"Uh, hey buddy, you doing okay?" I asked as I stepped off the bridge onto the platform. In front of me floated the exact same face in the wall I had seen when I first awoke it. I didn't have the slightest clue what I could do here, or why Unakite would occupy their entire own platform like this.

Yes, now that I thought about it, I understood they should be here. They had access to the soul chat menu after all. But why would they get their own initial platform? It would seem much like Maud and Karlinovo that they should be branched off a hub. Was it possible these locations would rearrange if I bonded more beings?

That, of course, led to the question of how many people I could bond with. Which in turn gave me a near-shattering revelation. I knew how to deal with the soul knots. The series of events that let me do this, again, seemed far too coincidental.

The idea that a soul-siphon mana orb with the exact mana skill I would need to deal with this was just waiting for me in our first dungeon delve was one coincidence too far. There was an intelligence behind this. And as easy as it would be to accept Rabyn's explanation of fate, I just couldn't do it.

But this fell again into what I had told Elody regarding her special sight of me. There was nothing I could do about this if it were true, and as far as I could tell, whatever it was seemed to be intervening in ways that helped me. Though that did assume it wasn't also the cause of the problems.

It was a conversation I'd loved to have had with the others, but how could I possibly do so in private? If there was some force behind this, it would have to be watching us constantly. That again was the biggest push toward it being something as abstract as fate.

I had to stop this line of thought before I became stuck in a mental death loop. Right now, I had an awakened rock's soul reflection to figure out. Then I had friends to help. There would be time to dwell on this once that was done. Somewhere in the back of my head, I wondered if it would ever actually be done.

"Heart of stone, brain of brass, sliding, cracking, breaking," was the cryptic answer I received in return from Unakite.

The only idea that was occurring to me was fully awakening them as a golem, but that required another rank in the deep cave mana orb. Was this something like Maud's that was beyond me at the moment? Was leaving this place even possible without figuring both of the platforms out?

Out of ideas, I pulled up a chat window.

Dave: Unakite is one of the platforms here, and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do.

Unakite: Rumbles from below. Gnashing, grinding, pulverizing in the dark.

Karlinovo: I can't tell if those messages are getting stranger or not.

Beta: Unakite is the empire in danger?

Unakite: Deep within the danger grows!

Dave: Wait, did they actually just reply to you, Beta? Unakite, what is the danger below?

Unakite: Claws and teeth, fury unbridled!

Beta: I have solved a mystery for the empire!

Karlinovo: I think they are trying to answer us, in their own very odd way. Let's assume they did wake up confused, and we've been understanding this wrong the whole time. What if their confusion is from something they feel and have been trying to warn us about in the only way their mind is currently capable of?

Dave: The Orcs that fled below ground. We know they could be a problem. We've had this discussion before. Unakite, are the Orcs a bigger problem for the empire than we realize?

Unakite: Deals and treachery, things the Earth knows little and understands less. The rocks hear, they whisper, they do not comprehend.

Dave: I'm taking that as confirmation. The words make me think the GPA is involved. But I still feel like we are missing something. Can you give this conversation verbatim to Pryte?

Karlinovo: Yes, but I'm not sure how much more he will be able to figure out.

Dave: Me either… Wait, gotta go, something is happening here.

I closed the chat window, having spotted the Unakite reflection shifting out of the corner of my eye. The face turned from the odd, insane look it had previously had into a content smile. Had they really just wanted to warn me this whole time, and I didn't fully understand?

The continued silence from the stone face made me think it was possible. And that meant all that was left was another soul mana channeling. This one took nearly everything I had in me again.

Unlike the previous times, I could feel something changing as I poured the energy into the creature. There wasn't just a hint of a difference here. I had fundamentally altered Unakite somehow, and only time would reveal exactly what had changed. Following the mana infusion, their smile melted into the ground below, and no new messages popped into the soul chat.

"So what do we do about the last platform?" I asked after a hobbled walk back to the bed. Again, the moment I touched it, I felt my energy levels supercharge. If only it were so easy outside of this place.

"I'm not sure there is anything we can do at the moment. Remember, I'm only a chronicler here. Relying on me for solutions isn't likely to get you far," Otis replied. While that was likely a fair point, it still made me think he was hiding something again.

I at least knew something I could do at the moment, and that was invest the ranks into soul strengthening and soul bond, which sadly forced me to bring soul reflection up to twenty-five ranks as well. At least I'd be able to test my theory on soul bonds while I thought more on the Maud problem.

After I had those mana skills increased, I looked at the new fourth-tier abilities that had appeared. I couldn't do anything with them yet, but it was good to know where I was heading.

-Fourth Tier- Soul Mark (0) Requirements: Soul Detection (30) Soul Reflection (25) Soul Mark allows the host to place a sigil directly onto the soul of another. This will allow the host to track that soul as long as they are in range. Further ranks increase the range of detection. Inner Foundations (0) Requirements: Soul Strengthening (25) Soul Absorption (25) Inner Foundations allows the host to begin channel absorbed soul mana into their own inner self. This will directly allow them to build their soul foundations, allowing for future refinement. Further ranks allow for more absorbed soul mana to be used in this fashion at once.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Soul mark was easy enough to understand its potential uses. With how few people possessed soul magic, it was a tracker that would be difficult for any normal person to remove, or likely even notice was there. There was probably something like that within the soul knots themselves.

Inner foundations was a bit more guesswork in what it meant. Though the fact that I was standing in a soul realm already gave me an idea of what it was supposed to do. So how would they interact with something that already existed?

This again added to my suspicions on just what the soul chat I had was in actuality. I didn't think it was a true soul bond, at least not as far as the mana orb would register it. But it was possible that it worked on the same level. Which would mean that if I used soul bond on anyone else, I might be able to gain a deeper access to their soul here.

That didn't help with the problem at hand. Did I need to finish dealing with Maud's platform before I could leave? What exactly had me stuck here anyway, and how would I even know if I could return to my body? Plus, how did I get Chip out of here?

Wait, Chip was here without being bound to me. He had no platform. While Otis found his way here from whatever space the soul realm was sitting in, Chip had been dragged in here without any bond to me. What if he was the reason we couldn't leave, not Maud's platform?

I'd still need to find a way to defend it, even if that were the case. I couldn't let those creatures get access to this area. I wasn't entirely sure why, but I had a strong inkling that that would be a disaster. These were tied to the things that had hunted my soul before, and I didn't want them doing it again.

I triggered soul-strengthening on a new hunch. The description claimed it only worked around a soul anchor, and while I wasn't near one in the soul realm, my body was. Or at least it had been.

The ambient soul mana drain started the moment I activated it, but the real question was whether the effect would change if I had my body moved back to the soul anchor. That would require some outside help. With that in mind, I pulled up the chat window.

Dave: Good news, figured out Unakite. We just needed to actually understand their warning, or at least understand it was a real warning, since we still don't know exactly what it means. But now I need someone over there to move both Chip and my bodies back to the soul anchor.

Karlinovo: I'll have someone do that. Pryte is actually concerned about the warnings, more so than he usually is.

Dave: Why? We already knew the Orcs were a potential future problem.

Karlinovo: It's the treachery part. He thinks the Orcs are the missing piece of the puzzle behind what the GPA is up to.

Dave: Alright, I guess we can discuss that when I get out of here. Just get my body moved so I can test something.

Karlinovo: It's already happening, the brothers are moving you and Chip into your bedroom now.

Dave: Thank you.

Closing out of the soul chat, I could already feel a change. There was almost an itch deep inside of me. It felt like my soul was vibrating just slightly. While I had no idea how that corresponded to strengthening it exactly, it did prove what I had hoped. This soul realm was either directly tied to my physical location, or what I triggered here affected my body on the other side.

I suspected the answer was actually both, but proving that would be easier said than done. How the different multiversal realities of the Spiral aligned with each other wasn't something I had spent much time looking into, and any accurate scientific description, assuming it even existed, would have been beyond me anyway. I wasn't even sure which branch of physics exactly would cover it, but I knew it wasn't one I had studied.

"Chip, pull back all of your energy," I called to the pumakey, who was still resting on the bed as I walked back toward Maud's platform.

I needed to see what the bridge looked like once his mana was no longer empowering it. That would give me the best idea of whether the lurking monsters could get inside the rest of this place or not. Behind me, the noise of small feet landing on the stone told me he had heard me. The color draining from Maud's platform as it faded back to blackness confirmed it.

The hub platform stayed illuminated. It seemed my soul infusion to Karlinovo's platform had been enough to maintain that. The light reached a point a few inches into the bridge to Maud's and then died. That was the potential problem spot then.

I could feel Otis' eyes on me as I looked it over. The light seemed to bend into it, forming an odd oval shape in the air. How do you build a door out of nothing?

That was a bad question, of course, as I already knew I could will things into existence here. But what would I need to secure a door? Not taking the time to learn about the mana channeling symbols Karlinovo and Elody had used on walls and doors looked to be biting me in the ass.

Or was it? This was a place of the soul, not core mana. There was a real chance they'd have done nothing anyway.

Reaching out to the edge of the light, I pinched the space between my fingers, feeling a slight charge of something as I did. I channeled just a small thread of soul mana into it. Pushing the thread through the edge, I brought it over to the otherside and did the same there.

I could already feel myself sweating from the focus it was taking to hold this thread so carefully, but I was nowhere near done yet. It was hard to keep track of how long it was taking me, as the longer I held the thread, the more active thought I had to dedicate to keeping my focus pinpoint accurate on the task.

Slowly, one hole at a time, I sewed the passage shut with the threads of my own soul. The idea had come to me from the name everyone used when referring to what the jesters had done. If they could tie a knot in a soul, why couldn't I work it as a thread myself?

It had been grueling, far more than draining my soul energies had been. By the end of it, my hands ached in a way I hadn't felt since before my life orb had started repairing my body. It wasn't a feeling I had missed. Worse yet, I couldn't be sure what I had done would hold, but I was sure I'd know if it didn't. And for now, that had to be good enough.

After dragging myself back to the central hub, my body, or whatever this soul representation was of it, was ready to give out. I couldn't let it do that yet, though, as I had one more thing to do. And considering this time the bed wasn't recharging what ailed me, it seemed like it was time to try to make our escape.

"So, what's next on your agenda?" Otis asked with a smirk.

"Leaving, there are things in the real world I need to solve," I replied.

"Who said this isn't the real world?" His smirk stayed firm on his face as he asked.

He was again correct, but it was a conversation I didn't think I needed at the moment. What I did need was Chip. "Chip, I'm going to attempt to place a soul bond between us. I'm not sure it's fair to ask this of you, as I don't think you fully understand what I'm saying, but I also think it's the only way we can both leave. Are you okay with that?"

The pumakey just nuzzled his head against my leg as a way of answering. I choose to take it as a yes.

First, I activated soul detection, spotting a bright blue energy directly in Chip's chest the moment I did. I followed that up with soul bond as I focused on it. A small connection of mana formed between us, made of pure soul energy. It wasn't quite like what I had with the cores, and I guessed that if I had Maud or Karlinovo here, it would look the same as theirs.

Looking up from Chip, I spotted something I had expected. Next to the bed, exactly where I had placed it on Earth, was a copy of the soul anchor I had created.

"Alright, Chip, looks like we've got a way back now, we've got some work to do on the otherside, so let's get going. Otis, I don't know what your plans are, but I'll likely be back," I said as I rubbed my hand through Chip's fur.

"Oh, I'll stop back in from time to time. It's been a fascinating experience watching you put this all together," he replied.

Nodding at the man, I leaned over and picked up Chip. With how much I had exerted myself, he felt heavy in my arms. I was glad the soul anchor was only a few steps away.

As I touched it, I saw a message pop into view. At the same time, my bedroom appeared around us. Some of the weariness I had felt had been left behind as well. I pulled up the soul chat to see what I had missed.

Chip: fjewiop;afr

Alpha: Was really Chip?

Dave: It was, and it seems he types as well as any cat I have ever met. We are back in my bedroom. I'll find Pryte shortly.

Chip

Chip wasn't sure what was happening to him. He just knew the longer he had been around Dave, the easier it seemed to be to learn. It used to be so hard for him to understand the different sounds Dave and the others made, but these days he could tell so many of them apart.

This new place Dave had brought him to was fun, too. He liked the way he could make the colors change. The bed felt really nice too, but he looked forward to when they went back home. He and Alpha needed to watch the birds. That was fun. Hopefully Big and Hecate came home soon, too. It was the best when they all watched them together.

The ultimate key to peace is silence. Only those who wish to cause trouble are willing to disrupt the tranquility of the here and now. It is the taciturn who are important, not the cacophony of the outsider.

Worthless Noise by Mr. Sye

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