Rabyn

There was something new clinging to the back of his mind. It was similar to the holes he had realized were there after the jester incursion. But try as he might, he couldn't bring it to the forefront of his thoughts. The soul knot was still holding that back, temporary fix or not.

Worse yet, he needed to talk to Dave about the strange dream he had while they were operating on him, and the man had chosen now to go play around in his own soul realm. Not that he knew exactly what that meant, but he had some ideas. He had heard enough of Dave's strange classpath there to guess at some things.

What they needed was access to his family's libraries. The books in their collection were amazing in the fact that they even existed at all. But if what little he knew about the small archive his family had put together was anywhere near accurate, there had to be something there that could explain a few things.

Obviously, the Plutorians would know the answer, but that was a fight the Empire of Dave didn't need at the moment. They had enough enemies. A faction of that power wouldn't bother with the games that they were currently dealing with. He doubted they'd even see it coming.

While he wanted to blame the soul knot for what had happened, he knew deep down that it was his own fault. He had dared to dream of a life of artistry, one where his knives wouldn't need to taste the flesh of his enemies, and fate had made sure to remind him of reality. Perhaps one day he could be only a humble chef, but today was not that day.

This wasn't to suggest he'd give up the kitchen he had put together. No, that was far too important to the future of this fledgling empire. He was deeply proud of what he had built here, from the people to the menus, and just because he was willing to accept that his own peace may never be possible certainly didn't mean he'd walk away from the little he'd found.

Perhaps it was time to talk to the mantis. While he wasn't entirely sure just what Timon actually was, he had never believed the driver claim, not even before the sparring match. Obviously, Timon was some sort of espionage expert, but the exact specifics still eluded him. Just what mysteries was the man hunting down for Dave?

That brought his thoughts back to the newest mystery of his own. Who the hell had those figures been at the end of his coin? He was no closer to having an answer to who had even left the coin for him, let alone who it was connected to.

The physical coin itself was another reason he had wanted to talk to Dave once he was back on his feet. More words had appeared after his little soul excursion, which had been enough to convince him that the experience hadn't been some drug-induced dream. He had been worried about proving that it had actually happened when he first woke up, but after seeing the new words on the coin, he was sure it had all been real.

"All is not yet apparent. Do," were the words the coin now had on its face. As more of them had shown up, they had rearranged themselves to make room. So what wasn't apparent yet? Rabyn was sure that it could apply to an infinitely large number of things. But which of them were so important to go through the trouble to set this into motion?

"Dammit, Dave, figure out how to get rid of these soul knots and get back here sooner," Rabyn spoke the words aloud to the empty room.

Karlinovo

"You're sure he's going to be fine in there?" Pryte asked. The Gnome had demanded that Karlinovo brief him on just exactly what was going on. That wasn't possible, as the exact nature of what Dave was experiencing was so far outside of his own area of expertise that it had been the final hump he had needed to push one of his internal debates.

"No, I'm not. But he says he's fine, and you know the man as well as I do. He's nearly as insane as I am," Karlinovo replied. That wasn't entirely true. Or maybe it was more accurate to say they didn't have the resources to make it entirely true yet.

Before his death, Karlinovo had nearly unlimited funds to pursue whatever insanity had caught his fancy. Even if, in the end, it had gotten him killed by someone he had trusted for most of his career. There had been a lot of factions willing to throw money at him. They were all willing to take any chance to get an edge for themselves.

Initially, they had all seemed to assume he was just another player in their grand power game. It was an odd assumption to make, and was one of the many things that reinforced to him how unbelievably stupid they actually were. It had seemed for all their wealth, they couldn't buy themselves any sort of brain.

He had spent his days pushing against the boundaries of so many different fields that anyone with half a mind should have realized what his true passions were. He wanted to solve it all. He needed to find a grand theory to unite all of it. And in doing so, he would almost certainly overturn their entire power structure.

The funniest part of that was that he didn't even care. There was no noble goal behind his pursuits. It was just what would happen when he ripped the secrets free from the elite few. Once anyone could use multiple mana orbs at once, then what did it matter that the lordlings could as well?

"I'm not sure I'd call it insane exactly. Dave has his own way of doing things, and the things have to either be incredibly pressing or interesting to him. Hopefully, this soul realm thing is enough of both of those that he gets it done quickly. It's not a great look to have the leader of our faction lying comatose in a makeshift tent," Pryte said.

"Speaking of the faction. Hypothetically speaking, if I had managed to track down Henjen Klank and had a way to get in contact with him. How much are you against me doing that?" Karlinovo asked, watching the glare Pryte's face formed the longer he spoke.

"It's your life you're risking here. If I remember correctly, you two were colleagues at one point?" Pryte asked in return, his glare softening.

"Colleagues is a strong word. He was my teacher at one point, and let's just say I have treated him rather unfairly at many times in my life. I don't believe he would ever sell us out if that's your worry." Karlinovo was pretty sure of that at least. No matter how strong the enmity between the two might have been at times, there was some respect, usually.

In his youth, Karlinovo hadn't respected Henjen at all. The man was slow and plodding to get to anything. There was a genius locked in there, but he refused to use it. At least that was how he had seen the man when he was his student, and for many years after that. His death and resurrection had done a lot to change those views. Henjen was still alive after all, so there was something to his methods.

"I'm guessing, since you asked, that means you already have a way to contact the man?" Pryte leaned his head forward into his hand as he asked this.

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"Yeah, I had a delivery earlier today of a communication node. And yes, I already checked it over. I'm sure it's his," Karlinovo replied.

He actually hadn't been expecting anything of the sort, as he hadn't revealed to Henjen who he was in the small letter he had sent. Something had tipped the old man off that this wasn't just a normal potential student who had tried to contact him. The question of what had been burning in his brain since the node had arrived.

"Dave would just tell you to do it, so I'm not going to try to stop you. But if you can convince the man to supply us with our own communication nodes, that would be great." Pryte hadn't lifted his head back up yet.

"I'll see what I can do, but he wasn't really a specialist into communication magic the last time I spoke to him. It's been a while, so it's possible he's learned it, but I'm guessing he purchased the one he sent. But thanks, I'll get this little hurdle out of the way then. It's been on my mind for too long," Karlinovo said as he turned to leave the room. He spotted Pryte wave him out from the corner of his eye as he closed the door.

He then quickly made his way back to his personal workshop. Sealing the door behind him, he reached for a switch on the wall and flipped it. A greenish light blanked the room. This had been his attempt at a makeshift suppression field. Normally, it would have been a terrible idea, but since he hadn't formed a core yet, it should make it near impossible for whoever was on the otherside of the node to track him.

Just because he expected Henjen to be there didn't mean he was willing to risk his life entirely. The fact that he was likely a mana beast, at least as far as the System was concerned, had made the design a bit tricky. Luckily, he hadn't accidentally turned his heart off the first time he tried it.

Pulling the node out of the lock box he left it in, he triggered the connection function and set it down on the table in front of him. A window into what looked exactly like the same office Karlinovo had seen so long ago popped into view. Had Henjen really not updated his office in over a thousand years?

The old man's face came into frame next. "Huh, so it is you then? I'm a little surprised you'd be willing to fake your death, even more so that you managed to stay out of the limelight for so long," the familiar voice of his once-annoying teacher greeted him.

"How could you possibly know it was me from that letter?" It was starting to look like Henjen was far smarter than Karlinovo had realized. That was not a revelation he took easily.

Henjen shook his head several times before responding. "You never did want to learn the finer details. You were too concerned with the big picture. Maybe I'll tell you someday, but for now I'm more interested in what made you reach out after all this time?"

"Because I wasn't hiding. I didn't fake my death. I died, more or less. It was a soul separation on a level that I had no chance of returning from, but an incredibly unlikely and fortunate series of events has landed me in this fancy new body. Which, by the way, you also shouldn't be able to recognize." As far as Karlinovo could tell, the only unifying trait between his old body and his new one was the soul itself. Did Henjen have a way to verify soul signatures?

"That doesn't explain what made you contact me. If I remember correctly, the last time we spoke, you called me a fool," Henjen replied.

"Before I died, I know we were both invited by Thykle to discuss some of his life's discoveries. I need to know what he shared with you," Karlinovo replied.

"Do not say that name again. I'll be to your location as soon as I can safely make the trip. We will have this discussion in person." The communication node died moments after Henjen had finished speaking.

Elody

She was surprised to have found a reference she hadn't read before to the strange dungeon they had just encountered. While she hadn't read the whole of the books in the archives, she had read the majority of what she had considered important. It seemed she would need to revise her thoughts on just what important meant in the future.

Jerold Helmer had recorded at least two incidents of situations like those they had encountered. Both of them had been caused by the formation of a natural soul mana orb and a mana beast coming into contact with each other. The people in those situations had been much less lucky than their own group had been.

The longer a mana beast was exposed to a soul mana source, the higher the chances of it awakening into a wholly different type of monster than she had ever encountered. Jerold had called them soul beasts, but had noted that it was a name he had created for them. As far as he could tell, no one had ever taken the time to truly identify them before, and with how incredibly rare they were, the study of them was likely impossible.

He had only included these details as a footnote on unusual dungeon layouts. She would need to see if the author was still alive when she had the time. It was possible he was the only person in the Spiral who had any real knowledge of these creatures.

She filed that goal away under distant future plans. It was something she wanted to know, but likely didn't need to know at the moment. Despite that, it had caused her to develop a renewed drive to get through all of the books the archive had contained.

The pseudo dungeon was not an experience she wanted to repeat, even if it had been a new one. Showing the others one of her stranger mutations was something she'd have preferred not to have done. But at least Dave hadn't seemed bothered by it.

She hoped he was doing well on his recent diversion. Gamma had explained it to her as some sort of soul realm, which was what she was searching through her reference desk files for now. If she had missed something else related to soul energy, it was just as possible that she had missed this as well.

Grant

"It's not that I'm saying joining up here is the wrong decision. I'm just surprised you actually did it, sir," Grant said. He was having lunch with the former president, something he had been invited to.

This certainly hadn't been the life he had expected when he enlisted. He figured he'd do his time, go to college, maybe study something like writing. But then the world went to hell, and he was stuck in the middle of political games while he just tried to save the people who most needed his help.

"You really don't need to call me sir anymore, not that I think you ever needed to, but I'm certainly not president anymore. Hell, realistically, the United States doesn't even exist anymore. The world has changed, Grant, faster than I ever would have thought possible, but all those lines on maps are entirely meaningless now," Roberts replied.

"That would make you the last president then, and probably even more deserving of the honorific," Grant replied. Despite his words, he had dropped the sir on purpose. He didn't want to make the other man any more uncomfortable than he already was.

"Yeah, well, to that end, that's part of what I wanted to talk to you about. We need to defang the GPA entirely. I like Dave, and I'm sure he really can defend this city. But if we let the GPA keep building up its resources, a lot of innocent people are going to be hurt." Roberts placed a folder on the table between them as he said this.

"Look, I'm not saying I disagree with you, but I'm also not willing to act without the approval of Dave, or in his absence, Pryte. There are a lot of things going on, and I don't want to screw any of those spinning plates up," Grant replied, surprising himself.

Telling the former president no as easily as he had wasn't something he was sure was in his wheelhouse. He had even somewhat lied to the man. It wasn't just Dave's approval he cared about. He'd go against that if he felt it was really needed. No, the truth was he had been elected to a city council position, and that meant he owed the people of this growing city his full support first.

"Don't worry, Pryte has already signed off on this. We just have to run anything we do by Timon before we do it. That folder in front of you is full of people, mostly current or ex-military, who I think will be willing to work with us. How do you feel about making some house calls?" Roberts smiled as he asked the question.

He reached for the folder and started flipping through. As long as this was sanctioned, then he agreed it was time for some more direct action. He'd need to add a few of his own buddies to the list.

In my goal to better understand all the life contained in the Spiral and beyond, I have decided the best way to truly know something is to live as it. To that end, I will now spend one hundred years as any living creature before I am willing to document my findings. I believe this will greatly increase the field of ethnography.

Initially, I considered the idea of spending this from early life through maturity, but without first understanding what that means in the local population, I won't be able to properly emulate that. I will observe from a distance before deciding how best to integrate myself.

Life Through the Eyes of a Mimic by Guy Person

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