Chapter 72: Guests and Friends for Breakfast

“Wait! Where am I and how are you here with me?” Arneala questioned them.

“Apologies Arneala. I am Pneuma and this is Trint. We are currently meditating and by chance, we stumbled upon your Soul.”

“What? This is my Soul? Get out! You can’t be in my Soul!”

“One moment, please hear us out and we will leave,” Trint pleaded while holding his hands up to show he meant no harm.

“You have to the count of 30, to explain or…anyway I’m already counting so hurry,” Arneala sputtered, clearly flustered by this whole thing.”

“In short, my Profession allows me to help others with their Souls. We seem to be able to assist in expanding the Soul Space and helping others enter theirs. We don’t know what else this could mean. If you want, we will leave now but you should know that I think your Soul Space took a massive leap in size and power if I were to guess. If you want any more help later, we are still at the Cease training compound.”

“Well, if you are correct, then thank you. I’m a little shocked and not exactly happy to have someone else enter my Soul Space. But if you are correct then thank you. I have not been able to enter my Soul space till now. What was it like before it expanded?”

“Well, it was just this room, and we could see your form in the fire reading or writing in a book like the one over there,” Trint explained and pointed out the journal.

“I was just writing my notes from today’s lessons from my mentor. One moment there and poof I was here.”

“If you want, we will leave now,” Trint offered.

“No, I think not,” Arneala challenged. “You’ve seen my Soul, now show me yours.”

“Seems kind of childish, what are you 30, 40?” Trint guessed as he realized from her expression, he had put his foot in his mouth.

“You think I’m a child? I am not! I am over level 500 and none of our people consider anyone over level 25 a child. So don’t patronize me.”

“Sorry, where I come from things were different and your comment meant something else there too,” Trint stifled a laugh as he thought about what she said and the American verbiage of “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

“Pneuma, do the honors?” Trint schooled his smirk and asked.

They walked together to the door of Arneala’s Soul, now the size of a full house inside. They walked through the open front door and then Pneuma reached out his hand to her. “If you don’t mind grab my hand.”

She did and immediately they were on Trint’s side of the city, near a house the size of Arneala’s Soul space house.

“What is this place?” Arneala gawked looking around with her jaw wide open in astonishment.

“You wanted to see my Soul,” Trint smirked. “Well, here is part of it,” he said as he spun in a circle waving his hand around indicating everything around them.

“So, my Soul is a house. Which one of these is your Soul?”

“You misunderstand, all of this is his Soul Space,” Pneuma tried to delicately explain. “Don’t be discouraged. We think we can help you grow yours further. Here, take my hand if you will.”

She again grasped Pneuma’s hand and then without effort Pneuma and Trint lift with Arneala into the air flying several hundred feet straight up.

“This my dear, is Trint’s Soul Space,”

“But there is a castle and that beautiful tree! Mine is just a small house. That’s not fair. How did you do all this?”

“With a little help from my friend,” Trint pointed at Pneuma. “We make a good team.”

“You need to show me how to improve my Soul,” Arneala pleaded.

“That is fine, but we have a condition,” Pneuma paused.

“Yes, I’ll do almost anything,” she agreed with almost no hesitation.

“Then you cannot share what you learned with anyone, not the mentors or any friends or family. We aren’t ready to reveal our ability just yet. Will you agree to this with a System contract?”

“Yes, of course,” She agreed and within a few minutes, read the contract Pneuma drafted on the spot, and signed it.

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“Ok, now what?” She asked.

“Now, we go back and get some rest,” Pneuma said and immediately she was at the door to her Soul. “I recommend you keep this door closed unless we come to get you. We will explore and figure out more ways to help you later, probably not till tomorrow night. Okay?” Pneuma confirmed.

“Yes, I agreed already and look forward to learning more,” She stepped into her Soul space and closed the door behind her.

“Well, that was an interesting start to our recruitment. Don’t you think?” Pneuma asked Trint, now back at his side.

“Yeah, not what I was expecting for the night but considering only a little time has passed we could get some actual sleep. Hey, wait, what did you mean by recruitment?”

“The connection to Arneala is now very solid. Bringing her here and expanding her Soul for her has created a bond between her and us. I believe that might be a way to expand your kingdom and populate this world of ours here. Just speculation at this point but we could give her a place to stay here and if we find a way for her to travel between here and there or tether her Soul more permanently then I think we can progress your Profession Path this way. I’m certain there is more to it. But for now, we have an option. Now we need to know whom we can trust. If no one else at least we learned something and can eventually get back to our people in the Subsystem world and help them unlock their Souls and build your kingdom with those already loyal to you.”

“I agree. We remain cautious with the Cease, but we can expedite with people we already trust. When you have time, try to find my family along these connections, or let me know if you can contact your old master. I’m going to leave and try to get some sleep.”

“I’ll spend some time here and with the time dilation I’ll probably be back shortly from that perspective,” Pneuma confirmed.

Trint opened his eyes to the room of the Cease compound suite. Looking around everything looked the same and his System clock showed hardly if any, time passed. There was significant potential for the Soul time dilation. He could plan and build and who knows what else on that side with next to no time moving out here. Then pop back and execute a plan. He already could process information and move quickly. This was just another advantage he would use. Now he just needed to learn how to weaponize his Soul.

Trint was surprised to wake to his System alarm clock. He had set a six-hour timer. Never would he have imagined as an Earthling, thinking that six hours was enough sleep. But since coming to the Iterations, he hadn’t slept that long often. He woke up feeling refreshed and eager to see what their mentor had planned for them.

One thing was for certain, Trint was hungry. Suspiciously timed a knock on their entry door rapped a pattern and their mentor called out, “Good morning. May I enter?” Ele’Azar request.

“Yes, come in. Pneuma our mentor is here,”

“Ah, yes, he is at the morning meal already. If you could hurry before he eats everything that would be wise.”

Trint used his Spirit sense and found a set of new robes in a wardrobe against the wall. “Give me a minute and I’ll be right out.” Trint used the adjoining bathroom and then grabbed the clothes he found earlier. Pulling them into his storage ring and then instantly equipping them. “Some things are just better with the System,” he smiled and left the room.

Ele’Azar led the way to a banquet hall with high windows revealing the light of dawn shining through. “Pneuma is over there, and the food is there. Get all that you want and join your friend and me.”

“Things sure have changed,” Trint grinned to himself. He headed toward the plates and began piling food on two he grabbed. He noticed the looks of the Cease elite. He was seeing a greater portion of them who seemed curious and a few that had outright disdain. Plates full he turned to his table and his left shoulder hit another person.

“You’re in my way,” a man who came up to Trint’s chest pushed into Trint as he scowled and tried to use his left hand to swap Trint’s plates into the ground. Trint deftly managed to save the food he had claimed as his own.

“No, I think you just wanted to be a cliche,” Trint laughed.

“I don’t think you know who I am?” the man sneered.

“I also don’t know who your dad is or your mom…Look you obviously don’t know much about me and if we must, can we deal with this after I eat.”

“If you knew who my father was, you wouldn’t dream of speaking to me let alone, try to mention my mother. Now bow before me or face my judgment.” The man declared. A few others near them slumped into a bow. Even a few who sat at nearby tables seemed to cower a bit.

“Like I said let’s catch up later,” Trint unaffected by the display, walked around the bully. “Some people just have to flex their standing. Even when daddy or mommy is the reason, they have any,” Trint mumbled to himself.”

“That’s enough you impudent bug, I am Scigren, scion of the Sapphire Gryphon dynasty, you might not bow to my Soul’s weight, but you will learn your place.” The man appeared after a single step in front of Trint, fist leading his arrival it landed on Trint’s stomach trying to knock the wind from him before following up with another hit. At least he tried.

Trint sensed the movement and flexed his stomach. Along with his added tension, something else snapped into place. As with his Spirit before being almost autonomic in some of its responses and use, Trint felt his Spirit form an unseen shell around him at a microscopic level just beyond the surface of his body. When Scigren’s fist connected with Trint’s Soul shell, Scigren’s Soul cracked through the connection of his hand. He had weaponized the attack with Soul and when it met Trint’s defensive reaction he crumpled as if lifeless to the ground. Unconscious he lay as a friend of his apprehensively came near to check on him. The friend watched Trint as he approached and nearly tripped over Scigren. But Trint already knew he was still breathing. He had jumped along with Pneuma to their shared Soul Space and checked the connection to Scigren and saw the damage. Arneala’s soul was a house with a fireplace. Scigren had a much more impressive Soul, but it had a cracked shell and the vitality within was flickering. Trint and Pneuma went to the surface of it and willed some life into stabilizing the arrogant man’s Soul. It regained some consistency in the light, but they left its cracked surface for now.

The stunned scion came to and was helped to his feet. He wobbled and needed his friend to assist him. “What happened? Why are we at breakfast?” Scigren asked his friend. “I don’t feel well, take me back to my room.” He looked sick and made a couple more steps to a waste bin and lost whatever he had most recently eaten as he threw up. Then was ushered out of the room by his friends. Trint started to walk to his table to eat when a few mentors stopped him.

“So, you learned to harness your shell? Care to test it against someone more qualified?” One spoke.

“Yes, why hurt the children like that?” Another challenged.

“We should teach you some Cease manners.” A third spoke over the others as he went to forcefully grab Trint by the arm.