Despite the poor joke, Haru had just enough time to try and brace himself, expecting the floor to come rushing up as he fell through the portal. He’d used spirit gates before, it wouldn’t be that…

His thoughts were quashed as the rush of ice-cold spirit mana washed over him and pulled him toward his endpoint in a way the academy’s gates never had. The mana chilled him to the core like a cold shower in winter. He didn’t feel wet, but the way his body seized up was just long enough for him to blink and nearly miss his exit.

He bounced on his right foot a few steps before he remembered he had two and managed to stabilize before the world came to an end three steps ahead of him. All around him, the sounds of his entrance echoed across the vast, blue-tinted emptiness.

“Mists,” Haru managed as he looked out over the entrance to the Ektos’s Scion Academy‘s dungeon. He hadn’t realized it was connected to a spirit pocket dimension! He’d only heard of them, never seen one in person. Turning back, he noticed there was no portal back out.

“One way. Sealed in then?” Looking around his part of the ledge, Haru made sure there wasn’t a simple exit or a door he’d missed. It wasn’t the largest platform in the world, so it didn’t take long to confirm there wasn’t another passage or vent he could use more easily. When he was sure there wasn’t another way out, Haru settled in and began what he was trained to do.

As a test, Haru pulled on the ambient mana with the strength of his will. Using his personal power to structure the wild mana he was so familiar with, he began testing his skills. In a matter of moments, he’d created the three base structures of spirit mana and held them before himself one by one.

First, a blob of ectoplasm formed. The blue-tinted material looked natural in the world he was in, like a solid form of the mist. If he kept pushing, it would move from the semi-solid state into something more akin to crystal, but he could already tell there was plenty here for that, so he released the ectoplasm from his mental grasp, letting it disperse without his mana to hold it in place as it fell to the ground.

Next to where the evaporating ectoplasm had been, Haru sparked a healing spell. Without a target, the spell just gave off a gentle blue light for a moment, but it was promising. Ectoplasm could be formed in any amount, but a set spell like a lesser cure gave him a more accurate assessment as it pulled at the haze of mist surrounding him.

“Constant,” he said to himself as the softly glowing mist rushed to replace what was used. “That’s good. Looks like there’s plenty of mana flowing here.”

Dismissing the spell, it was time for the final test.

The third and most costly spell strained his reserves as a small mote of solid light came into being. Sweat was already forming against his brow as he finished, but it had been worth it. Holding the mana in place, he gave form to a wisp, one of the weakest spirit creatures an Ektos spirit user could call. He’d done it hundreds of times before to help build his reserves, but unlike making ectoplasm or calling power to heal a wound, it was infinitely harder bending true spirit to his will without being attuned to it.

As he thought, the tiny light waited patiently for its orders for as long as there was mana to feed it or until the integrity of its physical form gave out, whichever came first.

Leaving the wisp to its own devices for the moment, Haru took stock of the rest of the world and stood on the precipice of the cliff overlooking a swirling, mist-filled canyon. Nothing disturbed the mist down below, and only his breathing broke the silence of the world around him.

A rush of wind came from ahead, and the mists pulled back like the curtains on a stage to reveal the path ahead. Some two hundred feet away, the yawning maw of a cave opened, and twin rivers of mist flowed out along channels into the canyon between them like a waterfall.

“Great,” Haru said to himself, drowning out the silence with the word. “It can’t be this easy.”

Nothing was ever this easy.

Turning to the wisp, now was as good a time as any to put it to use and gave it an order. “Float across to the other side and see if it’s safe. If you meet resistance, don’t phase through it. Find the openings.”

Lacking the voice of a true spirit, the wisp blinked twice in the affirmative and began to cross the mist-filled canyon.

At first, the wisp moves easily, almost lazily through the misty air on its quest to the other side.

That lasted all of about ten seconds.

At that point, a giant maw erupted from the depth of the mist, and in a flash of teeth, sickly, ripped, blue skin, and more eyes than Haru could count, his wisp was devoured. As the mouth closed and the teeth gnashed his minion, his connection to it snapped like a dry twig in a rock slide, leaving him with a headache.

Nope. Never easy.

It almost felt like a relief to be proven right.

With a loud flop, Haru sat on the ground and examined what he knew so far.

The monster only came out when the wisp was about halfway across the divide. It was too large to get anything closer or further from it because of the canyon walls. He hadn’t seen a tail or legs, so it was more than likely larger than it appeared, but it didn’t come for him despite the noise he made.

An ambush predator? Maybe.

Maybe…

Binding his mana again, Haru condensed a ball of ectoplasm into a crystal state. With so little time between his testing and summoning the wisp, he was heaving at the effort as it dropped into his hand. He could have catapulted it forward, but he could throw just as well to get to where the wisp had been without wasting more of his reserve.

“Just like practicing for Elements,” Haru said to himself. Not that there wasn’t more than a point or two on the line if he missed his throw.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Weighing it in his hand, he got a good feel for the crystal sphere he’d created, said a prayer to his ancestors, and threw the sphere with all the power he could muster.

The crystalline orb flew through the air, parting the lingering mist easily, clinking against the wall of the cliff on the other side, and falling into the mist without so much as disturbing the creature that lingered below.

That’s interesting… So, can it tell the difference between spirits and ectoplasm then?

Now, he had something to work from.

Taking his first tool from the bag, Haru weighed the blood-bound rod in his hands. The glistening lines of silvery-blue blood were as close to a Brand as he’d ever been, and it showed in his care for the weapon.

Polished to a mirror shine, the metallic shaft reflected the spiritual glow of the weapon’s mastery of aether. Bathed in the mists and the power of spirit, it would become stronger with him and power powerful as it survived. Some even gained a grain of sapience. Still, like any other weapon, it didn’t matter how powerful it was. It had to be directed properly.

“Let’s see if I’m right,” Haru said to the emptiness before holding it forward in his left hand. As he had before, the young Ektoan wrapped his will around the aether he controlled, but instead of using it to entrap the local spirit energy, he directed it inward, through his hand, and into the rod.

With Haru’s focus, the device came to life.

The dull glow of the rod sparked to life as the blood-bound feedback sparked someone within him, and a minor connection to the power of souls, the power of the Bound Beast itself, formed.

A familiar sense of power licked at the center of his soul and sent a shiver down his spine as the control came as unnaturally as it always did. Then came the voices and feelings, the echoes from a time beyond his memory and the voices of those long passed.

This was the power of Ektos.

The feeling of the soul’s energy was a familiar one, but one he’d learned to tune out with the power of his will. They wanted him to listen, to obey, to fulfill their lingering desires for the promise of power, riches, and oh so much more, but that wasn’t what he needed at the moment, and even if he did, an Ektos mage wasn’t some cut-rate shaman. He had lived with spirits all his life, met the dead, guided them to the beyond, and these ‘voices’ weren’t the lost souls he’d come to know and help.

He could feel what was hiding in those ‘requests’ and the emptiness in their promises of power. These weren’t true souls, but they held power all the same if he let them join with him.

Of course, he wouldn’t let that happen.

Haru needed to survive, and he needed a body to do it. Letting in some random soul fragment was not ideal no matter how much of a boost they could provide in the short term. Losing himself wasn’t a risk he was willing to take.

There would be time for them when he had his Brand.

Besides, he didn’t need their permission to take what he needed.

Thank you for your gifts.

Haru focused on his connection to the blood and the control it offered, pulling on the fragment’s energy, draining them from beyond the veil, and giving their borrowed power form and function. Some fought his pull, upset their gambit had failed, others accepted it willingly as he borrowed what was theirs, glad to continue to help the living continue to do so.

Soon, silvery-blue light flared like a silent wave washing across the surface of the air, flaring into shapes and solidifying brick by brick as he focused on what he needed. There were no incantations, no invocations, no prayers to the greater power, simply focus. He had to forge the shapes in his mind, bend the mana to his will as he had before, and force it into the world.

In the silence, a bridge made completely of solidified spirit and willpower took shape.

In the low, seemingly omnipresent light, the crystal facets of the bridge gave off a gentle glow as Haru examined his work and caught his breath. It was about three feet wide all around and a foot thick at its thinnest point in the center. At that density, it would last for a few days without a stability enchantment or seal to keep the form from dissolving. It was a bit overdone, but if something was worth doing, it was worth overdoing.

Then, the cost of his power flared.

His hand throbbed from the use of the rod, from faking a connection from that level of control. Using the rod wasn’t foolproof like Brands, but they were taught to use them for a reason just like this. They were powerful and could mimic combinations without other kinds of Blood, but they ripped at your reserve and lowered them for a time like a bruise on the soul.

Now came the part where his plan had to be put to the test.

Weighing the rod again, Haru noticed the weight change and checked the engravings.

“Mists below…”

Rods were a typical tool, but they were far from perfect. The sheer amount of Blood that had been used by the forging startled him. Half the engraved marks were drained already. He could do something like that once, maybe twice more…

Still, he had more to do since the beast below hadn’t responded to his creation.

Sure, the beast wouldn’t respond to solidified ectoplasm, but would it still respond to a spirit passing over the crystalline structure?

Pulling on the rod again, he focused his will, but quickly put the rod back down. He could do this on his own. Sweat beaded on his brow as he pulled on the world’s ambient aether and encased it in his constructs until he’d created another wisp. With his intent in mind and his mana reigned in to the bare minimum, the spectral creature was a simpler thing than the first and would last only a few minutes at best, aether rich air or not.

As if knowing that fact, the wisp flickered like a candle as Haru gave it an order.

“Cross the bridge.”

At a walking pace, the wisp began its life’s mission. As it did, Haru kept his eyes on the mists below. Without so much as a stirring, the wisp reached the other side and blinked out of existence as its life goal was completed.

A promising result, but now came the real test.

Swallowing his stomach, Haru put a foot on the edge of his bridge and stamped twice. Nothing moved.

Okay. So far, so good.

Then another foot went down. Still, nothing happened.

Trust your work, Haru. You’ve got this.

With the pep talk, the Ektoan began walking.

A few moments later, he began running as he looked through the bridge to the mists below.

Something was stirring.

“Mist! Mist! Mist!” Haru mantra-ed as his feet began to move faster than his mind.

The mists below parted to the sound of a guttural rumble.

Haru slipped in his fear on the opaque crystal.

The face of the eel-like whale emerged.

Haru lost his footing.

The body of the beast shot through the god, splitting the air and making it scream as its mouth opened wide.

Haru fell.

Crack!

The monstrous nightmare crashed into the bridge, exploding the construct and sending the young Ekotan into the air.

Crystal sprayed in chunks and shards, digging into Haru’s skin as he flew. The flight was short-lived as he and the rest of the freed crystal reached their apex. For a moment, everything stopped, hanging in the air like disembodied souls before they began to fall. What seemed like forever lasted only a few moments as Haru crashed back into the ground with all the weight the pocket world could provide.

On the way back to the reality of the situation, Haru was reminded of a very important lesson he’d forgotten about soul projections like wisps and other spirits which, if he’d been thinking, would have told him to run all that much faster.

To those with a spiritual sense, soul fragments were brighter the more energy they had, and though the bridge may have blocked the wisp’s spiritual signature, it was not dense enough to block his intact, living soul from the creature’s perception.

The pain was a good thing though.

The pain told him he was alive. At least, he’d been told all his life that spirits couldn’t feel pain anyways.

When he was sure he wasn’t just a disembodied spirit, Haru got up and checked himself. He had a few cuts, a couple of bruises that he could feel forming where his arms had broken his fall, but he wasn’t much worse for wear. His reserves felt like they had taken the brunt of it though, that familiar, disconnected fatigue he felt when he overused his spells was blooming already, but he didn’t have time to waste.

Then he realized where he was as he looked around.

A smile bloomed across his face making the pain vanish as he looked into the maw of the cave that had once been on the other side of the canyon.