Chapter 76: Pit of My Soul

The ominous feeling relaxed just a little when he saw it was a small boy. The boy, fortunately, was not a creepy movie kind of little boy but rather a cheerful boy dressed like a wizard. Trint’s mind processed the last few moments in a flash, and he realized his accidental flood from his Soul had expanded Arleana’s Soul Space and caused an expansion of an order of magnitude. He reached out and he sensed that he was now in the middle of a small town. The boy that walked in, Trint now recognized as Arneala’s brother, Arnold. How he knew that, he guessed, was his connection to her Soul space and their connected Souls.

“Who are you?” Arnold asked in his childlike voice.

“Hello, I am Trint. A friend of your sisters.”

“Oh. Good. What is she doing? Can I wake her up?”

“Not yet. Let’s go over here and sit down for a moment.”

Trint sat with Arnold for a while, talking. After a while, Trint walked Arnold to a room he understood was Arnold’s. Trint tucked him into bed and shut the door. He wanted to remember to tell Arneala about increasing security in her Soul Space. Arnold wasn’t a threat, but he still needed boundaries and guidance. She would likely be able to utilize him as a support Soul creature if she mastered the aperture, he thought she had materialized in the physical world. He searched and didn’t sense any additional creatures in her expanded Soul.

After experiencing the shocking and exponential growth in Arneala, Trint wanted to regroup with the team before trying anything with Bitain’La or Ele’Azar. They would understand his caution, even though he had initially agreed to attempt something with Bitain’La’s Soul. Trint’s unexpected success, in multiple ways, was good news, even if a little shocking.

Trint left to find the group just settling into their meditations while Arneala was even now manifesting her newly acquired access to Soul projection. There were no creatures of Soul like Trint displayed but there was palpable pressure from the areas around her. Trint walked over to her and tapped her on the shoulder. She opened her eyes and saw the mental image of her Soul room projected in her hands. The globe displayed only her Soul room with the fireplace and a haziness beyond that.

Trint allowed her time to observe and get the feel for it. The others continued in their meditation, while Trint and Arneala spent time talking about her experience outside compared to Trint’s experience inside her Soul and his encounter with Arnold.

During their talk, Pneuma had also begun to manifest his Soul but for him things were different. The fluid nature of his Spirit seemed to bleed into his Soul expression. The Soul he projected was like a living fluid swimming around and even through Pneuma. The fluid intelligently took in the surroundings and sped over to Trint. Out of the blob, that was suspended in front of Trint, Pneuma’s face appeared.

“Well, that was surprisingly easy once I figured out, I needed to hold it loosely and not be so rigid,” Pneuma’s wicked grin spread as he explained. “I wonder…” Pneuma didn’t finish his sentence as he experimented some more. The fluid Soul returned to his body, then surrounding him like a second skin. Then the fluid changed from glowing with power to black like Pneuma and his whole form collapsed like it had been made of water all along. The pool was cohesive though and formed a creepy creature. The blob elongated and eight legs raised it to chest height. Then it moved over to Trint.

“Pneuma, you know my memories and know I hate spiders and bugs. Especially giant man-eating ones. Please tell me you don’t have to take that form.”

The face of the spider morphed into Pneuma’s as it smiled wickedly it morphed again into Pneuma’s body.

“No, I just thought I’d have some fun. But you are just not in the mood, I guess. I think I have the hang of it. At least enough to use it similarly to my Spirit. Testing the limits will be fun. Should we leave our mentors for a bit and head further downriver?”

“Not yet, I said I’d help the mentors. We can’t be the only ones having fun today.”

Trint decided things were going well and their mentors were still in focused meditation. Trint jumped back into his Soul with Pneuma, and they established connections with both Mentors. Following that, he started with the old grandma of a mentor.

Sure enough, her Soul door was shaped like a cave mouth. It led deeper into a small cavern with a few branching rooms. He saw but didn’t interact with her Soul constructs. Instead, he went to where the Soul projection of her body was sitting in meditation and repeated the same process, he did with Arneala.

The results were much the same and the expansion developed the interior cave system and the surrounding area. Her Soul expanded from the six rooms and cavern to enough space to house a clan of people with open plains and terrain outside for expansion beyond the caves.

Trint then repeated the process with Ele’Azar. He turned out to have a projection of Tents. He would have to ask his mentor more about his background. They reminded Trint of the dwelling of a nomadic desert people. The expansion resulted in multiple concentric circles of tents that surround the main one. The result was four circles of connected tents that seemed to shield the center one from outside ground forces and offer a place for a meeting in the large center tents. Ele’Azar’s tent also had expanded to be the size of several houses with places for hosting, sleeping, and relaxing.

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After returning to the physical world, he saw the manifestations of the mentors’ Souls had become visible and expanded outside the Sphere in their hands to provide different effects around their seated bodies.

Four rings surrounded his mentor, like the tents but in a less defined form. While a cave-like shell covered the old woman.

Trint waited patiently for the mentors to solidify their new manifestations and exit their meditative focus. When the mentors joined the others, they all discussed the progress. They were all excited and eager to test the results in less sedentary ways.

“Well, it seems we agree that more exploration of the current results would be in order. But for now, is anyone hungry?” Ele’Azar said while pulling out a table and filling it with dish after dish of hot food and cold fruits.

“I love Soul Storage,” Trint exclaimed.

“Oh, this is from my storage device, but did you know, you can pair storage devices with your Soul if you have a Soul Smith make the connection? Although you could probably make the same connection with your abilities if you tried. But eat first. Then we can explore more of what we can all do.”

They ate and relaxed not talking about the recent developments but rather sharing stories of their upbringing. Since Trint mentioned their tents and caves, they were glad to explain their earliest memories. Bitain’La confessed to being over 500 years old and not originating with the Cease people but being from a related but loosely affiliated people who left the Cease. She was found and recruited by the Cease for her talent with Soul and had been with them for the last 450 years.

Ele’Azar was also over 300 years old and was from a Cease people group that occupied a world covered mostly with Sand and many oases spread out through the deserts. Their people had civilizations but were nomadic, following animals that migrated. He too was recruited when he was young, but his Soul retained the memory of his youth and thus the circled tents. His Soul was not as receptive as Bitain’La’s for adding Soul Minds to assist him in fighting or use in his profession.

He instead used inanimate hands, but he was required to control every movement with his mind. They couldn’t operate independently but he could form six sets of hands and use them to craft clothes. His people used looms and tailored armor using beast hides. He was a skilled leather and cloth worker. He was very gifted and imbued his crafts with Soul power and he currently wore some of his creations.

He explained to them how the various garments and leather would provide protection and was more protective than many plate or mail armor that had lesser Soul infusion.

He also could surround himself with up to three layers of Soul shielding. It took the form of shells and originated from the history of his people’s tent circles. It was a defensive formation but once protected he could use several sets of his mind controls Soul hands to fight as a pugilist outside of the domes of protection. He could fit a small team inside and allow a healer protection while supporting the rest of his team. Or if needed could be a second tank to relieve the main tank in a party battle.

They all decided to attempt sparing using their new abilities, but no one was ready for Trint to attempt it till he had more practice in a controlled or distant setting. They decided that Ele’Azar, Pneuma, and Trint would travel down along the flow of the river. Then have Trint go a half mile further. From that vantage, they would watch as he practiced.

A half-hour later they were all set. Trint scanned his surroundings using a mix of his Spirit senses and was able to infuse Soul into the sense, heightening the skill and allowing him to gauge the Soul power of some of the creatures in the surrounding woods and water. After his initial scan pulsed out from him, he noticed that there were several very strong creatures in the area. He considered if he could mask it better but for now, awareness and uninterrupted time were more important than stealth observation.

Trint opened the aperture in the space of a breath and saw the creatures in their miniature form. He flexed his Soul with a pulse and the miniature surrounding creatures came to fully be present in the world and in life-size proportions. They were spread out from him now as they expanded instantly to now be within 100 yards in all directions. He focused on them, one at a time. He started with the most bizarre. Turning himself around to face the nightmares in his blind spot.

He always felt that scary monsters in movies were only scary till they were revealed. Once revealed they were less so. Trint decided after looking at them that they would haunt anyone who saw them whether in the dark or midday.

The closest to Trint was a combination of praying mantis and centipede. What is with the bugs? I know I never liked the creepy crawlies. First Pneuma and now my nightmares.

The lower body being many legs in a long body with the upper half being six arms with scythes for hands. The head was more centipede than mantis.

“Come here,” Trint commanded. The bug abomination skittered to him. It towered over Trint’s sitting form, so he stood only to be looking at the creature's second set of scythes. The rest of it rose above him to at least 12 feet in the air.

“You’re a big fella,” Trint smiled, not sensing any danger but rather a strange puppy-like feel. The bug made no noise, but Trint could feel a sort of personality. It was protective of him and loyal. Very loyal. Kind of like a nightmare guard dog. “Combination bug, nightmare, and a pit bull. How about I call you Pit?” The creature nodded its head and a system message appeared above Pit in Trint’s view.

Soul creation acknowledged.

Creation Named: Pit

Creation can now gain experience like other System inhabitants.

Experience is not taken from the master (you) but rather given by the System in proportion to the creations’ contribution in battle.

Any experience gained individually by the creation will be given to the master as a 10% match.

Experience can be given for kills or protection of the Soul master (You).

With sufficient connection and Soul strengthening, creations can temporarily be given autonomy and direction, then sent to accomplish their master’s wishes.