~~~Lee~~~

Lee lifted his foot to step outside and froze when a memory rose abruptly into his mind. A memory he'd forgotten until this very moment... of a dream.

He'd been hovering disembodied in the sky above a strangely familiar forest... Stanley lay below and glowing with the very familiar light of the source while Caffeine tried to drag him through the snow.

A man that was not a man had been in the sky with him. It had spoken of... rules. Of greater challenges... cryptic warnings that Lee still didn't understand. Not fully.

It had definitely felt like a dream, only he knew with certainty that it was not. Strangest of all, was when the dream that wasn't a dream ended in a burst of static that swallowed the world.

Lee heard that same static now. A roaring static that filled his mind and drowned out all thought.

Deep within that noise, a droning voice whispered, "A bleeding soul... will hide nothing."

He took a staggering step backwards while his mind whirled and hands latched onto his arms, steadying him. How had he forgotten that? More importantly, what was that bit at the end?

It had happened right after he made Three... after he used the source. The source that was hidden inside their soul right up until that moment. Their soul that was now bleeding...

Lee thought about asking his bodyguards the question currently burning a hole in his mind, but he needed someone else. Someone who knew more. Alejandro or Maria. Or Trak.

Rather than head outside as he'd planned, Lee waited for Trak to return from Saira's garden. He'd been watching, and the little guy rarely stayed out there for long. Only long enough to help Saira with the latest herb adaptations before he would dash back to keep brewing the next batch.

As expected, Lee didn't have to wait long. Trak's eyes went wide when he saw him, and the anubi almost fell over as he tried to stop and bow at the same time. "My lord!"

"Trak," Lee said without preamble. "What can you feel from my soul?"

"Nothing, my lord!"

"What? Nothing!?"

Trak nodded sharply. "Nothing, my lord. Your magnificent creation shields you even now!" He tilted his head. "Was that not your intention?"

Lee looked at the anubi's feet, just outside the garage. "What if you are inside?"

He stepped onto the ramp and into the building, his face and soul lighting up with a disturbing expression. "I feel your magnificence, my lord! It is glorious!"

"Oh, please." Lee rolled his eyes. "I mean, do you feel the..." He glanced at his bodyguards and then whispered, "you know?"

Trak also glanced around anxiously, then closed his eyes while his head tilted back and forth. His eyes snapped open. "I do, my lord! It is faint, nearly lost beneath your mag..." He eyed Lee's face and ducked his head. "It is there, my lord. I doubt any here would recognize it, yet if the eldest of my pack were to meet you now, they would know your secret."

Lee wasn't worried about the other anubi finding out, he was worried about something like that skeleton showing up here looking for a source...

"What ails you, my lord? Allow me to assist!"

"Are you sure you can't feel me out there? Nothing of the... you know?"

"My lord, your... creation is absolute. Not a whisper or hint of your... presence passes these walls."

"Trak, did you see the skeleton?"

"Yes! I watched you and my lord's brother slay the foul thing!"

"It knew about the... it knew what we hold and came to collect it from our corpses... from my brother's corpse. I don't think it knew there were two of us until it saw me."

Trak went very still. "I did not know that, my lord. Will they come for us here?"

"Us?" Lee asked, though he was smiling when he said it. He already knew what Trak would say.

"Of course, my lord! Should another of those foul abominations dare set foot in this place, they will surely come to regret it before we destroy them!"

Lee smiled at the belief he could feel from Trak's soul, but he wasn't so sure. A greater challenge. The dream figure had said they would face those. But why had it made them forget until now? Why give the warning in the first place? Did Stanley know before? It hadn't seemed like it...

If something like that attacked the fort.

A bleeding soul will hide nothing. Which meant a not bleeding soul would hide something. Like, say, the source? The system hadn't mentioned the source until they'd used it. Which begged the question; could a soul hide something from even the system?

Lee had the Mana Well, and he'd been afraid people might kill him for it. Now he had the source. It wasn't a hard stretch to imagine people would kill for that kind of power, since it must actually be possible to take it from someone... assuming the skeleton wasn't lying.

Three was hiding him and his source now. Did that mean Three had hidden the original source used to create it? The undead had gone after Stanley's source, but no one had come after him here. Not yet. Did they not know about him? Twin-Soul was supposedly unique... did that mean literally one of a kind? Or was it just another rank, like rare or epic?

The skeleton definitely hadn't seemed to know there were two of them... not until the end, but it was dead now.

If he was still undetected over here... there was no reason to risk changing it. He didn't need to go outside, anyway, at least not until he fixed his soul. He could put himself under house arrest for the greater good. Hell, for his own damn good. Besides, he had a nice, big house...

That set off another alarm bell in his head. Was the courtyard safe? Or was he already exposed?

Which was how he ended up commandeering the courtyard in between attribute training and the kid's schooling. He sat Trak on a rune disc and sent it hovering high above the courtyard. Above the entire building.

His relief was immense when Trak came back to earth and told him that Three was still blocking the even larger opening over their heads.

"I wanna go that high!"

"Me too!"

Unfortunately, too many kids had watched the test through their windows. Lee hedged rather than commit or deny. "No one's going anywhere until after school!"

He escaped back to the garage amid a chorus of disappointed groans. There, his little elevator room served a new purpose. Instead of protecting people from potentially exploding runes, it now shielded them from his soul. It wasn't really an improvement from his apartment... but it was a change. Some variety was good.

Lee lost his focus more than a few times just from watching people work in the surrounding garage. The anubi's crafting was fascinating enough, but other people were catching up on their own abilities.

Valerie was working with leather that held a type of mana he'd never seen before. It didn't match hers, but she still used her mana to manipulate and nudge the mana inside the pelt as she cut, stitched, and finally created a pair of boots. The finished project blazed up even brighter after she dumped what looked like her entire mana pool into the shoes.

May no longer worked alone. She'd found someone to apprentice, and Lee felt a little sorry for the young man hammering away beside her. They'd expanded her area to make room for the second anvil and forge, but it looked like a good thing. The apprentice was making generic spears, while May was crafting something far more special. She was using the metal from the lair, but the sword forming under her hammer held far more mana than any weapon she'd made before, and it increased with every blow.

Another man was spinning a pile of mana-infused hair or fur into thread while his partner wove the thread into cloth with magic. It was nice that they didn't need a loom... and Lee was looking forward to getting some magic clothes one day.

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He turned his wandering attention back to the two men outside his room. The latest additions to his guard detail; Jeremy and Jackson. "You're regenerated. Get back to it."

Mana surged through Lee into his head, where it mostly infused into his brain, ramping up his mental power. It was something he'd done to a lesser degree before, and out of instinct rather than intentionally. Now he did it on purpose.

Not only did it give him more time to process and think, but he swore it helped increase his attention to detail. Between his various evolutions and traits, Lee could channel a lot of mana these days. He would have done it constantly and at higher mana levels, but he was trying to be extra careful.

The best part—well, not the best, but perhaps the most fun part—was that he could pull a Stanley with ease now. With the mana filling his brain, it was child's play to use Mana Mind to lift both practice weapons from the floor and hold them out for the grumbling fighters before him.

These guys didn't have nearly as much fun sparring as Amy did... but they reluctantly went back to pounding on each other. With a lot less skill than Amy as well... It didn't matter. Martin would whip them into shape eventually. In the meantime, Lee kept watching in his search for the elusive stamina.

He was taking a break from soul rune study. Most of yesterday and half of today had yielded no results, and he needed the break. But he might as well accomplish something in his downtime.

Not that he was making progress here either... Hopefully, the mana-doping might help.

The garage wasn't the best place for a melee brawl, but the kids were getting lessons in the courtyard, and Lee couldn't go outside. It was this or his apartment.

"Take a break," Lee said later to the dueling figures while he altered the runes on their armor chest plates. The rune was supposed to funnel energy into the fighters as they got tired, but it was only giving them mana.

He drained the runes and refilled them, using what he was hoping was his own stamina. Sure, he could do the fighting himself while using his own stamina in the test, but he never ran out. He only got hungry. Plus, all the extra energy swirling around inside him made the entire process fruitless. More energy than before. Energy that he now knew was coming from the leaking source.

It was difficult to trace the origin, seeing as how his soul was even more ephemeral than his core and mana channels, of which he only had the core remaining. That was one more thing that made it much harder to trace, since his mana and stamina intermingled freely throughout his entire body. At least other people had channels he could follow.

The next step, and a more drastic move, would be if he used Mana Mind to pull what he assumed was stamina directly from another's body. He could probably stuff the energy into the rune that way, but he didn't know if it would work, and he doubted it would be pleasant, even if it did.

Trak showed up later and right on time. He brought an even more foul concoction with him than the last one, and Lee downed it without hesitation.

Buff: [Soul Defense Elixer](11:59:59)

-3% All Soul Damage

He'd gotten the duration and effect up. Not much. Probably not enough to make a difference. But it still might matter in the end, so Lee chugged each new version as it came. At least it was only one every twelve hours now.

Lee let his minions go when Miller and Amy came back from their lair run. Alejandro's idea of rotating them so no one got burned out.

Then Amy got to beat up Miller for a while. Though they sparred in the courtyard instead, and while they were surrounded by screaming, flying children.

Lee sat inside Jamaal's restaurant to keep his soul from being too loud, but found a new way to practice his own skills while spicing up the kids' playtime slash training. He would pull the rune from a plate while they were high above the ground, then stick it back on as they plummeted out of the air. Some of them loved the new thrill, but not all. He only got scolded once for making a child cry...

He made a trip to the garage once more to slap basic runes onto new weapons and armor. Mostly spears. Someone had figured out that it was much easier to teach basic spear combat instead of trying to give everyone swords. Plenty of people complained about it because swords were just cooler, but a demonstration from Martin usually shut them up.

The teacher claimed he was an amateur with the spear, but he still handily defeated any other person in the entire fort while wielding one. Even groups ganging up on him were no match.

Which made it slightly concerning when Alejandro told him Martin wanted to talk with him privately after dinner.

Martin was sweeping the courtyard when Lee went out there, one small, measured brush stroke at a time. He kept sweeping when Lee jumped down, and then nodded toward a second broom leaning against a pillar. "Will you join me?"

Lee had a feeling that he could use Mana Mind to sweep the entire courtyard clean in a second if he wanted to, but he took the broom instead. "Um, sure."

He tried to match the other man's pace—not rushed, but not lazy either. Steady and thorough.

They worked in silence for a time, only the soft sound of the brooms breaking the peace. Martin's soul was the most peaceful of anyone Lee had met since getting the soul skill, and he tried to think peaceful thoughts since he knew the other man had to be feeling his much louder soul.

It mostly worked, and he felt himself mellowing out through the methodical work. He stopped worrying about what Martin wanted from him and let his mind focus on the simple task before him. Brush. Brush. Step. Brush. Brush. Step.

"I have been watching you, young man." Martin spoke softly, his voice somehow seeming not to disturb the quiet mood.

Lee wanted to laugh at the characterization of him as a young man, but the guy's soul was far too serious. Plus, Martin had actually seen him when he was younger, before the source made him what he was now.

"You fight recklessly, but with passion. You are hungry for power, yet not opposed to sharing your power once it is obtained."

Lee wasn't sure what to say. It sounded like a compliment, but maybe not?

"You have within you the power to be a beacon to this world. A shelter in the storm for so many."

"Thanks?" Was this going to be a 'great power' speech?

"Yet that same power could see you become a tyrant that would bring ruin and death to our entire world."

So maybe it wasn’t quite as complimentary as he'd thought. "I..."

Lee couldn't deny Martin's words. He was powerful. Likely the most powerful of anyone in the fort. Undoubtedly so, if he was inside Three. If he didn't die and kept advancing... If... no, when Stanley returned and they stood side by side... Though there had to be tons of people with similar potential, if only not with a source of their own. Jake, for one.

"Why help me then? Power corrupts, right? Is it worth the risk?"

Martin stopped sweeping and studied Lee with an inscrutable look. "When your life hung in the balance, you did not seek survival for mere survival's sake. You did not dream of power. You thought of those whom you already sheltered within your power. You thought of the weak, whom you could protect. You thought of the children."

"They..." He had thought of them and wanted to protect them. That was true. But... "Then I risked all their lives... to save myself."

"Indeed. Yet you are still dying, are you not?"

"I won't die!" Lee growled. "I won't let us die."

"I do not doubt your conviction. I wish to know the lengths you will go to see those convictions through."

Lee looked closer at Martin. Something in the other man's soul felt sharp. Deadly. "I didn't want this. The building created the link... I didn't know what it would actually do."

"Your soul speaks the truth. So I shall do the same." Martin stared at him in silence for a long moment before adding, "I had thought my time to be nearing its end. I was at peace with this... and yet... I have found a new purpose. First in the joy of teaching. In passing my knowledge to the next generation."

Martin looked upward, his gaze sliding over the dark apartments full of sleeping children. "Now I would see these young lives protected. From any threat."

His gaze moved back down, and Lee understood. Martin was threatening him. Sort of...

"I... hell, I'm good with that. Just... if I turn evil... well, I don't know what would happen to all the linked people if I died." It was possible that the link would dissolve along with all of his runes, but if it didn't fade fast enough...

Martin touched the sword on his waist, a weapon he'd had since the beginning and not one crafted by May. A plain wooden sheath that looked like little more than a curved stick, one hiding a blade within. "There is nothing one cannot sever with the proper strike."

Mana surged through his sheathed blade, along with something else—an energy stronger than mana. Stronger even than Lee's liquid mana.

Martin's soul.

Lee smiled at the older man. "Thank you, Martin. I feel a lot better knowing you're watching out for them."

Martin smiled back as the energy in his blade dwindled away. He looked back at the swept area and set his broom against a pillar. "This will do. Shall we begin?"

"Begin?" Lee felt a momentary pang of worry. Had he misread the situation? Was Martin going to finish him off preemptively?

"Of course. You have missed many lessons, and now you have no excuse for further delay."

"Ahh, yes. Though I'm not really planning to go hunting anymore..."

"Nonsense. Understanding comes only to those who seek it." He produced two practice swords and tossed one to Lee. "Let us see how much you've remembered after such a long nap."

Lee barely caught the sword in time, his mind stuttering at what Martin had said to him. Understanding. That was the same thing his new class skill said...

He wasn't picking up any actual hostility from the other man, but he still felt hesitant. Or maybe it was just the memory of all the beatings he'd taken in earlier lessons. Things had been rather peaceful these last two days, if he didn't count the ache in his soul.

"You know, I really didn't want to link any of the kids' souls, and I'm a little worried that I might have scared them into helping..." Just in case Martin might be holding a grudge.

"Do not discredit another's choice. Even a child's. I believe they saw the same thing I did. They placed their trust in you. They believed... in you."

Lee frowned. "I... don't know what to do with that, or if I deserve it."

"It is simple," Martin said, hefting his sword. "You must live up to their belief in you."

"I..." Lee swallowed. "Yeah, so simple... I'll try?"

He half expected the man to respond with 'there is no try', but he only nodded. "That is all one can do."

Then he stepped forward with a raised wooden blade, and...

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