Beyond her cool, silken skin was a presence that sat heavily on his arcane awareness, like a boulder shaping the flow of a river. The arcane potential of an Awakened at Sovereign Rank, by definition, affected the flow of reality around them, their spirit, beliefs, and even moods seeping into the world and shaping things in countless, indescribable ways. Or at least, that was normally how it should have felt.
Here, before the Aether Rift, Harriet’s presence was more like a shield against a burning wind, her will blocking the harmful tide of chimeric energies too intense for Ori to inspect with Mana Sight.
“Okay, I’m ready,” Ori said, after peeling back the many layers of the circumstances he’d found himself in, the novelty of their skin contact temporarily pushed aside. Marshalling ambient Mana and removing all aspects as far as he could, Ori formed the spellform, pressed his intent, and his mind opened.
Neutral Mana flooded into him, reshaping his mind and being reshaped in turn, his affinities and nature forming a feedback loop that broadened his intellect and grounded his thoughts. For a moment, Ori floated on the pleasant sensation of cool, liquid Mana coursing through his mind. Bodily sensation fell away as he sank into himself.
Distantly, he remembered the instructions on the scroll: this was the most important part of the transmutation, and any deviation or distraction would be fatal. However, Ori was distracted. Too much had happened in too little time. Who was he now, and what did he want from life?
Could he go home? Did he even want to go back? Could he escape the infernal prison? What happened if he simply lived the rest of his life here in these distant elven lands, free from danger, perhaps with people who cared for him?
It was a pleasant illusion, a world free of risk, consequences, and urgency. But it was one he could no longer indulge.
Ori shattered his mind.
Tendrils of Aether, directed by Harriet’s bloodline trait, commingled with the influx of Mana, reshaping the metaphysical construct of his consciousness, splitting it into three equal parts, then linking and reinforcing them in ways complex and profound.
Without his soulcraft ability, awareness of the process would have been lost to Ori. However, as Ori watched on in fascination, he could feel the flow of Peritia whirl around him as his Page from the Library of Fate was rewritten. The slow restructuring and build-up of his mind, how both the biological brain and that soul-deep part of him that interacted with Mana, granted him memory and selfhood.
Hours passed, and when it was done, Ori felt surprisingly little different from before. The new thoughts came slowly at first, but after a few breaths, thinking three separate thoughts at once began to feel natural. Before long, he found himself wondering how he’d ever coped without it.
When Ori finally opened his eyes, he was surprised to see Poppy sitting patiently on the floor less than ten paces away. His heart raced as he remembered their evening together in the garden the night before. He still wasn’t sure what it meant, but being caught shirtless with another woman surely couldn’t be good.
He was just about to speak when she smiled, shook her head, and mouthed the word, ‘later’, before standing, a diaphanous dressing gown in hand for her mistress.
“Thank you, Poppy. How were the preparations?” Harriet asked, pulling the dressing gown on as she moved to greet her.
“I managed all that you instructed, Mistress,” Poppy said, handing over her signet ring.
“Any complications?” Harriet asked.
“I was tailed several times, but nothing beyond expectations. I would think my unusual activities have drawn suspicion, though.”
“It can’t be helped,” Harriet sighed, then turned to Ori. “Congratulations. It seems Aether had a positive effect on the process?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“We’ll perform a divination here later. For now, let us retire for some refreshments and review the perception abilities Poppy sourced before continuing.”
“Sure. And thank you,” Ori said, putting his discarded shirt back on.
“The worst is yet to come,” Harriet said.
“Yes,” Poppy agreed, “and it’s not too late to put this aside. You’ve already accomplished much.”
Ori stared into Poppy’s warm brown eyes. Her gaze, full of concern, stalled the words of flippant bravado on the tip of his tongue. He summoned the fractured pieces of Seraphine, the clear crystal glittering blue in the sapphire light. His thoughts split as he considered his plans and their probabilities with and without Quicken Perception. Enchanting wouldn’t be a problem, as Mana Sight was likely enough to fix his wand. However, another part of his mind stared at the hole where Sera’s bond should have been, and with nothing approaching a plan to fix it, his heart rebelled at his cowardice.
“Thank you for your concern. I’ll think about it, but honestly, this is far from enough.”
Several scrolls were laid out across the table, Harriet standing over them opposite Ori, while Poppy sat on the floor in her usual manner, legs to the side. The contrast between one sitting on the floor and one standing made Ori’s seat feel oddly uncomfortable. Split Mind, or at least his implementation of it, made intrusive thoughts more common, albeit less disruptive. He could still focus on Harriet’s words while shuffling through scrolls, assessing their details, strengths, and benefits.
“I would suggest setting your own limits. I personally would choose no more than four, focusing on those with common or synergistic effects that will reinforce each other in the Quickening,” Harriet advised.
“Soul Lens, True Sight, Chimeric Gaze, Perceive ManaScript, and then one more,” Ori mused aloud, eyes on half a dozen other scrolls he’d been considering.
“Soul Lens?” Poppy interjected, her tone curious.
“It’s like I can almost see my soul already, and feel the presence of others around me. From what I understand, soul-related skills are pretty useful for the Bonding stage of the enchanting process,” Ori explained, noticing another pointed glance exchanged between Harriet and Poppy.
“What about a fate, or karmic-related perception ability, like Kismet Insight?” Poppy suggested.
“What, for naming? I’ve never…” Ori’s voice trailed off, unable to articulate his nascent thoughts.
“I believe those with a keen sense of freedom and self-determination are often at odds with divination-based affinities and skills,” Harriet observed.
“Yeah,” Ori said with a small smile, finding clarity in her words. “That’s pretty much what’s going on.”
“While these can all be toggled, which is good, I still worry about the lack of synergy, especially with your existing Mana Sight.”
“I actually want something for healing, something for diagnosing physical or even mental ailments, a Mana or Soul-based perception ability.”
“We found one of each: a mana-based perception ability called Triage, and a soul-based perception ability called Chirurgeon’s Echo,” Harriet said, sliding the scrolls towards Ori.
“Yeah, I’m going to take them both, though I’m surprised you don’t have something related to Quintessence as well,” Ori decided after reviewing both scrolls for several minutes.
Harriet sighed. “What happened to setting your own limits?”
“So you plan on taking a healing class when you Awaken?” Poppy asked.
“I’m already a Journeyman White Mage of the Chromatic,” Ori replied. “While my current focus is on enchanting, the ability to heal, even if it’s just mortal wounds, is a miracle I’m never going to take for granted. And I think these six… I think I can handle them.”
“So, along with your pre-existing Mana Sight, you intend to Quicken: Triage and Chirurgeon’s Echo, with Soul Lens, True Sight, Chimeric Gaze, and Perceive ManaScript?” Harriet's confirmation.
Ori nodded, reviewing the scroll details for the last time.
Ability Name: Triage
Type: Active, Perception, Healing
Characteristic Requirements: Perception: ≥20, Wisdom: ≥25
Other Requirements: Light-related affinity
Effects: Enables rapid assessment of physical and magical ailments in living beings; ideal for healers.
Description: Triage is an active perception ability that allows users to quickly and accurately assess the physical and magical health conditions of living beings. This ability is particularly useful for healers and medics in emergencies, enabling them to prioritise treatment based on the severity of injuries or ailments.
Notes: Upon activation, Triage enhances the user's perception, granting them the ability to recognise the minute flows and disturbances of light and life-aspected Mana and their associations with different types of health at a glance. This includes identifying life-threatening conditions, magical curses, or poisons that may not be immediately apparent. The ability is essential for making quick, informed decisions in high-pressure environments.
Ability Name: Chirurgeon’s Echo
Type: Active, Perception, Healing
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Characteristic Requirements: Perception: ≥45, Spirit: ≥50
Other Requirements: Soul-related affinity
Effects: Enables detailed perception of internal bodily structures and functions; ideal for medical diagnosis and treatment.
Description: Chirurgeon’s Echo is an active perception ability that grants the user an enhanced understanding of internal bodily structures and functions. This ability is invaluable for medical practitioners, enabling them to diagnose and treat ailments with a high degree of accuracy. Users can perceive the intricate workings of the body, including organ function, blood flow, and even subtle imbalances in bodily systems.
Notes: Activation of Chirurgeon’s Echo provides deep insight into the patient’s body by using the soul as a conduit. It is known for allowing non-invasive internal examinations, aiding accurate diagnosis and effective treatment planning.
Ability Name: Soul Lens
Type: Active, Perception, Soul
Characteristic Requirements: Perception: ≥60, Wisdom: ≥25, Will: ≥25, Spirit: ≥55
Other Requirements: Soul-related affinity
Effects: Enables perception of soul energies and conditions; useful for soul-based diagnostics and interactions.
Description: Soul Lens is an active perception ability that allows the user to see and understand soul energies and conditions. Users can perceive the quality, strength, and anomalies within soul energies, making it possible to interact with souls in a more informed and sensitive manner.
Notes: Upon activation, Soul Lens enhances the user’s perception to detect and interpret the nuances of soul energies. This includes identifying soul bonds, detecting soul damage, and understanding the soul’s alignment with physical and magical conditions.
Ability Name: True Sight
Type: Active, Perception
Characteristic Requirements: Perception: ≥70, Intelligence: ≥60
Other Requirements: Mana-related affinity
Effects: Grants the ability to see through illusions, invisibility, and other forms of magical concealment.
Description: True Sight is an active perception ability that enables the user to see through most forms of magical concealment, including illusions, invisibility, and disguises.
Notes: Activation of True Sight provides clarity of vision that penetrates magical obfuscations. It is particularly useful in situations where discerning reality from illusion is critical.
Ability Name: Chimeric Gaze
Type: Active, Perception, Transmutation
Characteristic Requirements: Perception: ≥65, Will: ≥55
Other Requirements: Aether-related affinity
Effects: Allows perception of chimeric energies and their interactions with the physical and magical world.
Description: Chimeric Gaze is an active perception ability that grants the user insight into Aetheric energies and their interactions with both the physical and paracausal realms. This ability is particularly useful for those who work within enchanting or use Aether as a component in spellcraft, as it may aid those who desire to understand the complex interplay of different energies.
Notes: Upon activation, Chimeric Gaze enhances the user’s ability to perceive Aether, Aether-warped entities and materials, and increases intuition towards outcomes of Aether-infused transmutations, and understanding the impact of chimeric energies on the physical and paracausal world.
Ability Name: Perceive ManaScript
Type: Passive, Perception, Transmutation
Characteristic Requirements: Perception: ≥50, Intelligence: ≥40
Effects: Enables remote reading of mana-sensitive texts, with range based on perception; ideal for enchanters.
Description: Perceive ManaScript is a passive transmutation that allows users to remotely interpret texts, runes, and glyphs written with mana-sensitive ink or reagents. The range of this ability increases with the user’s perception level, making it particularly valuable for enchanters who need to understand complex magical scripts or researchers who need to read multiple texts from a distance.
Notes: Upon activation, Perceive ManaScript permanently enhances the user’s perception, enabling them to detect and understand mana-infused writing from a distance. The range at which this can be done increases with the user’s level of perception. This includes the ability to detect subtle nuances, hidden messages, and to comprehend the complex, arcane mechanisms behind magical texts. Perceive ManaScript is particularly effective when used in conjunction with the Split Mind ability, allowing the user to process and interpret multiple streams of magical information simultaneously.
Ori was back within the Eldamar Sanctum. Harriet and Poppy were discussing something out of his hearing as he sat cross-legged on the floor in the same position as before. Ori’s mind was split three ways as he prepared for Quicken Perception to absorb and merge his existing Mana Sight with six new perception abilities.
Two parts of his mind focused on spellcraft, while the third couldn’t help lingering on the image of the two elves. They were starkly different, Harriet’s prideful poise even in a silken gown contrasting with a relaxed grace that made Poppy seem as though her next step could be a pirouette or an arabesque.
So caught up in his blatant admiration, he missed the moment their discussion ended and their gazes settled upon him.
“I take it something has stolen your attention? Or have you finished your preparations?” Harriet asked, her smile rueful, her voice carrying across the sanctum.
“Split Mind makes it easier to be distracted than normal and… well, you already know the effect you both have on me.”
“Perhaps we should start before our Summons loses all sense to our elven wiles.”
“Yes, mistress,” Poppy giggled, before Ori’s heart leapt into his mouth when Harriet disrobed. Naked from the waist up once more, he took her in fully: long, unblemished thighs; hips flaring from an impossibly narrow waist; a torso that would have seemed too small if not for proportionally large breasts that fit her perfectly. With Harriet’s challenging expression and Poppy’s amused smirk, it was all Ori could do not to shift as the space in his trousers suddenly became too tight.
Ori closed his eyes as a rush of lurid thoughts surged through all three streams of his mind. He was only just wrangling his concentration back when he felt Harriet’s back settle against his.
“I shall take my leave, mistress. Ori, I’ll see you when you’ve succeeded. And you will succeed, yes?” Poppy asked, a hint of nerves behind her lingering smile.
“Yes,” Ori confirmed, and she left the sanctum, leaving him alone with the Queen and the Aether Rift behind her.
Part of the reason Quicken Perception was so dangerous was its requirements, requirements many Awakened below Sovereign would fail to meet. When skills that made permanent, fundamental changes required triple digits in Will, it apparently signified soul-deep effects, or in other words, a form of soulcraft on a living soul.
‘Am I alright? Ori, you’re the one who went through Soulcraft as a mortal while still living. Such a despicable act of cruelty, I have never heard of. If it were up to me, I’d have wrapped you up in wool and forced you to heal your spirit for a season.’
Sera’s words replayed in his mind, warmth and melancholy lingering from her concern until the realisation hit: her soul detonation was likely a thousand times worse than anything he had endured so far.
‘I will find you, Seraphine,’ Ori promised himself, his fists tightening at his sides as he put it in context, just how small a sacrifice this was compared to the chance of survival she had given him against Eltitus.
“I sense a shift within you?” Harriet said, the sensation of her skin now more comfort than distraction.
“I’m ready,” Ori said, the scrolls for every ability arranged around him within the enchanted ritual circle.
“Very well. I’ll flood the room with Mana. Take what you must. And remember, in this version of the spell, those scrolls will be consumed.”
“Alright. I’m going to begin.”
Ori exhaled deeply, focusing the full force of his newly enhanced mind on the task of quickening his perception. The process of Quicken Perception, viewed as an enchantment, transformed the prospective scrolls into the Shaping. Their words and mana-infused ink became the Inscriptions. His affinities provided the aspects to be Infused. His own mind served as the medium to be Refined. And his soul, with its link to his ability to perceive Fate, was the aspect to be Quickened.
Spellforms hung fully formed in the air as Ori channelled more Mana than he had ever consciously managed outside a domain. Each spellform came faster, his mind sharper, the manipulation of Mana becoming increasingly effortless.
The scrolls around him, each representing a unique perception ability, began to burn with blue fire, their ashes swirling in a storm of paracausal energies. Harriet, sensing the process begin, channelled Mana into the room, filling the space with a palpable energy that Ori could taste on his tongue and feel across his skin.
As the Mana swirled, Ori reached out with his mind, and the un-aspected Mana obeyed as if it were an extension of his body. Merged within were strands of Aether, which Ori ignored, even as a background curiosity tugged at him.
He felt the core of each ability seep into his essence, his eyes burning as if only part of his soul had been thrown into the furnace this time instead of all of it. Mana Sight blurred as his vision scorched, ash from the scrolls fusing with it to form something greater. Had Ori been able to see his body, he would have seen his eyeballs glowing and his prefrontal cortex radiating orange, gold, and white-hot silver, in stark contrast to the spectral blue of the Aether Rift. Smoke flowed into every open orifice on his face as if he were a vacuum.
Triage, with its rapid assessment of physical and magical ailments. Chirurgeon’s Echo, with its deep insights into the body’s interface with the soul. The revealing clarity of Soul Lens. True Sight, with its power to see through illusions and magical deceptions. Chimeric Gaze, granting insight into the nature of Aetheric energies. Perceive ManaScript, with its detail-oriented ability to read mana-infused writing from a distance. The essence of each enchantment merged, then morphed, before being infused with his affinities and the minute Aether Harriet directed to him.
Ori’s soul fled his body. Life and death stopped feeling meaningful as his sense of self teetered on the edge of oblivion. Like in the soul furnace and his dreamings, it was his bonds and connection to them that allowed him to remember who he was, anchor himself, and regain his purpose.
‘Seraphine,’ his soul called out.
The Aether responded.
Distantly, a gasp sounded as the sanctum was washed in blue brilliance that overwhelmed the light of his burning face and the spell components. The Aether released a chaotic, unrestrained howl as its power forcefully mutated the nascent amalgamation of transmutations into something unbound and profane.
But before it could become monstrous, before it could warp Ori beyond the bounds of humanity into a beast of rage and chaos, the wild torrent of Aether crashed upon Ori’s resolve and broke like waves against a rocky coast.
Survival, however, came at a cost.
Ori felt his soul fracture. Though he had survived the tide of Aether, its power lingered, crackling and snapping with uncontained fury, seeking any outlet. It prodded, probed, ripped, and tore at anything within its influence. The boundary of Ori’s soul, abused far too often in too short a time, was like an eggshell riddled with cracks, his essence seeping into the void.
Then things worsened. Triggered by a qualitative change in Ori’s soul or characteristics, something in him unlocked at the worst possible moment. The assimilated fragments of Eltitus’s soul released their payload of knowledge and experience, obliterating Ori’s tenuous sense of self. The cracks in the shell became irrelevant as the entire structure exploded into the aetheric wind within the Sanctum.
For a moment, Ori Suba of Peckham Rye ceased to exist. His Page of Fate was archived. His story was no more. His last thoughts were of Freya and Seraphine, his fear not for himself, but for them.
But within that last stray thought, that single spark of soul essence, that tiny mote of will, it was enough to rebuild him. Aether was consumed as Ori rebuilt his soul fragment by fragment. Power swirled into him with cyclonic force that shook the foundations of a palace built for Sovereign Rankers. Eltitus’s experiences were incorporated into his soul, including knowledge that enhanced and accelerated the process. A part of Ori remained watchful for undesirable aspects of his foe taking root in him, while his new vision accelerated the rebuilding of his self. Insights new to both Ori and whatever remained of Eltitus emerged while he was awash in titanic quantities of paracausal energies saturating the sanctum, and his newly formed transcendent vision.
The entire process, from start to finish, was over in ten breaths, and in those ten breaths later, in the relative silence of the damaged sanctum, Ori opened his eyes to a dusty, battered hall. Blue light still poured into the Sanctum, but it seemed dimmer than before.
“You alright?” Ori coughed, his lungs finally deciding to clear out a bucket of inhaled dust.
Behind him, Harriet was untouched by dirt and debris, her intense blue eyes wild with panic and fear. Beyond her eyes was a maelstrom of energies: Mana aspected with unfamiliar affinities; a wall of thick, golden Grace like a second armoured skin; and a soul so beautiful and melancholic it outshone the pulsing blue chaos of the rift.
“Ori, what in the spirits happened? I thought you were doomed. And your eyes… spirits, your eyes are glowing.”