Slowly, incrementally I decided to study the new memories shoved into my head. Did I even have a head? I wasn't sure.

Thinking rationally was difficult. My mind kept switching between the memories of Kopusha, Leemy and Dr. Kerenski.

It was also very difficult to keep myself from drifting away. There were currents in this... Astral Ocean. I felt like a little dandelion slowly being dragged into its dark depths by unseen something... akin to a magnetic pull.

Feeling irritated at myself and the horrid, cruel, monstrous, treacherous world I rapidly swam/floated into the hollow shell of the dead tree, into the most safest-looking notch and settled there. It was cold. My threads started to dim. I didn't care. I needed to know more, needed to sort out my fractured mind to understand what was going on.

The memories of Dr. Kerenski could not help me. They were completely alien, useless to this place of death and decay. The dryad was a young soul, she knew nothing about this place. Agromancer Acolyte Kopusha... she knew about the Astral Ocean from newspaper articles praising the Astral Engines and the Astral Gate. She even took classes... about Animancy. It was essential, core knowledge on how she created herself a dryad bestie.

It was cold. Cold and lonely. I focused my mind on the memories of Kopusha.

Rows upon rows of clapping hands. Young faces all around me, smudged ever so slightly.

"Welcome to Animancy, 101, young Novitiates of Tricameron Citadel! I am Academic Chartirion Eyelim Tricameron!" The white-uniformed Academic with the silver Animancer pin on his necktie moved in front of the shimmering board. "Animancy is the study of the human soul, the Soul-Song that ties into it, the manipulation of memories, creation of new life with the power of your soul and the study of the Astral Ocean where all things end up after death. By the end of this trimester, all of you will be able to divide parts of your soul and imbue a creature or an object of your choice with it, granting you a path to immortality!"

Curious eyes burned into the lecturer, including mine. I already knew what I was going to put my soul into. I loved trees, loved nature. I would make myself a dryad friend, a perfect companion that understood me without even needing to speak.

"Here, before you are the three Animancy spell hexagrammatic stanzas that you will eventually learn how to use! Note the beauty of their forms, the curves, the ratios of the tones that make up the entire Song," the lecturer declared and strange three-dimensional glowing structures appeared on the board behind him woven from prismatic light beams.

"The first one - [Tamus-Anima] is a stanza which stills your soul," the lecturer waved a hand at the first structure.

"The second one - [Sectus-Anima] is a stanza with which you will be able to separate a part of your soul," the lecturer waved a hand at the second structure.

"And the last but not least is the third stanza of the Anima manipulation Song - [Conjugo-Anima]. The third stanza binds the severed fragment of your soul to an object of your choosing!" The lecturer declared with a flourish. "Note how beautifully the three stanzas flow into each other, how they..."

I felt cold. Colder. Argh.

The faces of the students slowly lost color. This was a very interesting memory, but useless to me. The Astral. Think Kopusha, think, how do I get out of the Astral?

"What happens if I die accidentally, professor? Fall down a stairwell for example," One of the students asked. "What should I do when my soul is pulled into the Astral from my broken body?"

"Khrm," the lecturer cleared his throat. "Well, your nearest phylactery, your object which holds a shard of your soul will allow you to be reborn inside of it. Simply cast the [Reditus-Anima] and..."

"Okay, but what if someone breaks my phylactery? Or what if my soul is out of mana to cast the spell? Then what?"

"Then you're out of luck, I suppose... and your best hope is that your friends or family on the other side will pull your soul through the Astral Gate!"

"What if I have no friends or family?" The persistent student insisted. "Is it possible to go through the Astral myself and come out of the Astral Gate into the Citadel?"

"You would have to be an incredibly determined soul to make it out of the Astral alone," the professor shook his head. "The Astral Ocean isn't shaped like our world. Time and space are twisted up in unnatural, often incomprehensible ways. One does not simply swim out of the Astral without aid, my dear."

"Right, and if someone does cast a spell to pull me out? What would it look like from my side? From inside the Astral?" The student asked after a moment of silence.

"Like a thread of colored light," the professor said. "Compared to the deadening chill of the Astral Ocean which sucks out the soul's energy, it would feel warm and welcoming, like a path home. The spell is shaped by someone who knows you, designed to pull you out and to deposit you into a new phylactery."

"What happens if the spell fails to pull the soul from the Astral?" Another student asked.

"In time, the soul becomes part of the Astral, loses all mana, crystalizes into one of the nearest layers of sediment. The more time passes, the harder the soul will be to pull away and the greater the chances are that it will be consumed by a predator phantom," the professors' tone became very dark. "Trust me, you do NOT want to meet with an astral predator in the dark."

I glanced at the blue thread from my little alcove. Would it take me... home? Was it designed for me? For Kopusha? No... that was ridiculous. Kopusha's instructors, friends and family died that day when a new sun ignited inside the Citadel. Tricameron was burned to ashes, vaporized by the enemies of the Alanian Empire, betrayed by the Seditionists. Damn them all!

What home would it even lead me to? I didn't have a home anymore!

I noticed that my threads were dimming further.

It was consume more things or follow the thread out.

I felt that my life was running out, was being sucked away by the dreary darkness all around me.

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