I’d like to think that I’m a fast learner, but it’s hard to maintain that delusion when the people around me are making progress much faster than I am.

The Book of Lost Wisdom, Kalutu

Twentieth of Learning 1142

The trip to the island known to most of the world as The Brotherhood was fraught with tension. Dahr would normally have taken an interest in everything happening, but he couldn’t take his mind off Eric. He didn’t want to think what it would be like to be alone with Eldiss and Aisha, not to mention being surrounded by the Brethren.

The ride to the ferry was uneventful. If anything interesting had transpired, Dahr hadn’t taken notice. The ferry was much bigger than Dahr expected it to be. It turned out to be a floating wooden platform connected to a smaller boat by thick ropes. Fortunately, it was large enough to take the cart and horses as well as the rest of the group. In truth, the floating platform was large enough to hold several such carts.

Dahr sat with Eric, who had remained in the cart. He spoke to him softly, though he didn’t know why. He knew Eric couldn’t hear him. Eric’s soul was elsewhere, and Dahr had yet to pinpoint its exact location. In some ways, it reminded him of when he’d tried to track Kalutu and ended up running into a barrier he couldn’t pass through. It was all so frustrating. One thing was certain though—he needed to learn more, sooner rather than later. That meant getting closer to Gabby, who led the small group of brethren assigned to meet them.

She stood grouped with the others on the far side of the ferry, though she did cast occasional glances in his direction. She didn’t understand his power. Well, she was in good company. Dahr didn’t understand his power either. In fact, it was entirely likely that she knew more about it than he did. This wasn’t the time to approach her, but he’d talk to her as soon as he could. Preferably with no one else around.

He was pulled from his thoughts as the ferry started moving. He turned his attention to the vessel pulling the platform. It was little more than a weathered rowboat in which a man sat on a wooden bench, doing nothing. Yet the raft moved forward. Despite his earlier hesitation, he walked to where the Brethren stood. Though they weren’t speaking aloud, it didn’t mean they weren’t communicating silently.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hello,” said Quant, “I take it you’re curious about our method of transportation?”

“I am.”

“Garret is moving the boat with the power of his mind.”

Dahr let that sit for a few minutes without replying. He’d always known that the Brotherhood had powers, but he’d never pictured anything like this.

“Can all Brethren do this?”

“No, we’re all specialized. I couldn’t do it,” said Quant.

“How long will it take to get to the Brotherhood?”

“All day. There’s nothing we can do for Eric till we get there, but we can answer some of your questions, if you have any.”

“I don’t even know what to ask,” said Dahr. “Everything has happened so fast I can barely keep up.”

Quant nodded in understanding. “You’ve leveled too quickly. This often leads to confusion. Most people need time to adjust to what they’ve learned and the changes that happen to their bodies. It seems your god had reason to accelerate your progression. That doesn’t make you more able to use what you know.”

“How do I remedy that?”

“Practice,” said Gabby. “Starting with learning to shield your thoughts and emotions. You’re going to a place where everyone your age knows how to do that, because they’ve been learning all their lives. You’ve inherited this power later in life, and suddenly, you’re behind.”

“How can I learn to do that?”

“I’ll show you. Sit down. Make yourself comfortable. There are a lot of ways to shield your mind, but the easiest to learn is to visualize a barrier. Focus on it. Make it real. What is it made of? Stone? Metal? What kind? Think of the color, the texture, its ability to reflect light. The better you can visualize it, the stronger it becomes.”

Quant gasped. “Am I the only one feeling this?”

“What?” asked Dahr.

“We all feel it,” said Gabby. “Dahr, you said you never learned how to shield yourself?”

“No. This is the first time I’ve tried to. I didn’t have to in the palace in Rish. Why? What’s going on?”

Gabby looked him over thoughtfully. “Dahr, the barrier you’ve constructed is perfect. Not good. Not excellent. It’s flawless. It takes years to learn that skill. I’m not sure I could do what you’ve done.”

“I had a good teacher?” said Dahr, not sure how to deal with the compliment.

“No, Dahr, there’s something else going on. I expected you to fail a couple of times. I expected to probe the wall and find ways through it, so I could help you perfect your technique. I expected to do those over the days ahead. But there isn’t a flaw for me to exploit or a gap for me to enter through. You’ve completely locked me out of your mind.”

Dahr looked thoughtful. “If I were a suspicious person, I might suggest you’re exaggerating so that you’d have access to my thoughts without me knowing, but you’re not lying. I can tell that much.”

“You shouldn’t be able to do that either. I’m always shielding myself. For you to see if I’m lying or telling the truth means you’ve penetrated my barrier. I’d like to try something. Would you mind if I tried to attack you mentally?”

Dahr smiled. “Well, that’s not an offer I get every day. Would it hurt?”

“If it does, I’ll stop right away.”

Dahr looked doubtful but nodded anyway. “Okay.”

Gabby closed her eyes. Dahr could feel the pressure on his soul, but it was distant. It didn’t have much affect on him. Even when it started to ramp up, it wasn’t particularly uncomfortable. After a while, the pressure eased.

“What are you?” asked Gabby.

“What do you mean?”

“No one can stand up to that type of pressure without a decade of training. You’re not human, or at least, not just human.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’ve never met a human who could resist that type of attack. Higher level humans are as susceptible as anyone. You’re a complete mystery to me.”

“Well that sucks, because I was looking for explanations.”

“I don’t have any. But maybe, together, we can work things out.”

“I’m ready to start now.”

Gabby didn’t say anything aloud, but her companions moved off to the far side of the raft. Gabby sat across from him.

“Can you take your shield down?”

Dahr was about to say he didn’t know how, when he felt it fade away. “Apparently.”

Gabby looked stunned. “I wonder what else you can do.”

“That would make two of us,” said Dahr, wryly.

*

Twenty-second of Learning 1142

Eric didn’t wake up. Not the first day, not the second. Dahr didn’t understand what had changed. He had been aware Eric had been on soul journeys, but he’d always come back. Had something happened to him in that other place that prevented him from returning? Was he being held captive somehow? Was he injured? What forces could stop a soul from returning to its body? Dahr didn’t know but desperately wanted to find out.

Dahr spent his days practicing with Gabby and picked up everything she taught him with an ease she assured him wasn’t at all natural. His ability to probe, block, even attack with his mind was better than it had any right to be.

Gabby was a good teacher. She was patient, empathic, encouraging. Her expressive silver eyes watched everything he did, and if he hadn’t been so sure of her intentions, they’d have unnerved him.

He had been given a room in Gabby’s home, which was a small cottage. It was a quaint, wooden single-story structure with only a few small rooms. Even his servant’s quarters in Rish were better appointed. There was a woven mat for him to sleep on, a few wooden chairs, and a table. He felt like he was a kitchen servant again.

Eric had taken Gabby’s room which at least had a bed. The room could have used a bit of color though. Everything was brown or gray. The furniture was unpainted, though it seemed of reasonable quality to Dahr. Not like the higher quality furnishings that had populated Eric’s room, but at least as good as the few pieces of furniture found in his own quarters.

He had asked Gabby where she would sleep and she assured him that it wouldn’t be a problem. Maybe Gabby was like the reborn and didn’t need to eat or sleep, taking what she needed from ambient magic somehow. She still sat with him during meals. During one of those meals, Dahr questioned her about Eric’s condition.

“Won’t Eric starve if he remains unconscious? It’s not like he can eat.”

“Eric will be fine. By fifth level, your body is modified enough to absorb enough energy to survive from ambient magic. People who have attained tier 2 can’t starve to death at all. But in addition, we’ve been feeding him energy mentally.”

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“You can do that?”

“I can’t, no. But we have healers who can.”

“What about water?”

“His body is turning the magic we feed him into what he needs to survive. We may not know exactly what he needs, but his soul does.”

“But his soul is traveling. His soul isn’t in his body.”

“That’s only partly true. Your soul never completely leaves your body. Most of it does, but there’s always an anchor. A small portion that remains behind. It contains the plans for your entire soul. If a soul is destroyed during the journey, exposed to enough magic, it will grow back.”

Dahr listened, wide-eyed. He hadn’t known a soul could divide that way. It gave him hope that Eric would be okay, even if something happened to his soul.

“What about when we transition? Is it the same?”

“Yes. There’s always part of you that remains behind in the physical plain. If your soul were to completely leave your body, you’d die. Mind you, the part that remains behind is just a template. A set of instructions to grow your soul again. It’s not a functional soul, though it can become one under the right circumstances.”

Dahr thought about this and didn’t ask any more questions. It had given him the hope he needed. It didn’t change the fact that most of Eric’s soul had journeyed somewhere and was unable to find its way back. That was still scary. But Eric would be okay. Dahr had another thought.

“Gabby, how long will we be allowed to remain here?”

“Until Striker comes for you, at least.”

“But what happens after that? What if Striker insists on taking Eric from here? How will he survive?”

“We won’t let anything happen to Prince Eric. We’ll make sure he’s taken care of. If Striker insists on taking him, we’ll send a soul healer with her to make sure he doesn’t die.”

Dahr nodded. “Thank you. You said you have some questions about my class.”

“I do.”

“I can’t tell you much. My god won’t allow it. But I can say this much. I can see and read the threads that connect people. I’m only just learning so I don’t really know the potential.”

“Threads?”

“I can see the connections between us.”

“Visually? You can see them?”

“Yes.”

“That’s extraordinary.”

“You don’t see them?”

“No. We feel them. It’s more intuitive for us. We know things and we know why those things happen. We understand the underlying causality of events, but we can’t see threads the way you can. What do they look like?”

“When I first started seeing them, they were almost like colorful strings, but you could see through them. And they were all solid colors. The yellow ones were the thickest and brightest. I took it to mean that those connections were the strongest—the people I was closest to. But then I came across a multi-colored thread. Well, it had been solid yellow, but it changed.”

“Will you tell me who that thread was connected to?”

“My familiar, Kalutu. He’s a were-owl.”

“You have a were-owl familiar? That’s very strange.”

“Is it? I have no idea. What’s strange is that I brought him back from a transition dream.”

Dahr didn’t mind revealing this, because it was common knowledge back in Rish. It wouldn’t be that hard for someone to find out, considering the public interest in Eric’s transition.

“If you were to look at me using your ability, could you tell me what you see?”

“Yes.”

“Would you?”

Dahr thought about it. He didn’t see how it could hurt, and it might help. If Gabby knew what he was seeing, she might be able to explain it.

“Can I finish my porridge first?”

Gabby laughed. “Of course you can.”

Dahr didn’t care about breakfast, but he needed time to think. He considered what he could safely reveal about his abilities and what he needed to hold back. On one hand, he wanted the brethren to help him learn, but on the other, he didn’t want to get on George’s bad side.

At length, he found himself standing outside the cottage. Gabby sat on a bench in front of him. He summoned the threads and felt immediately overwhelmed, so he dismissed all of them, except for the one that ran from her to him. It was light blue, but unlike other threads he’d seen, it glowed as if it was suffused with its own energy.

“I can see the thread linking us. It’s blue. I don’t have a clue what that means. I’m about to use my skill now.”

He used Thread Reader. As long as he was focused on the one thread, it was fine. They didn’t have enough of a history between them for it to become overwhelming. Still, he could see when they met and follow the chain of events that led to this moment. Had he not experienced those events himself, he’d not have been able to read them, which made the skill all but useless. Ideally, he would need to read the thread and understand it without having experienced it.

“What do you see,” she asked.

“It’s hard to explain. The thread linking us has taken on a more nuanced form, but because we’ve only just met, the details are small.”

“What do you mean by more nuanced?”

It was a good question. What did it mean? Dahr looked at the thread closer, studying its texture and detail. The surface of the thread wasn’t smooth. It was like the surface of a rope. From a distance a rope looked like a line between two places, but as you got closer, it started to take on shape. You could tell if it was old or new, worn, stained. If only there was a way to examine the thread more closely.

The moment he thought it, the thread seemed to grow. He could examine it in minute detail. He picked out a small section, and it filled his vision. Wait, was that movement he saw beneath the surface? Threads were translucent after all.

He located the place on the thread where they’d met and spent a minute studying it. He stifled a gasp. Deep within were images of their first meeting. He could see the cart approaching through Gabby’s eyes. She focused first on Eldiss, which made sense, because he was large enough to see from the distance. As the cart approached, she turned her attention to each of them in turn. He could see her memories! The question was whether or not he should tell her. No, he decided. He needed to keep some secrets.

The more he focused on it, the clearer the images became. This could be useful, though a lot would depend on how well he would be able to figure out where he was on the thread.

Dahr shook his head to clear it.

“Are you all right?”

“I think so.”

“I asked if you could explain what you meant by nuanced.”

“Oh sorry, I was trying to figure out how to explain it, but I got sidetracked. It’s like when you study something closely and can see the details. It has shape, but the shape isn’t perfect. It’s textured. In some places, it looks like the thread has faded a bit, like old paint. In some places, it looks stronger. The color looks solid when you first look, but if you study it, there are shades and variations. The color isn’t even motionless, but seems to flow through it. I’m afraid I’m not making much sense.”

“No, I think I get it. Can you summon a different thread?”

“Maybe. I can’t guarantee it won’t overwhelm me.”

“Try it. You can always stop if you find it too difficult.”

“Okay.”

Dahr let the threads leading to and from her manifest. Immediately he felt the pain and confusion of too much, so he picked a single thread and focused on it. It was the same shade of blue that he’d seen connecting them, but seemed to follow her through almost the entire length of the thread. This was a major part of her life, influencing everything she did. He wasn’t sure how he knew it, but it was true.

He focused on the thread more closely but couldn’t see images like before. Instead, he felt an emotion. Perhaps this is what Gabby had meant when she talked about feeling the threads. He momentarily shared her deep empathy for people and the pain she felt watching others suffer. He was starting to get a real sense of her character, in spite of not being able to see anything.

“You like to help people. When you see people who are hurting or need help, you feel the need to provide assistance. You’ve felt like this for most of your life.”

She looked startled. “That’s amazing.”

“It’s true?”

“It is. I don’t like to see people suffer.”

He continued to go back along the thread, almost all the way to the beginning. He felt a bit guilty, like he was invading her privacy, but then, she had asked him to do it. Far back along the thread, close to where it originated from the center of her chest, he could see where that empathy came from. It wasn’t a single event, but rather a series of events that happened near each other. She had gone through some upheaval in her life, and the thread showed it through texture. It had been more regular, until it started to fray. The color faded a bit too, as if the thread itself had been scraped at by a dull knife.

“Something happened that caused it, a long time ago, but I don’t really understand. I’m not that good at reading the threads yet.”

“That you can read them at all is unbelievable. I have a few things to do this morning, but later today, perhaps we can get together, and I can help you understand some of what you’re seeing when you read threads.”

“I understand. You have to report to your superior about what you’ve discovered.”

Gabby’s eyes widened in surprise. “Why would you share that with me?”

“I trust you. You mean me no harm.”

“You know that?”

“I do. I can’t explain how, but I do.”

“Well, I’m already a bit late, so I’m going to go now. You’ll be okay alone?”

“Yes. I’m safe here.”

She studied him then nodded. “I won’t be long.”

Gabby stood up and walked away from the cottage. As soon as she was out of sight, Dahr went inside, walked to Gabby’s bedroom and stood beside Eric, who hadn’t moved since he’d been placed there. He had so many questions and not enough answers.

“George, I don’t suppose you can tell me what’s going on?”

I’m afraid not. I’m not tethered to Eric, after all.

“Then maybe Sheba can tell me.”

It’s unlikely you’d be able to talk to Sheba from here. Eric could if he were awake, but the brethren shield their home from the gods. If you tried to ask Sheba, she wouldn’t likely be able to hear you, or at least hear you clearly. You’d have to wait until you left this place.

“Wait…the brethren can keep out the gods?”

Not completely, but enough to obscure their day to day existence. The tether circumvents it so I can talk to you here.

“Thanks. That gives me an idea.”

Dahr sat down cross-legged on the floor and looked at Eric on the bed. Then he cast Thread Reader. Immediately, the world filled with multicolored threads of different thicknesses. Dahr dismissed them.

He started calling up thread after thread, studying each briefly before dismissing it. It took him half an hour to find the one he was looking for. It was different from other threads he’d seen. Solid gold, as if it was stronger than other threads. He put his will to it and it was as if he’d flicked it with his finger. He felt rather than saw it vibrate.

Something I can do for you?

“I’m sorry to contact you this way, Sheba, but I didn’t know what else to do. I’m worried about Eric.”

There’s nothing to worry about. Eric is in the Plains of Xarinos, but as far as I know, he is safe. I didn’t know it was possible for you to achieve a connection to me through the portion of Eric’s soul still present in his body.”

“Gabby told me that a portion of the soul remains behind, but also that it contains everything that the full soul contains. I guess that’s the part of us gods tether to. What do you mean as far as you know?”

Gods can’t see into the Plains of Xarinos. We’ve never been able to.

“Does that mean the Undead King is a god?”

He is not. That said, no one understands the unusual properties of Xarinos.

“Well, at least Eric is okay. Do you think the same thing that stops the gods from seeing into the Plains is the same thing that prevents Eric’s soul from finding his body.”

It is the assumption I’ve been working under, but nothing is certain with Xarinos. Still, I wouldn’t be too concerned. You were always meant to end up there. It just seems like your mission has changed only slightly. Now, not only are you to get there, but you must bring Eric’s body with you.

“You think once the body is there he’ll wake up again?”

It is a working hypothesis, nothing more. But yes, I suspect that will be the case. You know, if I were you, I might not mention that you were able to contact me this way to your hosts. It’s good to have an ability those around you don’t know you have, strategically at least.

“Thanks, I won’t say anything. Can you tell me where Eric was going when he was traveling?”

I can but won’t. That’s Eric’s to share should he decide to share it.

“Okay, I understand, thanks.”

Dahr heard the door to the cottage open and felt Sheba fade away at the same moment. He canceled Thread Reader, and sat as if in meditation.

“I thought I heard you talking,” said Gabby, entering the room. “Was someone else here?”

“I was attempting to contact Sheba to learn more about Eric’s condition.”

“It’s unlikely you’ll be able to do that here. We take our privacy seriously.”

“I can understand that,” said Dahr. “How did your meeting go?”

If Gabby responded, Dahr didn’t hear it, for at that moment, a surge of energy suffused him.

Congratulations. You have reached Nexus Level 6. New skill unlocked, Waking Dreams. You won’t be needing as much sleep as you used to, and you won’t need sleep to dream. It’s another tool in your arsenal, Dahr.

I didn’t expect another level so soon.

You’re learning more and more. I expect that the longer you stay in the Brotherhood, the faster you’ll level. Striker is still a couple of weeks off, so you have plenty of time to make progress.

Thanks. Hopefully I can work some of this stuff out, so I don’t feel so overwhelmed.

That’s what your new skill is for, at least in part, though it wouldn’t surprise me if you found other uses for it. I was impressed by how you managed to contact Sheba.

It’s starting, isn’t it? I’m getting more powerful.

This is only the beginning. You will be a force like the world has never seen.

Dahr still didn’t like that idea but didn’t say anything. Instead, he sat and reveled in the feeling of energy coursing through his body.