While spirits themselves are greatly studied, the spirit realm from where they come lacks a similar academic focus. We do not know where it is, how it behaves, how to travel there, or anything, really. At first scholars assumed that spirits are formed when they are summoned, but this theory was quickly refuted once the spirits themselves were questioned. And yet, quite peculiarly, that is all that they seem willing to communicate to us. Sometimes one says one or two sentences about their home realm, yet these rarely make any sense and even more rarely are coherent at all.
- Intro to “Spirits and their variations 101”
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A great pulse, a lurch, and I am.
It is the first time I am, and yet it feels so very familiar. Wait, no. I already was, once. I cannot remember what, or who, but I know that I already were. Weird. Isn’t the end of being, death, supposed to be the end? Oh well, I’m sure I’ll figure it our eventually.
Where am I? I open my eyes and see… mist? No, not mist. Hmm, and not clouds either. Strange, very strange indeed. Moving forward a bit, the strange mist swirls as I pass through it. I reach out to grab at it and nothing happens.
Huh? Looking down at myself I come upon another peculiarity of my new circumstances. I don’t have arms. Nor do I seem to have legs. Or anything for that matter. I’m just an orb. Faintly, very faintly, glowing and somewhat reminiscent of the mist around me. Huh, what am I? And how did I move without legs?
Well, I just did, that’s obvious. Why would I even need legs to move? I start moving forwards again as I ponder, the mist swirling all around me.
Maybe that’s what I was before, something with legs. But that seems like such a silly method of transportation when you can just will yourself to move. Whatever I was, it must have been a silly thing that’s certain.
As I am slowly, or quickly, I can’t tell, moving through the mist a shadow appears through it, heading my way. It gets bigger and bigger until it’s towering over me and then, a creature emerges from the mist.
First, a head. Vaguely triangular and covered in deep green scales. Golden eyes gaze out into the world and above them a set of short stubby horns. Following the head, a long body dives out of the mist, revealing more scales. And more and more. It continues revealing more scales until its ridiculously long body finally ends in a sharp spike.
Its gaze focuses on me and I stop, my pondering temporarily forgotten. I too gaze at its magnificent form, though if my lack of arms and legs is anything to go by, I don’t have any eyes to indicate as such too.
“Lesson one, youngling, keep your thoughts to yourself.” Huh? I hear a voice in my mind. I look around to see if anyone else arrived other than the serpent, yet see no one. Did the big snake say that? But it didn’t open its mouth?
“Yes, I said that. And lesson two, while using knowledge from your life before is good, learn to distance yourself from it.” I hear the voice again.
Whoa, that’s so cool! Of course, it makes sense that you don’t have to open your mouth to speak. Probably another silly thing from the before. Oh, and it can hear me too! That’s nice. And since I don’t have a mouth that reinforces the idea that you don’t need one even more. Cool!
“Focus! Remember lesson one, youngling. I do not have to do this favour to you.”
Oh, right, lesson one. What was that again? Yes, keep my thoughts to myself. Wait, does that mean that they’ve been hearing everything this whole time. Oh no, no no no. Stop that, thoughts! Don’t go everywhere! You’re supposed to stay in my head!
“Good, now listen carefully. You are a spirit. I am a spirit too, and this is the spirit realm. Like every spirit, there’s something unique about you. Focus inwards and find it, it’ll help you realize who you are and what you want to do. Lastly, very soon you’ll hear a call. It probably won’t be a call specifically for you, but your being will realize that you can be the one it’s for. Answer it, make a contract, and what follows should help you with orienting yourself fully. Goodluck.” And with that it floats of again. Maybe in search of its own call, whatever that is.
Goodbye big snake, I’ll miss you!
Well, the serpent’s gone, but what it left me behind will stay with me. I already mastered lesson one, if I do say so myself, so let’s get to lesson two. My life before, huh? Well, I know that I was something silly that had legs and used a mouth to talk. I wonder what that could be? Eh, probably doesn’t matter, I’ll just have to make sure to distance myself from it.
Onto lesson three, even if the big snake didn’t call it that. I am a spirit. That’s cool! Don’t know what a spirit is, but at least I know what I wasn’t in the before. The serpent is a spirit too. Hmm, that doesn’t seem right. We don’t look anything alike! Oh, oh does that mean that I will become a large snake too one day? They did call me a youngling after all. But such a long body has to be cumbersome. Hopefully not.
This is the spirit world apparently. Well yeah, duh! I’m a spirit, snake’s a spirit, then obviously this is a world for spirits. Or was it realm? Who cares! That still doesn’t explain what this mist is, but again, who cares!
Ooh, this one’s interesting! I’m unique! Ha-ha, I’m unique! So unique, like… every… one… else. Okay, maybe not that interesting. But the big snake did say that I can figure out what makes me special if focus inward, so let’s try that.
Focus… focus… focus… FOCUS! Aha, got you! Not sure how this is supposed to help me figure myself out, but apparently I’m… shit, I can’t find a succinct way to put it. Okay, let me see.
I am, cut off from the world? No, that’s not it. I can only grow from stuff that comes from myself? Closer, but also not quite it. Aha! Yes, I can only accept outside growth a single time, after that it’s all me. Well, I’m not even sure what all this growth business is all about, so whatever. Let’s continues.
Okay, then another part is that… Long? Will I become long like big snake? No, not that kind of long. Hmm, a very long stretch of time? Yes, that seems like it, though… it doesn’t seem to actually have an end? Cool, not sure what that means, but cool.
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And this third part, this seems to be connected to the first? Yeah, there’s some kind of generation of something, though I’m not sure what. Eh, since it’s connected to the whole growth shtick, I’m sure I’ll figure it out later.
Ok, so that’s all about my uniqueness. What was next? I’m sure there was just one last thing the serpent said, but I can’t seem to remember. Oh well, it’ll come to me soon, I’m sure.
As I continue to float along the spirit realm, thinking about all sorts of thing, a sudden feeling assaults me. It’s not quite weird, although it’s close, more like something I had forgotten about, some lost instinct awakening. It almost feels like someone’s calling out to me Oh! Oh, I know! That was the thing snake said. That I should expect a call or something! Ok, now how to accept it? Eh, it’s probably like most things here, just will it and…
In that moment, I feel myself suddenly be enveloped by the ever-present mist and the next moment I am transported towards whatever produced the call.
Which, apparently is inside of a cave. I find myself in a dimly lit cavern. Other than stalagmites and stalactites it's barren. Well, except for where I am and my direct vicinity. I’m floating above a complex circle drawn in some sort of red liquid, blood. My instincts whisper to me that it is a summoning circle, which on second thought makes sense, considering the circumstances. Around the summoning circle are some half burnt-out candles, the source of the weak illumination. Though I suppose now that I’m here I also contribute to the light.
And in front of the circle, in front of me is young, malnourished boy of a pale complexion. He looks exhausted, as if he just ran a marathon. After a little while he looks up and notices me. The faintest of smiles crosses his face before it’s replaced by a look of intense concentration.
“Devil that I summoned, the summoned devil, I’m here to make a deal. Give me power, give me strength and I’ll give you, my soul.” He speaks loudly and confidently. It almost sounds like a chant or something. Also, he thinks I’m a devil? No sir, I am a noble spirit, but I suppose his poor state has confused him somewhat. Whatever, I’m sure doesn’t matter. Wait, is this the contract thing Big Snake talked about? Well alright then, I suppose that is what I should do.
“Sure, sure, if a contract you want a contract you shall have.” As soon as I finish, the remaining energy from my transportation, that I hadn’t noticed until now, jumps into motion and forms a bond between us.
The bloody summoning circle beneath me disintegrates and I feel myself get pulled towards the boy. Eh, I’m sure it’s fine. My friend serpent wouldn’t have told me to do this contract thing if it was going to hurt me.
As soon as I touch him my perspective suddenly shifts and my perception is locked into just one point. Oh, the tragedy! How could this have happened to me? It only takes me a couple seconds to realize that it is the perspective of the boy, who now seems to be confusedly looking at where I just was. Maybe he expected something else to happen? Whatever, Big Snake said that what happens now should help me somehow, so I’ll just observe for now.
“That’s weird,” he murmurs to himself, “I’m pretty sure that wasn’t supposed to happen. Then again, the book is quite old, maybe the author was wrong about some stuff. No matter, it accepted my deal and now with its strength I can finally exact my revenge.”
He continues murmuring to himself while packing the few things he had stashed nearby. Apparently, some group of people killed his group of people over some different ideals. Those different ideals did include the summoning of devils though, so who am I to judge.
Honestly though, he seems to be a bit unhinged. He keeps talking about how “with this power” he can finally get his revenge. Which is just confusing because I have no idea what power he’s talking about! Of course, I'm no idiot. He seems to think that I granted him some sort of power, but that’s just not true! Sigh, I really hope I won’t be stuck with this crazy dude too long.
It doesn’t take long and soon we’re outside the cave, in some kind of forest. The next few days are spent going through it, stopping at night and then continuing on the next day. It vaguely reminds me of my previous life, though I’m not sure if that’s the lifestyle or just the various tasks in general. It’s honestly not too different from just wondering in the spirit realm. I meant wandering in the spirit realm. Actually, both. The changing scenery is a nice change of pace though.
Speaking of scenery, after a couple of days it began to really change. At first the trees just became sparser and sparser, but then they completely disappeared! Can you believe that! That would never happen in the spirit realm. At least I think it wouldn’t, I’ve only been there for a short time.
Anyway, scenery, yeah. Now there was only a field and off in the distance I could spot a village. I’m not sure if my intrepid summoner also noticed it, but judging from the fact that he’s heading that way I suppose it’s safe to say that he did.
And as we got closer and closer to it, his face became more and more grim and determined.
Eventually he reached it’s gates and without stopping shouted out: “Anais you piece of shit! I told you I’d be back! I told you I’d get my revenge! I’ll avenge my family you murderer!”
Barely a moment passes and a big man rushes out of the gate. When he notices the boy, his face goes through a couple of different expressions until it finally settles on anger.
“Look, I told you this a thousand time already Samuel, they were cultists. They summoned devils, sacrificing people to them in exchange for power. I couldn’t just let them be!”
“Oh yeah, then I suppose you’ll have to murder me too then. That is, if you can.” An insane grin forms on my summoners face as he rushes at the older, bigger and undoubtedly more powerful man.
He just grimaces, closing his eyes in what vaguely resembles sadness and then punches out. Which is just ridiculous since we’re still a couple meter in front of him, and yet the boy is suddenly falling over, his life spent. I feel myself be released from his body and the last thing I see is the man standing over the body and shaking his head.
After a short moment of transportation, I once again find myself in the misty lands of the spirit realm. Though this time with a little something extra. Apparently the contract truly did give me the boy’s soul, even though I didn’t give him anything. What actually even is a soul? Hmm, I don’t know why but that feels like a very existential question, even though I have one right here.
Oh well, let’s inspect it. Turning to where I have to soul stored, which seems to be somewhere inside me, I try to identify what it is and what it’s used for, because it surely has to have a use since the boy wanted to trade it to a devil.
I try to see if one of my spirit instincts knows anything, when one that I really didn’t expect rears it’s head. Aha, it seems that this qualifies as a source of outside growth or whatever it was called? Ok, but I still don’t know what that whole growth thing is, at least in relation to a spirit.
I continue to inspect the little soul, even smaller than me, until I notice that its outside layer seems to be slowly drifting away. As I peer even closer, I notice that the mist of my body seems to be consuming these wisps. And as I look even more closer, I notice that my mist, my body is slowly getting denser as I eat this. And that, that makes me… happy? Yes, happy.
Before I know what, I’m doing, I actively devour the soul shell until only a small bit is left, barely a fraction of the original. By now my body is no longer misty and is instead a solid marble of light. At the centre of which is the remainder of the soul. This time, I don’t have to prod my instincts and they readily supply me what it is, or at least its name. A soul spark.
I’m sure it’s important, my instincts told me what it is, so it has to be, but I once again do not know why! I’m begging to suspect that my first summoning shouldn’t have been so brief.
As I continue drifting there, wandering and pondering, I soon feel another call, another summon. Distaste fills me, but still, I consider it. If the previous summon truly was unorthodox, then I should follow the big snake’s advice, at least a couple of times until I can make out my own mind on whether or not it’s worth it.
I’m still hesitant though, so I try to see if I can tell anything about who is summoning me. As I focus on the feeling of the call, slowly another deeper layer of it emerges. It’s a sense of hope, some innocence, some kind of adventure or what, but most importantly I don’t sense any desire for revenge. Let’s just hope that those were actually the words of the summoner. And with those thoughts I am once again whisked away to a new land.