A light flashed as the wisp shot from the stone and took in its surroundings for the first time. A simple square room deep underground with a hole in the ceiling from the Wisp’s keystone’s entrance. The Wisp ignored the wind howling through the hole.

The Wisp processed for only a few seconds before mana began to engulf it, sending it off with a brilliant blue glow, blinding the Wisp’s visual senses. Panicked, the Wisp shot across the room, banging and bouncing off the walls of the room until the mana infusion had finished. Only then did the Wisp settle down against the floor as familiar text arrayed itself against its vision, something the Wisp knew intrinsically as a ‘Menu’.

[Directive is to build defensive refuge.] The Wisp thought. [Fabrication is my purpose.]

The Wisp knew it was a magical construct, but not much more than that. It somehow knew the world was larger than its room, but not more. Dangers lurked throughout this world, and the Wisp knew that it would need to counter them, but not why.

All it knew for certain was that it would need to build.

And so build it would.

The Wisp looked at its menu.

Spatial Constructions > Engineering > Mana Signaling > Golems > Rituals >

The Wisp buzzed in anticipation, eager to start its work. Soon it would be able to defend and build as it had always dreamed it would do...

[Irrelevant.] The Wisp shook itself, flashing brightly. [I must build.]

It looked over its menu and selected Constructions, instinctively pouringa little mana into the option. The menu changed as the list opened, separated into rooms, hallways, halls, and buildings The Wisp selected halls.

Spatial Constructions < Rooms > Hallways > Buildings > Halls < Entrance Hall (20 Mana, Force) Menagerie (30 Mana, Force) Golemantic Hall (40 Mana, Force) Thaumaturgic Engine Core (Free, Limit 1) Residence (20 Mana, Force) Page ⅓ Other >

The Wisp buzzed in excitement, wondering how it should fulfill its mandate. Should it specialize in traps and golems? Vehicles and magic? Maybe even secure the land outside its fortress...

The Wisp flashed in anger as the hole’s warm wind continued to interrupt its musings with its roaring, and a bolt of lightning arced from its body towards the hole, emitting a deafening crack that sent the Wisp bouncing around the room again until it calmed down.

[Scratch prior musing.] The Wisp's flaming core flickered angrily. [Unit should remain autonomous from meteorological conditions.]

With that the Wisp dived into its Spatial Constructions menu until it found an option named Land Sculpting. Though it knew not where the knowledge came from, the Wisp nonetheless summoned the magic and directed it at the hole, sealing the room shut from the wind outside. A quiet silence embraced the room, pleasing the Wisp.

Then, the Wisp went back to its menu, quickly opting to select the ‘Thaumaturgic Engine Core’. The Wisp knew it would need one to power the rest of the fortress.

The Wisp suddenly froze in place as its ambient mana began creation. Beams of light shot out from the Wisp’s body, annihilating the dirt and stone around it to dig the room, and the Wisp fell into a trance as he directed these beams around, designing the room himself. 

The Wisp made the hall rather large, roughly 20 metres long and half as many wide with a huge ceiling stretching 7 metres up. As it carved, the Wisp cut decorative pillars into the walls adorned with strange markings that it didn’t quite understand. Towards the far end, large stairs were cut along with a lifted section of the floor upon the top of which a massive circle was cut. Three stone tusks shot into the air around the circle, looking as if they were holding in some invisible sphere. As an afterthought the Wisp cut in 2 large doorways on either end of the hall, the one behind the platform leading to the first room while the other opened to solid stone.

As the beams began to calm down, the Wisp felt drawn to the carved circle on the platform, as if he was meant to fly there. Dutifully, the Wisp flew into the circle, which immediately launched into action, a transparent blue field popping into existence around the Wisp. 

A brief flash of apprehension flared up in the Wisp as it felt a pulling on his core. Sputtering as that apprehension turned into fear when the tugging intensified, the Wisp whizzed around the circle, unable to break out of the field. 

[Unit integrity failing!] The Wisp screeched silently. [Cease soul binding!]

The pulling continued to grow until the Wisp felt as if it existed between two black holes, its halves repelled from each other with a strength that threatened to snap it in half. The Wisp continued to send out telepathic probes to the construct, begging it to stop. The room shook with the Wisp’s efforts, as if the ground itself was responding to its pleas.

A rumble and crack drew the Wisp’s attention above, and it watched as a large rock the size of a small shed broke off from the roof and fell towards him. Momentarily distracted from his plight, the Wisp watched as it smashed into the field that contained him, an explosion of brilliant sparks cascading from its point of impact. A shockwave slammed into the Wisp and it was thrown to the floor with a crack, its soul rejoining its halves as the room shuttered.

The field held however, and the boulder slid to the side. The room stopped its shaking as the binding ritual ended, the field finally blinking out of existence. The circle hummed as it activated, though the Wisp wasn’t sure what it had binded to. 

The Wisp remained on the ground for a long span of time, internally fighting metaphorical fires as it attempted to solder its soul together again. The Wisp dove inside itself, switching off its external senses like a lamp. As it fought to forge itself together again, the Wisp analized the damage.

[Damage to Unit soul: Extensive.] The Wisp thought unhappily. [Fracture appears likely.]

The Wisp knew that something had gone wrong. Instinctively, it knew that the machine was only meant to bind the Wisp to the fortress core so he could manage it, not rip him apart! If that boulder hadn’t interrupted the ritual… the Wisp didn’t want to think about what would’ve happened.

The Wisp sighed as it doused one of the cracks in its soul with mana. It wasn’t created with this kind of damage repair in mind, as far as the Wisp was aware. It had no secret knowledge related to fixing it other than throwing its mana reserves at the problem. And while the Wisp knew it had a rather large bank to pull from, that kind of solution probably wouldn’t fix the problem permanently. 

Could its internal blueprints be faulty from deployment? While the Wisp had no memory of any time before the room, it had seen the tunnel created by his landing. Though as the templates were stored in its soul the Wisp wasn’t sure how a tough landing could disrupt them. That was another thing it would have to ponder once it had recovered. If it could recover that was.

[Entering recovery stasis.] The Wisp declared. [Luck and light.]

The Wisp didn’t know exactly why it said that, or to who, but it sounded right for some reason. Then, the Wisp began to concentrate, blocking out all thought except recovery.

…

[Awaken, Azure Core.] 

A happy voice resounded through the Wisp’s head, shocking it awake from recovery. It flew up a few core lengths, scanning the dark hall for life. With no obvious signs, the Wisp began to float slowly around the hall, flitting around fallen rocks and cracked pillars to be sure.

As the Wisp wandered around the room, it began to wonder if it had misinterpreted a natural phenomenon as a telepathic communication. After all, the Wisp had sustained significant damage to its soul, it didn’t think it would be too far out there that its senses were damaged as well.

[Resuming recovery stasis] The Wisp flew to the ground and began to darken its senses when another voice jolted it awake again.

[Halt, Azure Core.] The voice said. [The recovery is complete.]

The Wisp immediately started inspecting its soul again, spinning with confusion. As it gazed internally, it noticed that latched onto his scarred soul lattice there lay another packet nearly as large as his own, as if another consciousness had attached itself to him. Instead of talking, the Wisp began blasting it with mana, sending huge spasms of pain through his core as he did so.

[Wait, stop! Stop!] The voice pleaded, a tinge of fear replacing its earlier happiness. [What are you doing?!]

The Wisp continued to blast itself with mana, ignoring the soul jacker. It was a malignity, a horrible blemish against his sense of self, but more importantly the Wisp was in no mood to negotiate after the failed ritual. 

[I’m not an invader!] The voice began to throw up shields against the soul, though the Wisp noticed he was losing the mana for the maneuver instead of his attacker. [Our soul was ripped in two!]

[Unit directive: Purge] The Wisp continued to spasm on the floor. [Self destruction marked preferable to possession.]

The two continued to fight, blasting and shielding the Wisp’s soul for several minutes. After a while the voice silenced itself to focus on its defense, a development that suited the Wisp just fine. The Wisp turned off its senses to concentrate as well, simply watching the webbing of its soul flare and sputter as the battle unfolded.

Eventually however, the Wisps considerable mana reserves bottomed out, stopping him from wrecking more havoc on his soul. Both of the consciousnesses stopped fighting to catch their breath, knowing full well that neither could win in that fight.

[Threat Designation: Irritating.] The Wisp flashed and sputtered as it reenabled its senses. [Please leave.]

[I can’t, genius!] The voice thought back. [I’m the result of the fracture you suffered earlier. I’m literally you.]

The Wisp spun, finally entertaining the prospect. It knew that it was possible, for some reason, but the Wisp hadn’t realized it could manifest in such a manner. It had assumed that the other half would simply split off and wither away, though now that it thought about it the Wisp couldn’t see what it had based that on. Or what it was basing any of its knowledge on anyway.

The Wisp floated back and forth across the hall, pacing in thought. So much had happened since his birth, and yet nothing had been answered yet. When he first awoke, all he knew was that he must build, but now he found that seeking answers to be preferable. He stopped.

[Elaborate.]

…

Over the next few minutes, the irritatingly happy voice talked extensively on the subject, bringing up comparisons and knowledge related to the Wisp’s own. She- the voice identified herself as such- explained how she had come into existence right after the field had failed with all the same memories, but with a mangled connection to the Wisp’s senses. It had taken her several hours in the recovery period before she had even gained the ability to think straight. 

[Disappointing.] The Wisp lamented. [New Research Directive: Merge Fractures.] 

[I’m gonna have to stop you there, friend.] The fracture communicated. [You can’t just kill me immediately! That’s rude!]

The Wisp began picking up pillars and rocks, smoothing over the damage from the binding ritual. Without the controls and mana it would’ve gotten from being binded to the Thaumaturgic Engine however, it knew the repairs would take hours, perhaps days.

[Misused: ‘Kill’.] The Wisp mused. [You are me.]

[We may be the same person, but that doesn’t mean we are the same person!] The fracture pouted, causing the Wisp to flicker brightly. [According to my recovered ethical guidelines, I am my own entity, and so killing me would indeed be murder!]

The Wisp picked up another pillar silently before sending a weak mana surge towards the fracture. She recoiled with a yelp.

[You do know I was the fragment bound to the fortress, correct?] The fracture questioned once it recovered. [If you destroy me you’ll forfeit control as well. And we both know you can’t make another one.]

The Wisp stopped.

[Prove declaration.]

[Gladly.]

The Wisp could feel the smugness in the reply. And that made the Wisp want to send another mana surge, but he declined so as to watch.

The other presence became subdued as she worked, but the Wisp could feel the changes immediately. Rocks lifted themselves, held aloof by force mana while pillars became whole and the stairs repaired themselves magically. After roughly twenty minutes, the hall was back to the state it had been before the binding ritual. 

[Regrettable.] The Wisp lamented.

[You can call me Hazel!]