Sheela and Csala were cuddling with him when he woke up. He had his arms wrapped around their sleeping forms inside their tent. From his estimation, he had slept for six hours. He listened for Ms. Tara and heard the sound of her heartbeat outside the tent discussing with Nyx. her heartbeat was frantic. She was nervous in the presence of the dragoness.
Nyx’s gaze seemed to pierce through the tent, reaching him. He could almost feel her eyes on him. It was a weird feeling, like she was so close, yet at a distance from him at the same time. Was it the bond? Of course it was the bond.
You’re awake, her voice sounded inside his mind. She sounded guarded, hesitant… scared.
That feels… he wanted to say weird, but didn’t want to sound offensive. He could sense a new channel open up in his mind and connect to Nyx, strengthening itself in the process. The sensation made him notice other channels in his mind — Achilleia’s and the mind-calming stone’s.
Achilleia’s, like Nyx’s, felt like a tunnel leading into the distance. But it also had a depth and a strength to it that Nyx’s didn’t have — like it was a part of him; or an extension of himself. The mind-calming stone’s channel on the other hand led no were. It was set in his mind like a part of its foundation, solid and unshakeable — like bones that had ossified.
He focused on Nyx’s channel and sent his thoughts through. How are you feeling?
I’m well. Jerome…? she hesitated to ask but she couldn’t stop her emotions from spilling through their connection. It was a torrent of fear and elation at establishing a connection with him; he could sense her gratitude but also her dread toward the being that had taken hold of the bonding process and morphed it into something more complex than she’d ever known.
Wait a minute. These were Nyx’s thoughts. But they weren’t being transmitted through words.
Communication with the mind can go beyond words, Jerome, she said through their bond, using actual words this time. So she sent all that through their bond intentionally then. Achilles may not be able to do this with you because he isn’t sapient.
“I can actually,” Achilleia butted in.
Jerome felt nausea hit him and his eyes rolled into his head. Thankfully, he was still lying down.
You fool! Nyx screamed at Achilleia, causing his head to swirl even more. He can’t bear the presence of both of us yet!
A headache assaulted him the next moment and he groaned in pain. But he could also feel another channel opening up in his mind to accommodate both of them — like a central channel.
A nexus of sorts…
Achilleia was silent, but he could sense her confidence in him. It was unwavering, unshakeable. It made him swell with pride; gave him the strength to push through the pain and come out on top.
Jerome unconsciously stirred the vital aura in the ground and soon, Sheela woke up, sensing the aura in the air.
“Wow!” Her voice broke him out of his concentration and he opened his eyes. A green mist blanketed the whole space inside the tent.
“Tara!” Sheela screamed with barely contained excitement. “Come see this! Quickly!”
Jerome stood up to excuse himself. He made sure not to disturb Csala as he did so. Ms. Tara rushed into the tent and stopped near the entrance. She was stunned still by the sight that greeted her. Jerome moved round her so he could leave them to use the vital aura as they pleased. Once outside, he stretched and headed behind the tent to continue his work.
Nyx followed him. “How did you do that?”
“I don’t think I did anything, Nyx. You and Achilleia did.”
“Achilleia? Is that what he’s called now? And why does he sound feminine?”
“Achilleia has always been female,” he said. “She created a male version of herself to honor her creator… her words, not mine.”
“Well, that’s stupid. Why be something else when you can be yourself?”
“You know she can hear you, right?”
Nyx scoffed.
Jerome carved scripts for a barrier around the place he wanted to use to work and created the barrier after burying his new binding in the exact center of the scripted circle. This new binding was orders of magnitudes better than the previous ones, and he had made sure to include certain runes that’ll make the barrier more… fun.
Nyx watched him work, smiling to herself. He had no idea what was going on in her mind but he also didn’t want to know. At least that was what he told himself. When the barrier was activated, she looked around.
“Impressive,” she said. “Though a dragon can do all this with the flick of a tail.”
There was that arrogance again.
“Sure you can,” he replied. “So? What was it I accidentally did back there… in my mind.”
“My people — and the phoenixes — call it the Common Path. It is established when the head of a bloodline takes his place and establishes his dominion over others.”
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“Your people can communicate telepathically…? Like the succubi?” Jerome asked, looking at her. His curiosity was piqued.
“Oh, no!” She chuckled. “The ubus’ psychic powers pale in comparison to that of dragons and phoenixes. Probably because they have no Alpha to establish dominion through an Authority.”
“Authority? It takes Authority to establish this connection?”
Nyx looked at him with mild shock. “How did you know about Authority?”
Csala entered the barrier, carefully so she didn’t hurt herself. She needn’t have bothered. Jerome had programmed it so everyone in his close circle could enter. But those that were friends but not in his close circle would need permission.
“Is there a different meaning to authority than the usual? Because Tialana mentioned it. At the time we were in battle so I didn’t ask,” she said.
Csala gasped in shock when she saw Nyx inside the barrier and bowed. The gesture was so smooth and stealthy that Jerome would have missed it if he wasn’t looking at her. She almost raced to his side to avoid Nyx.
Nyx grinned at her — like a predator who had found easy prey. Jerome gave the dragoness a pointed look to disway her. That did absolutely nothing. He shook his head and looked away, not wanting to have a stare down with a dragon. He’d lose woefully.
He focused on the space inside the barrier and snapped his fingers. The earth rumbled and bubbled upward. It formed high back chairs made out of rocks around a large, round table. The chairs were soon covered with a soft cushion of green moss on the seat and backrest parts.
“Domain,” Nyx said appreciatively, looking at the display of power.
“Oh, so you know about this,” Jerome said. He already expected her to, though. Then he turned to Csala and said, “In here, I can change the shape and form of every material thing.”
“Like I said,” Nyx flicked her tail behind her to communicate her meaning. Jerome shrugged.
“An Authority, Csala,” Jerome said, “can be likened to a governing law of the universe — a universal principle if you might; a truth or a decree, because it is a creation of a being of power. Such beings could say ‘down is up’ and ‘up is down’, and everything and everyone on the surface of the planet would ‘fall’ into space.”
“That’s not possible. How can that be possible?” Csala said, bewildered.
Nyx laughed. “A tiny succubus with a tiny brain you are, it seems.”
“Stop that,” Jerome spoke sternly to her, looking her dead in the eyes. “Just because she doesn’t know of such things doesn’t mean she lacks intelligence. I won’t condone such behavior around me or to those I care about.”
Ironically, the moment reminded him of his time with the beastkin and Csala. Nyx stormed out of the barrier the next moment, in anger.
“You shouldn’t have done that, Jerome — ooh. This is so soft,” Csala said as she took a seat beside him. She tested the integrity of the moss. “Oh, it’s soft and cushiony but strong.”
“That’s Nyx. She’s a dragon.”
Csala froze.
Jerome chuckled. “Don’t worry about her too much. I named her, just so you know.”
“Jerome, why in Odin’s name would you name a dragon! They’re destructive creatures!”
“Well, I see the both of you will get along just fine.” He gave her a pointed look.
“I need to find her; to apologize — yes. That’s what I need to do.” She rushed out of the barrier as well.
Jerome shook his head. Women. They always were worked-up about almost every situation.
“And you’d have a host of them hovering over you sooner than you think,” Achilleia chimed in.
I’d rather not think about that right now, he thought with a chuckle. With everyone else gone, he changed the setup of the space; the round table morphed into a crescent table and all the other chairs collapsed to the earth except for one.
Jerome dove into runecrafting. He carved out a fairly large rune on the table — his new work station. This new rune would enable him to view his work with a different lens and from different angles. The most common way to use it was to use it on oneself but that was something he had never tried before, so he was improvising.
The rune lit up as he transmitted a little essence to it. He quickly carved a circle around it and began drawing a levitation rune on the circumference of the circle. The levitation rune had to be placed at the four cardinal points. With that done, he started working on a very important tool he’d need.
To carve runes on gemstones as small as he wanted to work with, he needed a certain level of precision. Like the kind of precision in precision cameras that are used to make maps on Earth. The first rune was precisely that, in a way.
A precision rune.
This rune would help him carve out other runes precisely. But first, he wanted to use it, together with a light technique, to create a laser cutting technique, whose width would be less than that of a strand of hair. He was aware of the probability that the laser cutter would not be visible to the eye, existing below the visible spectrum of light.
But if it worked, it could—.
“‘Would’, Xerae,” Achilleia corrected. “It would revolutionize artifact production and runecrafting.”
No pressure.
He took a deep breath to steady himself. According to Achilleia, the soul of a sapient being will always have more effect in the process of artifact-making than the caricature of a soul Ilyrrah had given her. He didn’t understand it yet, but apparently, the term ‘poured out my soul to make something’ wasn’t just talk.
Achilleia had no soul to pour into her creations. Only a sapient being could do that. And if he succeeded in what he envisioned here. He’d what… be the first to do it in this world? That was huge!
He could feel the active precision rune creating an energy field around itself. He brought his fingers closer and the field pulled him in. His fingers hovered over the precision rune, stable and unmoving. He planted his wrists on the table just in case.
Then he created a spell frame around his left index finger. He willed the circular frame to shrink nearly to the circumference of the second knuckle. The circle of golden light shrunk accordingly and hovered above his skin.
That was easier than I thought it would be.
“Focus, Xerae. The precision rune makes it possible. Don’t forget what happens when you lose control of a spell frame.”
Yeah, I lose a finger. Got it.
“Well, ‘fingers’, Xerae.”
Jerome snorted. Her warnings didn’t dampen his excitement though. He created a second spell frame around his first knuckle and willed it to do the same thing as the first. Step by step he was able to get all the first and second knuckles on each hand encircled with a frame.
This was where Achilleia came into play. Since Jerome wasn’t able to fill the spell frames with spells, Achilleia helped him with that part. As each spell frame filled up with a spell, his fingers became heavier and heavier. Thanks to the levitation rune, he was able to keep them steady. The precision rune wouldn’t have been capable of keeping his fingers still if they were too heavy to be held up in the first place.
Jerome took a deep breath after the last of the frames was filled.
Are you ready, Xerae.”
Yes, Achilleia. Let’s make history.