“Why am I so small? Why am I…why am…” Kai stuttered, “Why is this place so big? It’s ridiculous. I had to approach light speed just to come inside!”
“Sir. This space is a shared mental projection. You can be whatever size you want here.”
Kai opened his mouth to retort, but a crease formed across his brow. He stood there in silence, thinking. Of course! It's a mental construct. Kai felt dumb. A soul space must be a cognitive domain; souls are not physical entities. Is that why you can relocate instantaneously between two “places” because one isn’t real?
After taking a moment to assimilate the new information, Kai attempted to grow by imagining his expansion. His body swelled outward, growing up and out until he thought he was relatively proportional to the surroundings. Kai stopped there. He was still in the body of Sun Kai, just appropriately sized for the room. The sense of overwhelming size was nowhere to be found. He turned his attention back to the hovering blue orb. There was nothing there indicating his previous ship. What was there was a glowing blue sphere, partially covered by contoured plates of ornate silver scrollwork. It hovered in place under its own power.
“What is going on? I have been stuck inside this body for the last five days, stranded on a planet called Long Yuan. What happened? You engaged the prototype drive. I remember that much. Did we escape... or…” His voice wound down like a top that had run out of energy.
“This is unfortunate. We knew you may be unable to retain much of your knowledge,” the blue orb glowed slightly with each syllable. “when you took on this form. We hoped the loss would not be this severe.”
Kai looked around the bright room. The golden screens had graphical displays of data; at this size, the screens were viewable and seemed to be reporting on various star systems' positions and energy output. He returned his attention to the A.I.
“You instructed me to play a recording you created should this occur. I think you should take a seat, sir.” A chair materialized behind Kai; he fell into it as though drawn down by the weight of the words.
A window appeared on the screen before him; a video recording of his former self began to play. There was something off about the image, though. For one, his eyes were blue, but never that blue nor that bright, but that wasn’t it. It was something else. It bothered him until he placed it: perfect symmetry again.
“I am Indices Braxon Adjha. I am recording this message should my rematerialization cause the loss of knowledge from my past. Since I can not know how much knowledge may survive the transfer, I will recount the events that led to this point, starting with how I became an Eternal.”
Kai leaned forward, transfixed on the video.
“I was born on Gelis Prime, in the Tanou Sector of the Unified Republic, a confederation of planets in the Juris Nex Cluster. I had a wonderful childhood; my father was an engineer, my mother a physician. I favored the technology of my time and followed my father into engineering, becoming a prominent engineer in the Science Corp, where I was tasked with implementing a revolutionary theory to create a faster-than-lightspeed space drive.”
Kai listened as his former self succinctly recounted his life as he remembered it. The odd detachment that his former self displayed struck him as off; it was as though he remembered some faraway event, not recent history.
“My team was able to build a prototype drive, but before much testing could begin, we were ambushed, and I fled with the prototype onboard our science shuttle. Beleaguered and out of options, I ordered the ship to engage the drive to effect an escape. Something unpredictable happened; I don’t know why. Was it the damage previously suffered by the shuttle? An incompatibility between the old drive and the new drive module? Or possibly even a flaw in the prototype itself? I was never able to determine. I know we were dematerialized and projected as a coherent data stream out of the galaxy into the void of space.”
Kai closed his mouth and swallowed. Dematerialized.
“That should have been the end. But through some chance of fate or destiny, our signal was intercepted and interpreted as one of their own. Was it curiosity? It is my only explanation for why they scheduled us for integration. Surely they could tell we were not one of them, but some time later, we integrated into their society. They have no name for themselves, but I have called them Eternals.”
“They have no physical form save for the celestial bodies they harness to store data and conduct energy on their interstellar network. It will be difficult for you to understand because you may have lost the context, they are beings of purely mental experience, and yet we became as them, I as a proto-nexus and the A.I. as a proto-relay. Anchored in the Bellaria Cluster, new to their society, we became a novelty and enjoyed much success. It has been a long time since then. The Unified Republic is no more; it died many eons ago. All that we knew from that time has long since gone. No matter how great, such is the fate of all; time is a respecter of nothing."
“Stop!” Kai interrupted. “My life, my friends are all gone? My family dead, never having heard from us again?”
“They died before we integrated; the Unified Republic fell not long afterward.” the A.I. replied. “I am sorry, Braxon.” Then after a moment. “Should I continue the recording?”
Kai sat there, feeling an aching hole of raw hurt exposed in his gut. He knew that it was a long shot to get back to his previous life, knew it was a near impossibility, but he had hope. Hope and Kai intended to try. But with the finality of this pronouncement, the realization of their death, he finally allowed himself to feel the hurt he’d secured himself against. When the wave of pain passed over him, he sat there numb, his eyes watering. After a long moment, he nodded his head. The video resumed.
“In our time as one of them, I have learned so much; as mental beings, we accumulate knowledge like physical beings accumulate years. Looking back at my work before, I was like a pre-teen monkey with crude hand tools.” Braxon laughed at himself, “Some of the things we tried to do were so primitive.” He continued laughing, “Well, we did dematerialize ourselves, so there’s that. Still, we brought our contributions, and our unique perspective allowed us some success as a scientist here. I achieved the rank of Nexus and, more recently, Indices. These are advancements that expanded my abilities. The A.I. has not been idle either, becoming a Relay and recently the Secondary Relay of the Bellaria Cluster. That’s when it happened.”
“An unknown technology attacked us, what we now suspect was a data theft. I have volunteered to take the forward position on this assignment. We believe my previous experience as a material being has better prepared me for this than Bellaria, our Advanced, who suffered significantly in the first attack. Our mission is to identify the technology that allowed them to attack us and determine how to defend against it. We do not know how rematerialization may impact me, nor how best to proceed afterward.” Braxon blew out a long sigh.
“I have accepted that this may be a one-way trip. One does not slip the mortal coil easily; I’ve done it once. And yet this attack presents a danger to all Eternals. They have treated me as their own. If I can save their society from this, I must.” Braxon paused here and offered a tired smile.
“You will not be alone. Relay will join you. Linked to your sea of consciousness, he will be an invaluable ally as you navigate this assignment. Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky one last time?”
The recording finished, and the screen went blank. Kai sat there and considered the message, his feelings still raw, his face wet.
“As you started rematerializing, this place began forming around us.” Relay’s bright blue orb continued to pulse with each syllable.
Kai looked around. “They call it a soul space. The attack you’re talking about is what they call soul fusion. As I understand, two souls are fused, strengthening them both. However, in our case, the original soul didn’t survive. I am all that’s left.” Kai explained what he was able to gather so far.
“Interesting. I suspect trying to assimilate your accumulated knowledge was beyond their abilities; this soul fusion causes real damage, though. I’ve had to isolate Bellaria from the rest of us, so her energy fluctuations don’t destroy us.” Relay huffed out, obviously frustrated by the effort it took.
“How long has it been Relay?” Kai tried out the name for the first time, “Since we jumped, it feels like it was only days ago….”
“Difficult to say, our kind measures time in how long it takes data to travel to the extents of our awareness… using a reference you may have context for… it has been billions of years.”
“Billions of years.”
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“Possibly longer.”
Kai shook his head as he stood. It was too difficult to believe. He closed his eyes to think, but he could still hear the whirring of some mechanism far off in the Pagoda.
“I’ll be back. I need to think.”
Before Relay could respond, Kai was gone.
“That did not go as well as I would have liked.” Relay's voice echoed in the empty control room.
----------------------------------------
Kai took a deep breath, his awareness returning to his body. He sat in Blooming Lotus position, but he felt the tears on his face, having come unbidden. He permitted himself a brief moment and wept.
“Congratulations, junior brother,” Tradesh Tast offered, announcing her presence. “You found your soul space.”
Kai looked up, his eyes red. Tast sat opposite him on the boulder. He quickly turned away. Using the sleeves of his robes, he cleaned his face furiously.
“Forgive this little one, senior sister,” he muttered quietly, “I have shown you another poor side of myself.”
Tast sat in silence, watching him, waiting. Once Kai was presentable again, he turned back and knelt.
“Thank you, senior sister,” he offered a bow. “Because of your tutelage, I could locate my soul space.”
“It is only my duty as your big sister,” she looked at Kai kindly. “When you begin, seeing inside one's soul can be unsettling. A soulforger must always accept who they are but never forget.” She fixed Kai with a fierce stare, “we alone can change that which displeases us.”
Kai nodded. She thinks I’m upset because of what my soul space revealed about myself. I suppose I am, in a way. For the first time, Kai noticed a small bamboo cage just beside Tast. Inside the cell was a beautiful blue cricket.
“Some soulforgers hide their soul light by blocking it at the source, using a blind or mirror to deflect it inside their soul space. Other soulforgers redirect it from their eyes to their cores to assist in cultivation; dual cultivation is not uncommon among younger soulforgers, but by the time you are well advanced in soulforging, it is nearly impossible to keep traditional cultivation in parity. It’s for you to choose which path is right for you.”
“Thank you, honored sister.” Kai knelt in an appropriate student posture. “I see you brought a guest to today’s lesson.”
“Yes, our final lesson, I’m afraid. Once you learn this, you will have demonstrated a solid soulforging foundation; then it will be for you to build on.” She picked up the small cage in her hands. “This is an Emperor Crickett. As you know, among the animals, only spirit beasts have souls. The Emperor Cricket is a low-level spirit beast that excels singularly. Its soul is remarkably cohesive.”
Tast opened the cage and deftly removed the blue insect. She held it in her palm, her fingers creating a cage around it. “Normally, low-level spirit beast’s souls quickly dissipate, like the viper yesterday. That makes it difficult to teach young soulforgers how to capture them. The Emperor Cricket’s soul retains its shape and position for a long time, making such lessons forgiving.”
With a crack, her fist tightened, and the sapphire insect disappeared inside. Permanently. Kai watched as blue vapor poured out, forming a solid blue ball that floated before her.
“To capture a soul, you must possess it using your spiritual awareness. Doing so is generally as easy as reaching and grasping it when your soul light is enabled.” She tossed the corpse of the insect over her shoulder. The soul of the Emperor Cricket remained where it hovered. “Once you have it in hand, you shift your awareness to your soul space, bringing it along. You can contain it using a vessel made in your soul space.”
“Here, give it a try.” she encouraged him.
Kai nodded, then reached out for the blue orb. As his fingers closed around it, he felt it; there was a kind of substance to it, pliable but firm. It was cool to the touch, like water on his hand. He pulled it over, moving it towards him.
“Good. Now capture it into a vessel in your soul space.”
Kai nodded again. All right, let’s try this. Kai closed his eyes and imagined himself standing on the third floor of his pagoda next to a lantern he remembered. When he opened his eyes, he was there. Kai looked at his hand, but the cricket’s soul wasn’t there. He frowned, shifting his attention back to his body.
“Hah, don’t look so disappointed.” Tast smiled, her white teeth showing through, “If you had gotten it on your first try, your older sister’s confidence might have been injured. It’s not unusual to struggle here. Here I’ll give you a tip that helped me. Don’t think of being here then there. Think of being here and there simultaneously; the soul understands bilocation better than we do.”
Kai frowned but accepted her encouragement. Without closing his eyes this time, he shifted his awareness to his soul space, opening the lantern door and placing the blue orb… it wasn’t there again.
“Pfff,” he sighed. A serious look came over him as he doubled down on concentration. He tried again. Then again. After five minutes of trying every way he could think not to lose awareness between places, just as he was about to quit, the soul took its new home in the lantern. The lantern illuminated with a deep sapphire light that matched the soul. He closed the latch, locking it inside.
“Impressive.”
Kai was back on the boulder, the soul gone from his hand. A smile came over his face.
“Thank you, big sister,” he bowed again.
“You’ll have to practice to ensure your technique, but you have it now. I have to say, Sun Kai, when the Elder told me you were unusual, I was expecting a harder time. I feel like you barely needed any help at all.”
“My success is only due to my senior sister’s excellent instruction.”
“Of course, it’s only natural for you to benefit from your amazing big sister.” Tast relaxed back from her kneeling position, taking a more comfortable seated one. “If that had been a spirit beast with good qualities, you could begin refining it for fusion, but your first-year instructor will review all that. Listen to me now. Never tell someone what souls you have fused with. Souls contain strengths but also weaknesses. If someone learned what you are, they might be able to find a weakness to exploit. Guard that secret with your life.”
“Yes, senior sister,” Kai pressed his hand together and gave her a bow. They chatted for some time before Kai waved her off. He retreated into the cave when she was gone, moving deep inside. Finding an orange salamander small enough not to feel too dangerous, he tried to crush it in his palm.
The salamander’s body was so pliant that crushing it with all his might caused it to compress and thin in places; as soon as he let it go, it puffed back up.
Interesting. It makes me want to capture you more, little guy. Kai examined the body of the unusual beast, noted it had gills, and took it in hand outside. Back on the warm boulder, Kai sat the salamander in the sun. It squirmed against the heat but quieted down after a minute of thrashing, struggling to breathe through its gills.
He watched it struggle to breathe for a long time, feeling monstrous for torturing the helpless creature before it gave its last breath. He watched and waited. As before, orange vapor poured out and formed a tiny orange soul. He grasped it before it could vanish and, with a practiced motion, placed it inside another empty lantern.
“More specimens for your collection, Sir?” Relay appeared beside him.
“Spirit beast souls,” Kai replied. “We’re going to perform some tests on them, try to understand what exactly a soul is. If we ever hope to find a method to defend against soul fusion, we must know everything about it.”
“Glad to see you accept the mission. Based on how you looked last time, I wasn’t sure you had.”
“Accepted. But also, it’s hard to accept. I’ll figure it out. But for now, I will focus on what I can do.”
“Should I prepare the laboratory then?”
“We have a laboratory?” Kai turned excited by that revelation.
“Of course.” Relay swiveled to face Kai, “Even if this space was formed in part by the previous soul that attacked you, you played an equal part in its creation. Let me show you.”