James looked down at the black flame in the lantern.

How. What.

The flame was strange. James had seen actual black fire in videos online back on Earth, it was usually a trick made by burning sodium under the light of a specific lamp, but it always was in a controlled environment set up specifically for it. Here? Here there was nothing. The flame didn't even look like normal fire, it wasn't flickering, instead, it was in a constant slow output, looking like the result of a low setting on a gas stove.

Wait. Don't get distracted by the magical stuff. What happened with my soul?

Entering his strange inner world was much easier this time and at glance, things didn't look that different. Oh, the shadowy threads were somewhat thicker and his connections to his infused creations felt a little clearer somehow, but it wasn't that big of a change. The dark-ball-of-yarn-to-be hadn't changed either, aside from the increase in the size of the strings. Now that James to look for, however, he had no trouble looking at his soul. Needless to say, that was different.

Before he even got the opportunity of directly looking into himself, there was a noticeable change, namely that his astral self wasn't invisible anymore. Instead, it looked like a black body, he could see black hands and arms and even a black torso, but lower than that it seemed to turn into a tail, a tail that got thinner and thinner until the only things left were strings, strings that went-

Into the ball. So, those must be the threads to everything I've infused. My connections with them.

With his new astral arms, James began to feel the rest of his humanoid body or at least torso. It was unsurprisingly pretty close to the one he had made to explore the Black Block, the one he had designed after his old self. Now that felt it, however, he could tell his astral self was closer to his old appearance than his attempt had been, so detailed he could feel every single hair on his arm despite being unable to see them.

Then he had an idea. Right now he was seeing and feeling things like a human. Like he used to. But his new body, the one he had reincarnated with, had a different way to do things. It sensed everything at once in a certain radius around it. Couldn't he use that to examine himself in a better way?

He tried and it worked. Like he expected his humanoid part was a copy of his human appearance, just entirely pitch-black. In fact, with these senses, he could perfectly tell every single detail that was included, things that would be invisible to the average person's eye, small scars from he was hurt as a kid, that one hair that always stuck out of the rest, the small bumps were veins went in his wrists, hell even his fingerprints.

All of that transformed into a single, perfectly smooth tube that went on to become a dozen strings or so. The difference between the two was kind of jarring.

So, if I thought of my soul as a shell-less egg, this must be the shell I made with shadows. Let's just hope nothing happened to the yolk.

James peered into his soul once more, and though the experience was as jarring and overwhelming as last time, he was reassured to find nothing had been modified, added, or erased. He was still the same inside. That's all that mattered.

His worries about any alteration to his personality quelled, James surfaced back into the real world. Comforted by the fact he had thankfully not permanently damaged his soul, he was now faced with the fact that he had absolutely no idea of what he had done and how it somehow created a black flame.

Ok, I'll just assume that every soul has some kind of protection that comes with the body and, since I reincarnated, I lost the old one and that whole infusion thing just created a new one. It's my best guess and the most reassuring one, so I'll stick to that. But how did "fixing" my soul create black fire? This was only supposed to be a meditation seance, for now, I didn't even have my casting ring on.

James quickly took a look at the instructions in the beginner's guide he had bought in hopes he could find an explanation for what had happened. May he had missed a step? Went a step further than planned? Or just misread some instructions?

Deep down, he knew it was futile. His situation was a peculiar one, and the chances this random magic guide he had bought in a shop in the slums of a modern city could provide any sort of sound advice were ridiculously low.

Oh, found it.

There was an entire chapter dedicated to odd results in any of the exercises proposed by the book. Maybe weirdness wasn't so rare.

Let's see... No reaction... Gravitational anomalies... Impromptu necromancy... Loss of hair... Whispers of a dead god... Litteral third eye formation... Ah, incredibly detailed introspection and unconscious toolless casting.

"So, you followed the first step of this guide and tried to meditate. Yet for some reason, no matter the how and when and where and why, you didn't simply enter a meditative state which allowed you to feel magical energies but instead went even further and had the chance to witness an everyday miracle, your soul. You are a rare case, my friend, for even some of the most intelligent magic users to exist have never managed to do so. First, let me reassure you, although incredibly rare this isn't a bad sign. Quite the contrary."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Oof, that's a relief.

"Despite its name, the Soul Aspect rarely has anything to do with the Soul. Or more precisely, its users don't. The ability to sense and manipulate magical energies, no matter the name you wish to give them, is tied to the soul, but magic-users rarely interact with souls, even theirs. There is a reason why gods and demons need consent whenever a soul is concerned, after all. It is a primordial force, every soul, no matter how meek, has infinite potential. For a mortal to even see one is rare. Even necromancers, the mages who have the most interactions with souls, usually rely on tools or their perception of other energies to interact with them. Despite common belief, a ghost is not a lost soul, it's a soul using a bundle of necromantic energies as a body. To truly witness a soul is an incredibly powerful experience, and if you are reading this you should be well aware of what I am referring to."

Ok, ghosts are a thing. Nice to know.

"In any case, you saw your soul. It could be a sign that you have an incredible level of introspection, but if you are using this book meant for beginners it is highly unlikely to be as simple as that. It could be a gift, each individual's relation with the Soul Aspect has its little nuances after all. It is a possibility, but not the most common answer. Frankly, most individuals who accidentally interact with their souls when they begin learning magic are simply relatives of entities capable to do so from birth, the most well-known ones being of course gods and demons. You should check your family tree or discuss it with your parents. Oh, it is possible that you hit the genetic lottery and awakened a demonic trait that has laid dormant in your bloodline for centuries, but I have the regret to announce most demonkin are simply the results of demonkin or demon parents, be it through affairs or less... Willing manners."

I... I have no idea what applies to me. Could I be super good at introspection thanks to the reincarnation stuff? Just have it as a boon? Or could it be that my body had some... Demonic origins? I have no idea.

"I hope this explanation helped ease your worries. Seeing your soul is a sign of magical greatness, not a reason to worry. You should take the time to research your family history and check whether or not you are part of a magical bloodline you were not aware of, some species have unique methods of using magic that can be hereditary and may hinder any other method."

I have no idea how to check for that. Maybe the other section about spontaneous magic with no casting equipment will help with that?

"So, you tried to meditate, and when you opened your eyes something magical had happened while you weren't looking even though you had no wand or ring or staff or orb or gauntlet or whatever it is you use to do magic. First, make sure there is no other magic user around that may have simply played a prank on you. If there are none, check for the fae. If there are none, well, you might have a very high magical potential. Some species or bloodlines and even the odd mutant do not need any casting equipment to do their work. Their body does the casting by itself. It's also possible the casting was made via runes or tattoos or chants, but you should be aware whether or not that's your case. All in all, this just means you can skip a good part of the early magical exercises to get better acquainted with your tool since you don't need one. Try to get your powers under control as soon as possible though, no one wants to wake up to their bedroom burning in hellfire just because they had a nightmare."

... Guess I'm a natural at being a wizard? Yay? There is definitely something odd with my body but there's nothing I can do about it right now. What I can do, however, is to go through the exercises in the book. I don't want to imagine what could happen if black flames started to pop up at random. Actually, is there a section about the elements or something?

"Is there elemental magic? Yes. Is there only elemental magic? No. Is there a full easy-to-read list of all the elements? Not as far as I'm aware. The elements are a much broader and more chaotic subject than Aspects, and since different schools of magic give them different names and sometimes go as far as to argue the specific classification of a simple spell, there is no hope of ever making a complete and detailed objective of elements. What I can give, on the other hand, are my observations. If you wish to know which elements you have an affinity with, there is a simple exercise. Try to fill an empty Everlantern with your magical energies and compare the results to the following list."

Ah, great.

"A regular flame? Either earth or a non-elemental affinity. A powerful flame? Either wind or fire. A bright flame? Either light, electricity, or fire. A pale flame? Probably death. A dim flame? Either water, ice, or shadow. For hybrid affinities or multiple affinities, I'm sorry to say that this easy, simple, and mostly free test will only cover the most significant one."

... Why isn't shadow a black flame?

"If you somehow got something different, either you are incredibly powerful, have an extremely high affinity, or have the Transformation Aspect. Given the likelihood of the last one and how this guide is addressed to beginners, you're probably just one of the lucky ones who are born with an incredibly potent affinity."

Oh boy.

"A blazing inferno? Fire, no doubt. A miniature firenado? Air. A cold blue flame? Either death, water, or ice. A tingling green flame? Nature or life. A brown or beige flame, simply an orb of heat or a crystal? Earth. An orb of light? Light. Black flames or an orb of darkness? Shadows."

James kept on reading after that, though at least he was reassured to know his situation wasn't that impossible. If there were precedents to the things he could do, then he would have examples to follow, techniques to learn. Now free of worries regarding his soul or any possible magical mishaps, he could take the time to go through the training methods noted down in the guide.

Who knows, maybe he'd learn how to throw a fireball. That would be cool.

Eh, guess MagicIsTragic would be happy to hear about that.