Chapter Two.

A soft chime rang out in the train cabin. The guards told me (before I left the tiny outpost) that this chime announced I was reaching my destination— the town of Delmoth, where I could hopefully find… something, I wasn’t sure what yet. The features of the tunnel hadn’t changed at all that I could tell, and with my limited understanding I could only hope I was getting off at the right place. I stood up from the weirdly comfortable stone bench and made my way over to an ornate sliding door on the train’s side as we began to slow. My nervousness peaked as the train stopped and I stared at the doors impatiently.

Maybe I’m still a little keyed up from the whole ‘dying’ thing and the last few months of constant running for my life, but when the doors opened I almost immediately went on the attack as an unseen mob of people rushed into the cabin. Shooting backwards, I braced myself against the wall and raised my hands in a clawing motion. My aura condensed around me into familiar tendrils of starlight before lashing out… and fizzling pathetically, doing nothing.

What!?

I couldn’t take the time to think or understand what had gone wrong, so I reached for some of my earliest lessons in magic to put a barrier between me and the danger. In my soul, I felt something crystalize and spread outwards. A weak burst of [Law] pulsed out and formed a shell of hexagons around three meters across, sending many of my attackers tumbling. I almost stumbled at the ease of summoning one of Veris’ signature spells— something I’d never actually done before— but as I prepared to launch myself into the group and fight my way clear, the shouts of the crowd finally made their way through to my senses past the fog of adrenaline.

“What the hell are you doing??”

“Get out of the way!”

“Damned deeps-mad delvers…”

“You’re blocking traffic!”

The people I’d knocked over were rising shakily and sending hostile glares my way. Glancing quickly left and right, I saw that all along the train other doors had opened and people were streaming in, many of them looking curiously at the disruption in my cabin. I felt my heart rate pick up at the rush of people moving in around me and the increasing hostility of the crowd. Disorientation flooded my brain as the noise of angry shouts rapidly drowned out everything else. Shallow breaths were all I could manage and I felt myself curling inwards at the overwhelming deluge of people until a sharp whistle cut across the noise.

“That’s enough! Alright, what’s happening here?”

A burly man in a long, black-and-gold coat had shouldered his way through the crowd. The group quieted at his sharp glare until several of them pointed angrily at me and started accusing me of assaulting them while they tried to board the train. The man took one look at my panicked face and raised an eyebrow incredulously.

“Well, lad?”

“I— I didn’t…” Was all I managed to stutter out before people started shouting again.

“Quiet!” The man— who was obviously a guard of some kind— roared over the growing noise. He sighed before he pulled out what looked like a truncheon from beneath his coat. Raising it quickly, he gave my impromptu shield a sharp rap that sent a disruptive burst of magic through my aura. It felt like a bad static shock, and the jolt disrupted my concentration enough that the shell around me wavered. I saw him frown briefly, like he expected that single strike to break through my barrier, and my brain finally had time to catch up with my situation.

They’re just… passengers. Nobody’s attacking, they’re all just trying to get on the train… And I’m still in the way.

Dropping the barrier with a mumbled apology, I ducked my head against the redoubled glares and tried to push my way out of the cabin. A heavy weight fell on my shoulder and brought me to a halt. I flinched, scrambling to prevent my instinctive reaction to summon my aura and tear the weight off.

“Not so fast lad, come with me for a bit.”

The burly guard gave a quick point with his chin at a spot clear of people, a few meters away from the train platform. A split second of panic almost had me try to break off and run but I forced myself to calm down with a few deep breaths. Meeting the man’s eyes, I nodded and followed him out, the crowd parting ways for his massive frame like fish evading a shark.

As we walked forward the tight press of so many people penned me in, suffocating me with an unfamiliar pressure. Their clothing was strange, a combination of styles I’d have thought weird before but seemed to work well on them. It resembled Victorian style the most, with a scattering of old asian-esq robes and ornamentation. A surprising number of people wore armor of some kind, ranging from scattered pauldrons and steampunk-esq gauntlets to full-on breastplates underneath long coats. Glowing runes marked many of the metal pieces, which I immediately labeled as ‘enchanted’ in my head. I didn’t see any weapons, though with the prevalence of magic there was no guarantee there weren’t any present— I just didn’t know enough to tell.

We cleared the mass of people and I had to stop myself from shuddering in relief from the crushing atmosphere. That relief lasted until I locked eyes with the stern-faced guard.

“Disturbing access to the Ways. Reckless use of offensive magic in a crowded space. Multiple counts of assault. Resisting a dispelling by an Officer of the Peace.”

With every gravelly-voiced word, I felt my shoulders slump down a little more like weights were being dropped on me from above.

“There’s probably a few more I could tack on you, but you get the point, right lad?”

I pulled myself up and tried to speak, but I couldn’t seem to keep up with my own spinning thoughts.

“I… I didn’t, I thought they were—”

“Relax, boy. Breathe. If I wanted to charge you, we’d be having a different conversation right now, and I wouldn’t be alone. That was a damn good barrier you put up.” His tone calmed significantly and he gave me a searching look. “I’ve seen that look before on all manner of folk— though I admit it’s usually on those a bit older than you. You been down in the dark for too long, spent too much time on the edge of a fight. Deep-sick.”

I looked at him warily, the sudden turn in his mood throwing me off. He looked me in the eyes for a minute before he came to some conclusion and nodded to himself.

“Alright, I’m a busy man, and nobody got hurt today. I have enough on my plate dealing with the surge and actual threats to public safety, which I don’t think you’re one of. Long as it stays that way I don’t see us having any problems. If I find you causing trouble after this, I’ll throw everything I’ve got at you. Understand?” He looked at me seriously.

I couldn’t help but stare at him for a second, struggling with a conflicted tide of emotions welling up in my chest. Eventually I nodded, which dragged a long-suffering sigh out of the guard.

“Listen, you don’t seem like a bad sort. Want some advice?” He asked after a moment. I cocked my head quizzically which he took as a sign to continue.

“Find a tavern. Have a few drinks of something stout and then lie down in a nice warm bed. Repeat as needed and keep your head down until you feel like a person again. The surge has everyone on edge these days and not everyone is going to—”

He was cut off by a sharp crackle of electricity that buzzed harshly through the air around us.

“—gods damn it not again,” He mumbled under his breath quickly before raising his whistle up to his lips and letting out a piercing tone. “Surge incoming! Null your equipment now or you’re losing it! You—” He gave me a sharp point with his index finger as he started sprinting away. “Stay out of trouble!”

The crackle built up around us and people started frantically scrambling with the various pieces of enchanted equipment I’d seen earlier, runes dimming as fast as they could manage to touch them. But as the charge in the air built up, some weren’t fast enough.

Sparks began shooting off the breastplate of a man in front of me, and he swore angrily before a loud *bang* erupted from the chestpiece, sending him sprawling. The scene was repeated throughout the station hall as scattered people couldn’t deactivate their equipment in time. One woman was unfortunate enough to have one of her earrings catch fire, and she started screaming as several people rushed over to help her. Lots of people looked angry or scared by the disruption.

I felt different. A stifling weight that I hadn’t realized was sitting on my chest lifted as a sense of familiar pressure filled me. Magic. I breathed deep and it felt like I’d just come down from the thin air on top of a mountain, reinvigorating me in a way I hadn’t expected. My head felt clearer and with that clarity came a need for action.

Time to make myself scarce.

I quickly made my way through the milling crowd towards a set of wide stairs leading upwards. The air continued to crackle and hum, and people’s faces had shifted from the initial uncertainty to resigned annoyance. Snatches of conversation drifted my way as I climbed the stairs, mostly people complaining about the ‘surge’ and wondering when the Mysterium was going to do something about it. I logged the information quietly as I passed, hurrying out of the station.

Stepping around a corner, I found myself facing the exit. A rectangle of clear, blue sky waited at the end of the steps ahead of me. The exit of the Hollows. After so long underground, it almost didn’t seem real.

A loud throat-clearing *ahem* behind me alerted me that I’d come to a stop in the middle of the stairs, and I ducked my head before rushing the rest of the way up, into the sun… Where I promptly froze again, gawping at the sight before me.

A couple of single-story Achoran buildings were to either side of the exit, but they were overshadowed by the immense city that surrounded them. Buildings five to six stories tall stretched out in front of me for kilometers, following a downhill grade to a river in the distance. Stucco siding with wood frames was the predominant construction, though many larger buildings substituted brass for the trim. The streets were paving stone, but with grooves cut for a series of trams that ran down the main thoroughfare. Thousands of people hustled along crowded walkways and the sheer noise was deafening. I tried to take it all in as I blinked away tears from the strangely foreign sensation of sunlight on my eyes.

I thought Delmoth was supposed to be a small city…

An angry snort was my only warning before someone shouldered past me roughly, nearly knocking me over with a muttered, “Damn tourists.” I felt my blood rising angrily but pushed it back down and made my way over to a bench close to the exit before nearly collapsing into it.

What the hell is wrong with me?

I had just forced a bargain with an entire pantheon of gods in a pact of mutual annihilation. Just come back from the dead after going toe-to-toe with a world-eating monster and speaking with a Void Leviathan. Yesterday I could have vaporized this entire city and it wouldn’t have even been difficult. So why was I stuttering at aggressive questioning from a glorified traffic cop? Why were regular people shouldering me aside with impunity?

Why am I so… weak??

The feeble display of my magic in the train car played over and over in my head. A random guard with a glorified stick had almost made me drop my shield— even if that shield had been a surprise in and of itself. I’d lashed out with [Law] at the people rushing me and it had fizzled almost immediately, which in hindsight was lucky since I’d rather not start off the day by slaughtering innocents, but was still alarming because it should have worked.

Summoning my aura, I lifted up my hand and spun a few motes of light around my fingers. I swirled them around until they formed a little mini-galaxy above my palm, and frowned when I felt how much effort even that simple exercise took. Focusing inward, I tried to picture my Ideal and its connection to my soul, wondering if there was any more damage or something latent snuck in by the gods. Remembering that feeling of something crystalizing and spreading outwards, I tried to trace it backwards to its origin. After a few minutes of quiet focus, I felt my perspective shift inward with a sensation like I was falling. It was like rushing through a dark tunnel, a dim light at the end growing steadily brighter. For a second I freaked out because it was so similar to how dying felt and I managed to startle myself ‘awake’. A quick check showed that I was fine, and after a moment of hesitation I tried again.

I have to know what’s going on.

The feeling of falling came again, though I was prepared for it this time. Light grew ahead of me and suddenly I was hovering in front of a crystal statue—[Astral Body], my empowered soul form. My soul had changed a lot from the first time I saw it after dying. From a vague, glowing blob it had transformed into a crystal sculpture of a person. The external details were absent, making it look like a mannequin, but inside the crystal played a shimmering kaleidoscope of stellar phenomena on a black field; essentially a ‘greatest hits’ collection from the Hubble telescope. I’d taken this form after almost getting disintegrated by an exceedingly angry angel, though the cost of using it was high. Souls weren’t meant to exist untethered, which meant I had to constantly fight against the pull of the afterlife by using Anathema—basically using nuclear radiation to keep myself from freezing in a blizzard. Yeah I’d be warm, but it was just killing me in a different (and worse) way later on.

Reaching out with my mind, I touched the crystal shape of my soul and saw two sparks light up in the dark beneath its blank face. My perspective shifted again and I was now looking out from within the crystalline facets of [Astral Body], which I immediately regretted, because now I could see where I was.

The Void.

I was floating in an all-too-familiar field of empty blackness. Infinite, hungry darkness spreading out as far as I could perceive to all sides. It was all I could do to shove down my rising terror at the overwhelming feeling of vulnerability running rampant through my head. The closest I can compare it to is the feeling of thalassophobia, like I’d been unknowingly floating above the deep ocean with no idea what lurked below. Only I did know what lurked below, and that knowledge did absolutely nothing to ease my fears. The crystal of my fists ground together loudly as I clenched them tight to try and regain control.

I can’t be back there. This has to be different. Think.

It took me a while to bring down my panic to a level where I could start to rationalize things, and that’s when I started to notice some discrepancies. Darkness surrounded me, yes. But it wasn’t pulling at me like it had in the Void. It had a similar feeling of hollow emptiness, just without the gnawing sensation that I’d struggled against before. Paradoxically, while there wasn’t a border to this place that I could sense, I could somehow tell that the space was… limited. I could fly for a hundred years and not reach the end, but I would never actually leave from where I started. It was a bubble, focused around me.

A void, not The Void.

The realization did a lot to calm me down, but I still didn’t like the memories being here drudged up. Death was… fresh on my mind, and getting atomically ripped apart had not been fun.

Shaking my head to clear it, I tried to figure out what this place actually was. The only thing I knew for sure was that my soul was in it, and it connected back to my body somehow. When I’d first come to Haven there hadn’t been anything like this, and remembering back gave me some theories to try.

First, I confirmed that I could leave at will with a few ‘blips’ back and forth to my body. Each time took a couple of minutes, but otherwise I didn’t notice any changes in my health from doing this. Slightly confident I wasn’t about to trap myself somehow, I started my first experiment.

[Law] burst out from me into the empty space, spreading out and filling it in a way I’d never been able to outside. There was no drain, no use of my reserves to power the expansion of my domain, just endless starlight fountaining out and filling up the darkness. I stood there stunned for a bit before cutting the flow to my magic, and was surprised when the starscape remained instead of returning to the pure emptiness of before. For a moment I got worried when I couldn’t dismiss the effect, but there really wasn’t any negative impact that I could tell, so with a mental shrug I moved on.

Eh, whatever. I like how this looks more anyway.

It was then I noticed a tiny crystal hexagon hovering in the space beside my head. The hexagon was almost transparent— which explained why I hadn’t noticed it on the void-black background before— and barely a finger-width across. Touching it sent out a soft chime accompanied by a sudden burst of memories.

“—the best possible shape for a ward is in fact… the Hexagon!—”

“—just so, shape your aura and—”

Hours and hours of practice with Veris were condensed into this tiny crystal, seeming to have everything I’d learned about wards with the old man compressed into an instant of recollection and ready to be brought forth.

Is this… a spell? How normal people do magic?

Buoyed by the ‘success’ of my first experiment (just because I have no idea what happened doesn’t mean it wasn’t successful) I reached out with [Law] again and took control over the swirling stars. They responded instantly to my will, my domain immediately stretching out to encompass the entire starscape with no effort.

God I wish it was this easy in the real world.

A flex of my will set the various stars and nebulae swirling around me, forming a galaxy with my soul at the center like my own supermassive black hole. This took more effort than seizing control, but was still minimal. I briefly went through all my most common uses of magic; altering gravity, shifting some physics around and… huh.

I really don’t do a whole lot with my magic, do I? I’m basically a nightlight that can fly.

Other than my aura-based destruction magic, which I remember Veris telling me in no uncertain terms to avoid using around people, I really hadn’t done much to actually experiment with my power. With that disappointing thought I resolved to try more new things in the future, and continued to mess around in the ‘soul-space’.

Is that the right term? Close enough, I guess.

After a few more minutes of testing, everything was working completely as normal. Even better than normal, actually, as my control over [Law] felt completely natural here. Every move was almost completely without effort, and though I could feel the strain from moving around the expansive aura I’d created, it was nothing like what it should have been. I should have sucked my reserves dry almost instantly in this cloud just trying to fuel its existence. Possible explanations ran through my head to try and explain things, but in the end I came up empty.

Maybe this place… isn’t real? No, that’s not right…

I sighed with frustration. This place was cool and it would probably be invaluable for practicing my magic without devastating the countryside around me, but the more I messed around with my ‘soul-space’, the more upset I was about how I didn’t understand anything about it. What is it? Why did I have it? Why now and not before? My questions kept piling up with no hope of answers.

Swallowing my frustration yet again (this is probably getting unhealthy) I started my next test. Still holding my domain, I reached outwards, but instead of reaching into more of the space around me I tried to direct the flow of power into my seated body outside. It started easily enough, the magic flowed easily down the metaphysical tunnel toward my body like I’d just opened up a valve. This felt natural, and easy; I couldn’t help but feel this was how my magic always moved from my soul into reality and this was just the first time I could actually see it. But my fascinated observations were interrupted when the flow of magic cut out to a sluggish trickle, like a clogged drain pipe.

Frowning, I willed myself towards my body to try and figure out the problem. Tracing the flow of magical starlight was easy, but there were no problems I could see until I found myself hovering in the dark beside a representation of my own chest (which was weird and uncomfortable). Magic billowed and swirled around my seated form— unspent power waiting to be used— but when I raised my hand to conjure up another small galaxy of light, the flow through me and into reality was… anemic, at best. I stared at it uncomprehendingly for a moment.

So… I’m the problem??

Pushing with my will I tried to increase the flow of power, but it only gave me a feeling of uncomfortable pressure that quickly spiked upwards into pain the harder I pressed. Backing off hurriedly, I watched the flow return to its sluggish state.

What am I doing wrong?

There was a disconnect here that hadn’t been present in my last life. A layer of separation between me and my magic that I couldn’t understand. I tried to recall my first lessons in magic from months ago when I’d first met Veris, and it was only then that I finally found a plausible reason for all this.

I’m not a monster anymore.

In my past life I’d been a ‘Beast’, which as far as magic is concerned was a completely different class of entity from people. My magic had been tied directly to my biology, linked intrinsically to me at every level. There had been no ‘soul-space’ because in a Beast, there was no room for it to exist. [Cosmos] had been my only possible magic and it was so deeply embedded in me that it became part of my soul. But… I died. That body was gone. That link was gone. I had become a person in the eyes of the system now, and people had an entirely different system of learning magic that involved careful growth over time. Obviously some things had carried over, but as far as the universe was concerned, I was a magical baby.

Well, a ‘larva’ anyway, but that’s splitting hairs and slightly creepy, so I’m ignoring it.

The point was, I might have all this magic bottled up in my soul, but my body couldn’t use more than a trickle of it. There was definitely a way around this since there were lots of crazy powerful people on Haven, but I didn’t know what it was. All my experience so far had just been made completely irrelevant, and it had been something I specifically asked for in my new body. The gods must be laughing their asses off at me right now.

I had no money, no gear, no allies, no magic, and no idea how to get any of that. I’d only scraped by so far because some nice guards had felt bad for a guy stranded naked in the tunnels, and hadn’t asked too many questions before sending me on my way.

If I couldn’t figure out a solution soon, I was screwed.