"Well, Chip, we're back. Try not to send too many crazy messages in that chat. I didn't really think through the consequences of you having access to it," I said, smiling at what Maud would think when she finally saw Chip there.

The pumakey made some of his bigger, excited chirping sounds and started running around the room. I opened the door, letting him head out to explore like he usually did during the day. After a talk with Pryte, I was going to need to find a volunteer, not that I thought it would be hard. Rabyn was likely to jump at the chance as soon as I mentioned it.

What surprised me the most about my return was that the exhaustion I had started to feel in the soul realm had vanished once I was back here. That meant it was possible there was a limit to how long I could safely spend there. It could also have meant I just needed to rest again, but I didn't think so.

Unlike when my soul had been taxed to exhaustion, this had felt much more physical. While I wasn't sure I actually had bones over there, the exhaustion had seemed to penetrate deep into them either way. I was sure there would be plenty of time to test this as I continued building the realm up.

"Glad to see you're alive. Can you try not to do anything quite like that again?" Pryte asked as I entered his office. There were more stacks of paper than ever piling up on his desk and across every other surface in the room.

"I mean, maybe. This was one wasn't even really my fault. I had no idea that Ivan's experiments would interact with a soul anchor like that. Now, to be fair, I also didn't fully understand what a soul anchor was at the time either, but I don't really think that's the point," I replied, smiling.

As strange as the whole experience had been, it had been a positive one. And that was something I had desperately needed. Hopefully, everything I had learned there would be as useful as I thought it would.

"So Unakite's ramblings are actually warnings then? That means the Orcs are up to something inside the Earth, and it also likely means they have help. Someone still wants this planet, but at least we have an idea of who all the local players are now," Pryte said, none of his usual mirth present in his words.

"I feel like this isn't exactly new news, so why is it bothering you so much anyway?" I asked, feeling like I was missing something critical.

"Dave, there are a lot of Humans out in the greater Spiral. There are also a lot of things that can look like Humans. Whoever is in charge of the GPA probably isn't actually from this planet. I think we have an intrusion we didn't realize, and I think that's where the treachery line comes in."

"Ah, okay, why though?" I asked, whatever importance Earth seemed to have still didn't make a lot of sense. I could buy the jesters had attacked because of their own machinations that had more to do with their own war on the Spiral, and we were just caught in the crossfire, but why was there some group so intent on controlling Earth?

"I still don't know. The good news is, I still doubt it's any of the major factions. It could just be some alliance between the Singing Blades and a few other smaller factions trying to deal with the Blades' loss. That's the easiest answer," he replied.

The Singing Blades had been the Orc faction we had defeated to take control back of Earth. And I guess it made some sense that they would have allies out there in the Spiral. Hell, the leader might even have family who just wanted revenge. That was a nice, simple answer, which made me doubt it explained it entirely. We didn't get the good luck of simplicity.

"So what's the plan then?" I asked, knowing Pryte wouldn't have bothered broaching the subject this in depth unless he had already thought of something.

"Roberts and Ward are going to start working on countering the GPA indiscreetly. It's a big planet, and just like us, they don't really have the resources to control it yet. Though they almost certainly have a spy here. I figure that's why they haven't bothered with a counterattack yet, unless they are cooking up something we aren't expecting." He pushed a folder across the desk toward me as he spoke.

"Don't let anyone see that other than Timon. It's a breakdown of people in terms of trust and resources. I don't like thinking of them like this, but it's something we had to do. Oh, and Timon is on his first Deepscale hunt. So maybe we can finally answer that mystery completely as well."

"You got impressively busy while I was gone. Do you want the strange news or the good news first?" I asked, figuring I'd give the overworked Gnome the choice.

"Strange, let's end on a high note for once," he replied.

"I may have a brother. I'm not entirely sure. The soul realm experience of interaction with my reflection was odd, to say the least. But the memory it triggered does seem to be real. Somehow, we are going to have to see if we can track down any records that remain about him." It wasn't the world-shattering revelation that I think the reflection had intended it to be.

Perhaps if I were younger, or my parents were still alive, it might have pushed me a bit more, but as it stood, it was just something that I had so little information about that it was hard to form any real connection. For all I knew, the memory was actually pointing to something else. There was also very little chance I was ever going to find a lost brother from over fifty years ago.

"Okay, if that's the strange, what's the good?" He looked like he wasn't sure what to say about the news of the possible brother.

"I think I can fix the soul knots better than the surgery did. It's going to be experimental, so I'll need one of them to volunteer, and I can't really say for sure what it's going to take to do it. But I believe I have the first step ready." My smile returned as I gave him the good news.

Pryte's face finally mirrored my own. "Okay, that is some very good news. As great of an idea as the pacemakers were, for whatever reason, they seem to be slowing down their core energy regeneration. We might be able to find a way to refine it better in the future, but getting those four back up to full strength and entirely safely away from the jesters' grip will do wonders for morale."

"Are we having a morale issue?" I hadn't realized that. It made sense, though. Even if we beat back the jesters, we still lost some of our own.

"Not exactly. I'm just worried about the potential for one. The Reltleons handled the loss of their people well. But even so, they saw their new home was vulnerable, and we need to make sure that can't happen again," Pryte replied.

"I know Ivan is working on better defensive systems, but is there really much we can do until the mana flow grows?" So far, we had been working around that problem in creative ways, but there was a hard limit to where we could push it, especially if we didn't want to screw up our own local farming, and feeding the city was critical.

"More gates. We have our secondary location in the dungeon already. It's time to expand it, and not just there either. I want to find a few more remote locations on the planet to add settlements. We need continuity of the empire, and places for our people to flee to in case of another attack," Pryte answered, sliding yet another folder across the desk to me.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"What if they just attack all our cities at once?" It would require a larger force, of course, but that certainly seemed possible.

"Unakite actually inspired me there. One of our locations needs to be deep below the ground and only accessible via a gate. In that location, we will have another secret evacuation gate set up to a secondary below below-ground site that is kept top secret. Eventually, we will even take that a step further with escape off-planet."

"Different universe or space travel?" I asked. Both seemed viable, though I wasn't sure the Giants would be happy to take in the entirety of our people.

"Eventually, both. And assuming we win the Twinoge's world, we will work that all in as well. But that's even longer-term planning. I just wanted you to be aware of some of the future work we'd be doing."

"I appreciate it. So wanna go find Rabyn? I figure he's going to want to go first on this." I took both of the folders Pryte had pushed at me and placed them in my System storage. Could the System read everything I placed in there? That was another thing to consider on why people moved away from it.

"Last time I saw him, he was sulking around the kitchens. And considering he was already mopey enough, especially for an Orc, yes, let's start with him." Pryte stood up, much of the earlier weariness seeming to have drained from his face.

Pryte had been right. Rabyn was sitting in front of one of the preparation stations and just chopping vegetables when we found him. From the number of containers piling up in front of him, he had been at it for a while. Gorpila was working to find places to store his aftermath.

"Oh, you're back. Good. I need to talk to you!" Rabyn's voice held more excitement than I usually heard from the Orc as he looked up from his work, spotting me. He immediately dropped the onion he had started to peel as he stood up.

"I'm sure you do, but before you do that. I've got a plan to get rid of that soul knot for good. Ready to be test subject number one?" Even Rabyn couldn't hide the smile that came to his lips before we all saw it.

"What do I need to do?"

"Come on, let's do this in the workshop. I suspect we will need to use my bedroom if it works right anyway," I explained.

Gorpila's giggling echoed behind us as we left the kitchen with a much less morose Orc in tow. I knew he wanted to question why my bedroom was needed, but somehow he managed to keep quiet for the short walk. That silence stopped the moment we were in the workshop.

"What's the first step?" Rabyn asked.

"I have to soul bond you. I don't think it will do much beyond give you access to the soul chat window that Maud and Ivan have access to. But I think it will let you pass into our soul realm, becoming one of the owners. From there, we can start the direct work on your soul," I explained.

"Is the bond permanent?" Some hesitancy had entered Rabyn's voice with that question.

"The description says that it is. But I'm not sure anything is truly permanent. I promise this isn't some trick to dominate you to our will or anything like that," I answered.

"No, I didn't think it was. I believe you are an honorable person, even if a bit strange at times. I'm worried about what it may cause in the future should our connection become widely known. I could pose a large problem for you," he replied.

"I'm not. We have so many potential future problems, let's not let another stop you from getting that knot out." Pryte nodded his head next to me, confirming my words.

"If you're sure about the potential ramifications, then I won't object any further. Do what you need to do," Rabyn stepped directly in front of me as he said this.

Just as I had done before with Chip, I activated soul detection. Compared to Chip's soul, Rabyn's was a bonfire, roaring with strength. Deep inside of it, I could see two oddities, one of which I was sure was the soul knot. The other looked to be a thread vanishing into him. The intensity of it seemed completely wrong for it to be the soul knot, but then what was it?

"Do you know you have a second thread coming off your soul? I'm almost positive it has nothing to do with the knot," I asked, wanting to check what was going on before I did the bond.

"That is something I wanted to discuss with you," he replied.

"Okay, what is it?" I had no idea why he was being evasive suddenly.

Rabyn sighed before replying. "It involves the coin you wished to keep between the two of us."

"Oh yeah. I kind of forgot I said that. Probably better Pryte knows anyway. What's going on with it?" Hopefully, Pryte wasn't upset he hadn't been included in that little secret.

"After I was rendered unconscious by your drugs for the surgery, I followed that line you saw from the coin all the way to a room full of shadowy figures. I can give you absolutely no other details. But when I woke, the coin had gained more words, leading me to believe it had really happened. 'All is not yet apparent. Do' is now the total message," Rabyn explained.

"I'm sorry, what coin is this?" Pryte asked, sounding lost.

"It was a coin Rabyn found on the eighth floor of the Arena, and from what I understand, there is no real way it should have been there. Since then, it has been slowly revealing letters, at least up until now. This is the first burst of words like this."

"Strange, and as much as I really want to know more, let's table that for now and get the soul knot out," Pryte replied.

"Probably for the best," I agreed, and went back to work.

Triggering the soul bond, I targeted Rabyn's soul again. An intense pulling feeling hit me the moment the bond tried to settle. It was like Rabyn's soul was wrestling against my own. It was an altogether different experience than I had had with Chip.

I focused my soul energy more and burned all of my reserves to get a hold of the line between us. Rabyn made a pained sound from somewhere, but I was too focused on my own task to fully register it. I added core mana in an attempt to solidify the bond, and finally, that was enough. The small, little line that connected Chip to the soul chat flared to life.

Taking a deep breath as I felt the exertion that had required hit me, I pulled up a chat window to test.

Dave: Can you see this, Rabyn?

Rabyn: I can. What a strange little communication method you've had.

Karlinovo: I take it I missed a breakthrough?

Dave: You did, but it's not done yet. If you want to join me in my bedroom, we can test another theory while I'm at it.

Karlinovo: On the way.

Dave: Chip, if this makes any sense at all, could you join us as well?

With that confirmed, I closed the soul chat and looked over at Pryte. "I believe we've done the first part. Now it's time for part two. I don't think you can come with us for this one yet."

"No problem, try not to be gone nearly as long this time," Pryte replied.

"I shouldn't be," I said as I led Rabyn toward my bedroom. Karlinovo joined us on the way, and to my pleasant surprise, so did Chip. Could he actually read the words of the chat?

"So what are we doing?" Karlinovo asked as we entered the room.

"You and Rabyn are going to touch my soul anchor there while I see what happens." Again, surprising me, neither of them questioned it. As soon as their hands made contact, their bodies dropped unconscious to the floor. I was probably going to need to find a better way to handle that portion of this in the future.

Unlike them, I sat down on my bed before reaching out to touch it. Chip did the same. There was a brief moment of the room swirling. And then I was standing back in the soul realm on the central hub platform, looking at the faces of two very confused men.

"I take it this is the soul realm you were in? Can I come here anytime using the soul anchor?" Karlinovo asked as the confusion was replaced by a look of curiosity.

"Wasn't sure, honestly, but this seems to confirm you should be able to. Looks like anyone in the soul chat can use the soul anchor. Somehow, the rest of you are already bonded to me in a way my newest mana orb is also able to do," I answered.

"So what's next?" Rabyn asked, now also looking around.

"Well, over there looks to be two new bridges that weren't there the last time I was here. One of them should correspond to you, Rabyn. You and I can start there, while Karlinovo can go check out his own platform if he wants," I explained.

Before anyone else spoke, Chip chirped several times, purred loudly, and took off for the hub. One of the bridges belonged to him after all, so I understood his excitement. I was just surprised he knew that already.

"Yes, I can feel it. There is just the tiniest pull in that direction," Rabyn added, also explaining how Chip knew.

"Yeah, I'm feeling the same. Well, you two have fun. Time to go see what my soul is like in person," Karlinovo said, as he took off in a dash toward his platform.

Rabyn shrugged and followed after. Chip's lightshow had already started in the distance. It was time to get rid of this damned soul knot once and for all.

There is always a bigger spider.

Ancient Orc Proverb

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