I? If at any time . . if at any moment Hob wants he can just do this to me - completely cripple me . . what the shit? What the hells!

Hob . . he’s fucking dangerous . .

Magnus went over everything he and Hob had talked about - every single thing Hob had said to him was now suspect - everything he thought he knew about himself and his own inner workings . . what do I really know about myself? Hob said he was part of him - of Magnus, he had helped make sense of the vast amount of knowledge Magnus had absorbed, but this? The Lord of Embers? Borges? There was no way . . there was nothing with any of my memories about these things. How did Hob know so much more? He knew about the twelve - who they were - he could recognize Borges on sight, couldn't he?

And now . . now where the hell's has he gone?

One technique rose up in Magnus' mind - something he had not yet attempted.

"Ahem . ." Magnus cleared his throat, "OOooooooo Errrrrrrr . . . OOOOooooo Errrrrrrr . . ."

A Seer technique - something similar to what Baqir and Zaynab had used to locate them within the body of the Goddess, but instead far more localized - targeted.

Magnus kept the image of Hob front and center in his mind - concentrating on, well, on his own face, but on Hob's name. He channeled several strands of Mens into his throat, adding an otherworldly quality to his voice and making it so the reverberations echoed throughout the whole of the sleeping forest, reaching even the highest branches and the furthest of trees.

If Hob were here . . he had to be, right? Well, if he were still here, then this Seer song would find him.

A minute passed - Magnus still sung, repeating Ooo and Err over and over, Dong-Geun watching him with a scared, but curious look - continuing juggling the entire time.

The song now covered the whole of the woods - with Magnus at the epicentre, reaching out to every leaf, every branch, the melody seeking out the presence of Hob . . .

The forest was far bigger than Magnus remembered - he'd known it was growing, well, he felt it grow - as the days and weeks passed by he felt more trees sprout up around the edges, the forest as a whole getting larger and larger, covering a greater swathe within the Ether - but now, right this instant - it had more than doubled in size!

A sea of trees and white mist, as far as the eye could see . .

A reaction!

The song touched upon the presence of Hob - Magnus felt it, clear as daylight - saw his own reflection - saw Hob striding between the trees and muttering to himself. All of a sudden Hob stopped, turning around and going in the opposite direction - Magnus couldn't hear what he said to himself, but he could now see his outline, sense exactly where he was.

Hob walked one direction, halted, pulled his hair and muttered then walked the other - his initial direction, this time at a faster pace - suddenly stopping again.