Despite Poppy's plea, Ori couldn't forgive himself. He believed that apologising and seeking forgiveness meant promising not to repeat the same mistakes. As Ori's fault lay in his weakness, it was hardly surprising that he felt he couldn't forgive himself until he had become stronger.
His inability to awaken—an aspect of his deal with Freya he had once dismissed due to ignorance—now weighed heavily on him. It acted like a straitjacket, rendering conventional wisdom irrelevant and compelling him to devise creative solutions that others might not consider due to his specific limitations. Fortunately, Ori had access to ample resources, a variety of rare and specific talents, and guidance from the notes and journals of High Elven Queens.
The Dreamwalkers' Ward was a prime example: an enchantment often overlooked but perfectly suited to his circumstances. As he prepared to undertake this enchantment, Ori also explored more options to optimise his crafting success and efficiency.
He spent the entire day and night reading and preparing for practical exercises in enchanting. He focused on enchantments that didn't require class-specific spells or abilities restricted by his lack of a Mana Nexus. Only Poppy's brief but welcome food deliveries interrupted his intense focus on his craft. During these moments, the few words exchanged were often awkward, as if Poppy had run out of things to say after the last time she stayed and talked.
In the solitude of his workshop, lit only by the dim glow of the pre-dawn light, Ori was surrounded by piles of Yewheart Wood, a material prized for its resilience and Mana conductivity. He whittled each piece of wood into smooth, slender forms that fit comfortably in a caster's hand. Once shaped, each wand was infused with alchemical catalysts—mixtures of rare herbs and powdered minerals that Ori had painstakingly prepared. Following infusion, he carved intricate runes and glyphs along the length of each wand, each symbol designed to channel and amplify the magical energies during casting.
He crafted additional wands and fine-tuned crafting tools including an inscription tool which maintained its sharpness while dispensing molten silver into precisely carved grooves. He also produced basic alchemical concoctions and experimented with spell-induced pops and micro-explosions.
His methodical approach to enchanting was born out of necessity due to his lack of a Mana Nexus. This forced him to rely on the sparse, unaligned atmospheric mana available, severely limiting the complexity of enchantments he could effectively produce and extending the time required to complete even simple tasks.
Because of his slow progress, Ori often considered crafting an Arcane Source of his own. He knew it was possible as his soul-bound artefact acted as a weak source he or Sera could draw upon when needed. But as no existing guides could offer crafting solutions that took into account his unique predicament of being devoid of a Mana Nexus, he considered seeking assistance from Harriet, who as Queen had access to vast resources and knowledge about magical constructs, or even Poppy, whose experiences and nature could lead to effective solutions or alternatives. However, he quickly dismissed these thoughts, unwilling to impose further burdens on them unless he was desperate, while needing space away from their presence to stabilise his own feelings.
As he worked, Ori often returned to his initial weakness, the very flaw that drove his relentless pursuit of arcane power. While he couldn't physically strengthen himself to match those at the Greater or Sovereign ranks in the next two weeks, he believed he could borrow enough power from his enchantments to survive encounters with such formidable opponents. This realisation fuelled his dedication to master his craft, shaping his approach to focus on leveraging enchantments for defence and strategic advantage.
Ori's affinity for what he termed "Modern Warfare" began to influence his thoughts. It was as if being placed inside a dark cave had goaded him into opening Pandora's box. His expertise wasn't limited to his knowledge of firearms and explosives and their extensive maintenance and field use, gleaned from Saint Donna's divination. It also encompassed a strategic approach from his world, an approach bourne from his age; from combat that favoured asymmetric tactics to precision strikes and information warfare—concepts as integral to twenty-first-century war as the thermonuclear bomb.
Idly, Ori began to consider enchantments for surveillance and intelligence gathering that could operate undetected or deliver precise magical effects from a distance, thereby circumventing traditional defences.
However, while he had access to texts detailing darker paths of necromancy and soul enslavement, Ori steered clear of these practices, feeling a deep-seated antipathy towards them that resonated with his own affinities and instincts. In addition, the life and death of Eltitus also served as an enduring warning against the devaluation of life, the living, and the souls therein.
This inevitably drew his attention to the question: what exactly is a soul? Had he been asked this a month ago, his answer would have been a simple, agnostic "I don't know, and I probably don't care until someone can prove they exist." Now, however, having seen souls with his own eyes and felt their presence and absence like warmth and light on bare skin, Ori's perspective had shifted. He had warded souls from death, allowing magical healing to repair damage to bodies that, with the inclusion of vitality and life force, grew more complex in both biomechanical and metaphysical aspects the more he learnt about them. Beyond the path of madness that was to doubt his senses and experiences, Ori could only accept this new reality: there was life after death, under special circumstances, people could be brought back from the dead, the undead existed, and he was at the very beginning of a lifelong journey to understand it all.
He relived in vivid detail that cresting tide of soul stuff flowing from Poppy towards him as she came that final time. It wasn't a homogenous energy; it had substance, textures, perhaps even organs or meaningful internal structures. The fragments of Eltitus's memory helped place what he saw in context with its superstitions and theories, but in many ways, Ori's current ability to see souls already far surpassed that of Eltitus.
While he continued to craft, part of his mind drifted over to Sera, and how perhaps his developing talents in the soul were likely key to solving Harriet's crisis. She needed to level up, to progress from Sovereign rank to Immortal rank to have any chance of survival, Ori concluded.
> Sovereign (Boundary: Level 75, B Rank): A mark to both one's ambition and circumstance. In the Sovereign realm, individuals' auras naturally extend their impact beyond personal boundaries, influencing the larger community and environment. This involves unconsciously shaping dwellings and landscapes, communities and practices, or leading or guiding others in the realm of magic. Most individuals aspire to ascend to this rank over their prolonged lifetimes, but vanishingly few ever achieve it. Requirements include ten Accolades, varied Peritia, at least one class at the Arch Realm or Racial Evolution to High, comprehension of a Sovereign Affinity or a requisite amount of Grace, the merging of every spell or ability within one Spell Constellation, and the unification of two characteristics.
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> Immortal (Boundary: Level 100, A Rank): The Immortal Realm is the threshold of transcending conventional paracausal boundaries. While not yet divine, those in this realm exhibit characteristics and abilities that are precursors to divinity, such as immortal life and local authority over fundamental aspects of nature. It is a rare pinnacle, especially for humans, as achieving this often requires harnessing tremendous quantities of Grace alongside Peritia. Requirements include ten Rare Accolades, varied Peritia, at least one class at the Arch Realm or Racial Evolution to Arch, comprehension of an Immortal Affinity, and comprehension of an Authority.
He wasn't sure how yet, but Ori knew that something about class and racial evolutions did something profound, fundamentally changing the nature of the soul. Perhaps if he could generate insights by direct access to souls… But that would all but certainly require Poppy, Harriet or likely both of their aids.
Amidst his enchanting, Ori briefly contemplated delving into what he considered more controversial areas of magic that would challenge foundational principles of physics and engineering, that dark Pandora's box Ori instinctively knew was far more dangerous than the void or necromancy, in terms of unintended consequences. Laws of conservation, mass-energy conversion, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, causality and the speed of light. The potential of circumventing these laws could yield powerful magical exploits. However, considering the inherent dangers and his limited expertise, coupled with a self-imposed deadline of two weeks, Ori decided that leaving such ventures be for now until he could ensure a safer and more controlled environment and far more privacy, was the best bet, despite how that cold, spiteful part of him wanted a weapon, a reassuring thing to hold while feeling threatened in the dark.
As such thoughts consumed a third of his mind, the rest worked on his craft. The enchantments he envisioned were simple yet crucial. Using basic materials such as sticks for healing wands and stones for protective talismans, each item was infused with a simple spell capable of either healing minor wounds or providing a modest shield against physical attacks, ideal for field medics or scouts.
Repetition carved the processes into his mind and muscle memory, he could feel his soul shift and grow as Peritia lazily swirled around him, his actions inviting the energy of fate itself to rewrite him as he sought to rewrite purpose and function into the inanimate over and over again.
He switched focus towards creating items that would aid in surveillance and information warfare. These included enchanted proximity sensors and seemingly innocuous objects capable of capturing and relaying sights and sounds over long distances, allowing users to gather intelligence without risking exposure.
It was now getting late on the second day of his crafting session and the clawing tiredness of a muddled mind and a body stiff from sitting still for far too many hours signalled the end of his flow state.
He stood and examined the products of his work; several channelling wands, Yewheart rings of minor healing, paired stones of alarm that lit up whenever a living being got close to the paired detection stone, and a brooch with a dream enchantment that warded one from unwanted dream intrusions.
Satisfied, Ori wore the ring and as he made his way back to his suite, placed the paired detection stones along the corridor as he contemplated the daunting task of crafting the Dreamwalkers' Ward, a challenge he was unsure he could readily overcome.
At the core of this artefact was a silver brooch, a material he had not inscribed upon before. Silver's celestial neutrality and mana conductivity would ideally amplify the ward's dream-manipulating capabilities, but working with such a hardy material required precision and steady hands he'd never demonstrated in his previous life.
The engraving on metal posed its own set of challenges. Unlike the more forgiving Yewheart Wood he was becoming accustomed to, silver offered no room for error. Each line had to be precisely planned and perfectly carved as the metal would unforgivingly reflect any slip or misjudgement. This task was made even more daunting by the sheer amount of mana required to quicken the ward enchantment; ten times more mana than Ori had ever attempted to draw from the atmosphere, outside of his domain—a formidable challenge given his lack of a Mana Nexus.
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Moreover, maintaining an active domain during the Quickening of the enchantment added another layer of difficulty. The domain wasn't just a physical aura but a confluence of energies that needed constant nurturing and control. His domain had to be kept stable and aligned with the dream-related affinities that the Dreamwalkers' Ward was steeped in, ensuring that the energies remained coherent and potent enough to form a pseudo-artefact will; a near-sentient presence. This Will within the artefact was the engine that enabled the enchantment to work without far more complex and resource-intensive processes and inscriptions.
The problem was a near-divine grade ability needed near-divine grade characteristics, specifically Wisdom and Intelligence. And while Ori's intelligence almost certainly exceeded that of a mortal man, he was a long way off, perhaps a thousand times less than where he needed it to be, to comfortably manage a domain indefinitely. Currently, his ability or rather, his inability to process and control every floating particle of mass or energy overloaded his mind with an overwhelming deluge of sensory information no mortal man could comprehend for long.
Ori knew that the successful creation of the Dreamwalkers' Ward would not only test his skills as an enchanter but also push the boundaries of his understanding of his dream-related affinities, his domain, and his own mental resilience. Despite the risks and the high stakes, the potential to master such an enchantment drove Ori forward, determined to overcome the barriers and breathe life into the silver brooch that would hopefully become his first step towards redemption and self-forgiveness.
As Ori sank onto his bed with his arcane vision still active, he felt the surreal experience of himself sliding between conscious and unconscious with an unnerving lucidity, as if leaving his body behind and sinking beneath the surface of the waking world, into a realm familiar and of his design.
For a moment, Ori was unsure of whether or not he was asleep, a strange inverse hypnopompic state that was as novel as it was disorientating. Fortunately, the space he found himself in was one he recognised.
Before long, Ori soon found himself adrift in Freya's dreamscape, the prismatic auroras and gentle hills a welcome sight after the turmoil of his waking hours. However, as his astral form took shape, it was clear something was amiss. The colours of the dreamscape seemed muted, the winds more biting, mirroring the troubled state of Ori's mind.
Freya sensed his presence immediately, the tug of their bond announcing his arrival. Yet as she approached, she realised this was not the same bright, cheeky Ori she had last spoken to. His aura was turbulent, swirling with shades of frustration, self-doubt, and simmering anger.
"Oh, what's got your knickers in a twist?" Freya asked bluntly as she hovered before him, her spectral form pulsing with a mix of concern and exasperation.
Ori's astral form shrugged, his shoulders tense. "Just found some clarity, that's all."
"Clarity doesn't produce billowing clouds of storm aura ruining the peace and tranquillity of my dream, Ori. What happened?"
Ori then went on to explain the events since they last met, from Harriet's reasons for summoning him to her confession of being in love with him, to his tryst with Poppy in the night garden and their interruption. Finally, he described his encounter with Irbron, his assault and imprisonment, and the life, boon, and curse Ori had been offered in recompense.
As Ori recounted his recent struggles, the dreamscape responded, the winds tossing the pink-leafed grasses. Freya listened, her glowing presence a steady anchor amidst the tumult of Ori's emotional overspill. When he finished, she spoke curtly, "You feel like you were lied to?"
"Maybe? I don't know."
"But not by the Elven Queen?"
"No, not Harriet. I think I had this idea of finding peace, or some kind of safety far away from the battlefield before I started the trial. I guess mentally, I wasn't prepared for it."
"The blows that catch us unawares deal the most damage."
"Yeah," Ori agreed.
"But, Ori, this is still a trial, and all actions have consequences. Unless you limited yourself to making no interactions with anyone, it'd have been impossible for you to avoid conflict. In this case, a jilted ex-lover of your girlfriend."
"She's not my—"
"Ori, please do not complete that sentence, or else," Freya said, her voice suddenly icy.
"But—"
"Ori, listen to me very carefully. I will offer you no relationship advice, but if you do not treat the women who care for you with respect, we will have a reckoning you and I," Freya said with an air of finality that made Ori's astral form shiver.
"Freya?"
Freya sighed. "Hopefully, there will come a time when you'll look back at yourself now, at a time where you are no one and have nothing to your name, and yet you still manage to find people who care for you, and you'll weep in envy over more simplistic days."
Ori sat, glowing eyes fixed on the distant horizon, his expression thoughtful. It was at moments like this where, despite their comparable ages, Freya's improbable wealth of knowledge and experiences humbled him.
"You think they actually love me?" he wondered.
"It is no subconscious thing to want to form such a bond, you have to be willing and present in mind, heart or in the case of elves, spirit."
"How do you mean?" Ori pressed.
"Despite the obvious similarity, elves and humans are different, "their beauty belies an icy heart," is I believe, the refrain many a human refers to whenever they have the misfortune of meeting a high elf."
"Icy Heart? If that's the case then, why are they so... interested in me?"
"Boys…" Freya sighed. "AND you're a human too... so driven by physical appearances, a primal response to beauty so hard-coded into the brains of you males that it forms the basis of all worth and value judgements. So what if they are beautiful and you are not? All high elves are beautiful. In a culture where physical attractiveness is a birthright, how do you suspect they deem a suitor's worthiness?"
"I don't know. Personality?" Ori asked, genuinely curious.
"Ha! Just as physical attractiveness is the be-all and end-all for human males, elven females go loopy over souls, specifically inherent affinities. You likely got their knickers wet just by showing your mysterious transcendent affinity to them."
"That's mad. Wait, so you're saying all elves might find me attractive just because of my magic? Or my soul?"
"High Elves, and likely specifically the celestial elves like the Lunaesidhe and Solarieal. Lesser elves are more fae-like but I honestly don't know, Ori. Either way, before you plan on ever seducing your way through the high elven population, you'll need to gain some measure of strength to back up that transcendent affinity of yours. Until then, keep it in your pants."
“My magic or my-”
“You are such a boy,” Freya growled.
"And what about the Fae?" Ori asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
"No."
"No, what do you mean?"
"I mean no, I won't be the one to tell you, and the day you eventually find out will be the day your head expands so large that it'll float off in the wind like a soap bubble."
"Ha, well, I guess I've to thank you for keeping my head attached. Anyway, I thought you weren't offering advice?" Ori smirked. "And besides, what about Harriet and Poppy?"
"What's done is done. I admire you for trying to work out the potential consequences of your actions, but in this case, it really is too late."
"And once again I'm really confused." Ori sighed
"You'll figure it out, once you get over your insecurities," Freya sighed. "Besides, I'm more suited to knocking down big heads and over-inflated egos, I fear I've got my work cut out for me in future."
Ori smiled at the admission. "So you're confident we'll have a future? And that you'll stick around?"
"Yes. That's becoming obvious to me now. I'll still need to return to the glade at some point, but…" As Freya continued, Ori's heart lifted at her stoic certainty. It was like she saw his success as an unavoidable fact, her burden of inevitability.
"How? And why would you stay with me? I'm not even sure what I'm going to do if we get out of that prison."
"Which is exactly why I’m going to stick around and keep you out of causing too much trouble. For now, let the future rest and focus your mind on the now. As all of this," Freya buzzed over Ori's head, her movements apparently pointing out the stormy clouds above, "has shown, you lack control in the dreaming, and stewing in your anger isn't going to help anything. Time to channel that energy into something productive."
"Yeah," Ori agreed, standing up as if to show he was ready and up for some exercises.
"Now, I suggest we do some training. Time away from the problems of the waking will help you blow off some steam," Freya continued.
Ori took a deep breath, letting Freya's words and the tranquillity of the dream wash over him. "Yeah, alright. Training sounds good. Where do we start?"
Freya chuckled. "Control. Your aura is leaking emotions all over the place. Focus on calming your mind and visualise your aura as you do so."
As Ori began to concentrate, Freya guided him through the process of stabilising his presence in the dreamscape. The winds died down, the colours harmonising into serene prismatic pinks, purples and blues.
"That's better," Freya remarked. "Now, let's see if you can maintain that while we work on your dream focus."
"My dream focus?"
Ori thought for a moment, then pulled out the broken fragments of his soul-bound artefact he had named after Seraphine. The once-pristine crystalline wand now lay in shattered pieces, glittering in his palm. "I could try using these."
Freya's form pulsed with curiosity. "That is your focus from the waking world, Yes? The fractured soul bound artifact.” Ori nodded. “It could work, the emotional connection is certainly there, and the crystal should be able to channel intent which is paramount in the dreaming. It'll also be interesting to see if it changes when you get round to repairing it. Come, let us begin."
As Freya guided Ori through stabilising his aura, she began discussing various aspects of dream manipulation. "Now that you've got some control over your emotional projection, it's time to learn concealment within the dreaming."
Ori nodded, focusing on maintaining the calming visualisation of his aura. "Like hiding from other dreamers?"
"Yes," Freya confirmed. "The dreaming is vast and unpredictable. You may need to observe without being noticed or protect yourself from unwanted attention. You'll need to blend in with the dream environment, making your presence unobtrusive."
Freya demonstrated by dimming her spectral form until she was barely distinguishable from the shimmering auroras above. Ori concentrated, attempting to mimic her technique. Gradually, his astral form faded, blending into the prismatic hues of the dreamscape.
"Good," Freya praised as Ori's form became nearly invisible. "With practice, you'll maintain this concealment even while interacting with the dream."
“Yeah, this doesn’t feel like pervy dream spying, not one bit.”
“Ori!”
Next, Freya moved on to permanence and dream creation. "The dreaming is mutable, responding to the subconscious. However, it's possible to create lasting constructs, to shape the dream with intent and will."
Ori thought of the Dreamwalkers' Ward, the enchanted brooch designed to protect the wearer from dream intrusion. "Could I use it with the ward I've been working on?"
Freya nodded. "It’s similar in principle. The Dreamwalkers' Ward is a physical anchor, a conduit for dream magic to affect the waking world. But within the dreaming, you can create barriers, sanctuaries, or even weapons, given sufficient focus and power."
Ori's eyes widened slightly. "Weapons? To harm other dreamers?"
Freya's form pulsed with caution. "In extreme cases. Dream constructs can harm, scare, or disorient. But such actions have consequences, both within the dream and in the waking world with spill over varying greatly depending on your current plane of existance."
"Like, what kind of consequences?”
“Well as your on the elemental plane, dream spillover is rarer and less damaging, but for example, if crafted using a strong enough intent within a domain, any transmutations made would last several seconds, less so if against another Awakened.”
“Wait, dream affinity allows me to transmute… anything within my domain?”
“WITH A STRONG ENOUGH INTENT!" Freya exclaimed, "Intent being the key, you need to instinctively know and understand what you're transmuting, and that will require familiarity borne of hard earned practice.” Freya explained.
Freya then introduced Split Mind in the dreaming. "Your Split Mind transmutation can be applied here. In the dreaming, it would allow you to be in multiple places at once, to explore different aspects of the dream simultaneously."
Ori's astral form split into three, each examining the others with curiosity. Each third seemed faded or semi-transparent, though nowhere near the amount of each being a third as opaque as normal. "Rar, this is mad, fam. I’m feelin' all three perspectives at once."
Freya giggled. "It takes getting used to, but it can be incredibly useful for gathering information or multitasking within the dream."
As the training continued, Freya taught Ori to sense the dreams of those physically close to him in the waking world. "Every dreamer leaves a unique imprint, a resonance detectable while dreamwalking. With practice, you'll locate and even enter the dreams of those around you."
Ori focused, reaching out with his dream senses. He felt the faint, shimmering presence of Harriet and Poppy, their dreams tantalizingly close yet separate. "I think I can feel them, Harriet and Poppy. Their dreams are like distant stars, glimmering on the horizon."
Freya's form pulsed with approval. "Very good. Remember, entering another's dream uninvited should be done with trust and consent."
“Unless their demons.”
Freya sighed. “Exceptions prove the rule."
As the lesson drew to a close, Freya offered a final reminder. "Ori, when you cross the boundaries between dreams. In these spaces between spaces lie those ancient, strange entities. Don't linger, and don't leave a trace. Such beings are best left undisturbed."
“Yeah, you’ve already told me about them. I'll be careful." Ori nodded as the waking world regained its hold over his consciousness.