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Mark found nothing in his soul that looked weird. No creepy crawlies under the bed. Nothing hiding in any of the cabinets. Nothing hidden in the floorboards, or in the black grasses of the lawn. He had the sudden idea that maybe that thing that Addavein had killed had been interfering with his System Call system, but Mark checked that out on the roof, hitting the Call button over and over, and the inability to connect remained the same as ever.

Mark stared into the prismatic black all around his house, asking Quark, "You see anything?" Quark said, "I see nothing untoward, sir, except for the usual jumble of things you call your soulhouse. I do, however, see the Binding for Extended Protect that we worked on, and I can make sense of the Bindings inside of your filing cabinet. That remains the same as ever." Mark muttered, "Same as ever…" Mark sighed. Mark said, "Whatever it was… Maybe you had to have been affected, too.

It's Forbidden Magic, like Addavein said on the way to this Winter Ball. It stops you from even realizing it was there, doing something. Eldritch shit." Quark said, "Sir Addavein also spoke of how Castellan fire breaks down those sorts of influences. Should we check on Eliot, sir?" Mark opened his eyes to the real world and he felt for Eliot. Eliot was in the gardens with Tartu, working on stuff, but now Addavein was standing out there with them, talking to them.

Eliot's vector internalized a bit with embarrassment and worry while Tartu was concerned… but not in that large of a way? Mark hummed." Maybe these things happen all the time? Eliot is not giving the impression that he actually messed up. More like… embarrassment that stuff hadn't been cleaned up well enough?" … Mark had a thought." Quark?" Mark asked, "Can you categorize and digest all of how I have acted over the last… two weeks— No. Three weeks. Three weeks seems good enough.

That's from before Nobody Important showed up. Can you see if I have been hesitant to do something that I should have done?" Obviously, the eldritch antimemetic parasite could have been there for a very long time, but it would still have effects over a shorter period of time, and anything from Endless Daihoon was automatically 'too weird to categorize' so why even bother looking at that stuff right now. If Quark didn't find anything in the last few weeks, then Mark would have him dig deeper."

One moment, sir," Quark said, and then he started pulling on Mark's astral body, chugging through large amounts of data— He came back quickly, saying, "You are generally a proactive person, once you have identified a problem.

In the last few weeks, you have expressed deep dissatisfaction regarding the world turning against you and the Reset Quest, Crystal Tower blackballing your team, a return to magic learning that isn't going as well as you wished and specifically with Water People, worry over the brewing war with Okuana but not doing anything about it, and you have had a distinctly uncharacteristic reaction about the Resurrection Ghost story. You have chosen to leave Jessie Stills in Aluathan custody.

There is also the issue of you handing out billions in goldleaf to people who asked for it, which is completely new, but that seems less like an issue and more like a personal development." Of all the issues raised and ignored, failing to pursue information on the Resurrection Ghost is perhaps the most egregious, but you did experience a physical tic when you wished to figure out Water People in order to gird your house from influences, the day after the goblin ritual, and then you didn't pursue that learning."

It is hard to say, exactly, how the eldritch parasite affected you based on the parameters given and researched." Mark was temporarily embarrassed about not pursuing Jessie Stills and the Resurrection Ghost story, but then he remembered how his face kinda flexed outside of his control that morning. That made him stand up and worry. He had completely forgotten about that! And now, he remembered that… Mostly. Mark asked, "That face tic was about Water People?"" Yes, sir."" I didn't remember that…

But why would the antimemetic thing stop me there?"" Impossible to say, sir, though you were about to try out Water People on your own, to see if you could feng shui your way to a clean and clear house, and thus a clean and clear soul." Mark paused.

"… I said that?"" It seems that you don't remember that, sir, but yes, you did. Here is a recording of the event:" Quark projected light into Mark's eyes, showing him waking up in the bed several days ago." Quark?" Mark asked, laying on the bed, "What was Walaria's wording, exactly, when she offered to release me from my settlement contract and the rest?"

Quark beeped, and then played Walaria's voice, " 'In return (for accepting a geas), we release you from your previous settlement contract, declare you a diplomat and with all the assorted powers thereof, and we bring you into the Grand Working of Aluatha, which means the weight of the Empire is magically supporting you.'

"" Yeah… no," Mark said, "Not doing that." Quark asked, "Is there an offer she could make you that would make you change your mind?"" Not to my knowledge… And now that I'm thinking about it more, if they want me to be an Inheritor, and eventually a rival emperor, if they make me unable to harm or think about harming Aluatha then haven't they just gained themselves a puppet state?" Mark frowned.

"And I'm kinda mad that I didn't get to learn Water People."" You could still do it on your own, sir." Mark barely remembered that, but he knew that what played next was completely wrong. Still in bed, Mark stared at the ceiling, saying, "It's such a weird language. There's all that positioning stuff, silent and barely even there. Like you're supposed to live a completely silent life and interpret everything everyone is saying around you by just looking at each other… which I suppose is just what high-empaths do.

Mind Magic, eh… Well whatever. I don't think I'll ever get that, but I kinda already do, with Unionsense? The actual fate magic of Water People is all… Feng shui your way to a clean and clear house! Why does that work at all?" In the recording, Mark's eyes twitched as he asked himself that big question at the end. In the present moment, Mark glared, focused and worried. The recording continued. Mark asked himself, "The fate magic part of it has to be established-magic establishing itself more and more, right?

Like with all magical languages… though I suppose the demons described the first ones, right? Or was it people making the first ones, and the demons codified them into the System— No wait. It was the elves making the languages, wasn't it. And then humans came along and picked them up and took them over… I wonder where Water People even came from, then. It's a super-empath magical language meant for hiding from monsters—" Mark's eyes twitched almost violently, pinching onto his eyes.

Mark blinked and sat up and he put a finger onto his eye to stop it from twitching, but it had already stopped." What the fuck was that?" Mark quietly asked, looking at his fingers, sitting up in bed, eyesight clearing slowly." What was what, sir?" Quark asked." My eye twitched… I haven't had any involuntary movements in a while…" Mark recalled Lola's words from a long time ago.

"Lola once told me that if I'm sneezing then I'm under attack… So what the fuck does an eye-twitch mean?" In the recording, Mark watched himself space out, and then the recorded Mark got up, got dressed, and asked Quark about the day. Quark ended the video there, saying, "It appears you forgot about that, sir, up to that point."" Yeah, Quark. That's exactly… right."

Mark frowned, and then he told Quark, "Don't let me stop experimenting with Waterpeople until I figure out how to remove antimemetic threats from the house."" Understood, sir."" Open the Waterpeople book, please." Quark manifested a hologram for Mark to flip through, to read fast, to find where he had left off reading it last time, but what Mark found were diagrams that he had never seen before.

He found arrangements of things that were not furniture, but instead they were statues of people arranged in formations, frozen in time and casting facial and body-based emotions in various directions. Open hands raised high, directing flows upward. Terrified faces looking outward and running in circles around a location. Calm faces and closed eyes directed inward, in a counter-clockwise flow—" The orb, sir," Quark said. The Extended Protect orb on Mark's chest glowed faintly, like it was dying. Used up.

Mark focused on the pendant, Unioning with Good and Bad, and this time his 'Bad' included memetic threats. Something flowed away from the pulsing black veins under his skin, into the air, like a blood clot. The pendant glowed strongly once again as Mark's heart beat like he had been running hard. Scared. Mark breathed with Fear and Glory, pushing away the weirdness of being attacked, spontaneously, by… by what? The book itself? Knowledge of the book? It was a hologram, so it wasn't real.

But whatever had been transmitted through the book, into memory, and then into Mark, was still present even in an illusion cast upon his sight. This was the true danger of Forbidden Knowledge, wasn't it. Just like Addavein had told him. This shit was impossible to get rid of… But why the fuck was it coming through on the book about Waterpeople… And why was Mark thinking of it as 'Waterpeople', all one word, instead of the two words that were 'Water People'. This book clearly had it as one word…

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Was that part of the antimemetic threat? But why would—" Sir, the orb." Mark focused again and more shadows left through the black veins of his Union, the orb on his neck brightened back to diamond-light strength, and Mark continued the thought from before, this time with his dreamsight active.

In a world of stretched-out light and dark prisms, Mark wondered if the antimeme was coming through on the separation of 'Waterpeople' into 'Water People'— Mark watched as something twisted out of the mana, manifesting directly into his own body, like a tendril-thing sinking into his chest and hitting the orb on his neck on the way in. It felt like nothing at all, but Mark could almost feel his thoughts twisting away from continuing down this Water People path, telling him to do other things— Good and Bad.

Twists of tendrils flowed away through Mark's astral veins, back into the manasphere, to sink into the prismatic black. Mark's heart continued to beat hard as he said, "The fuck is that shit." Mark rapidly flipped through the book, fighting off the antimeme over and over again as he tried to piece together a generalized Waterpeople formation against intrusion, all the while keeping in mind the cleaning ritual that he had done with Walaria and others. Eventually, Mark had a basic plan.

With the diamond-glow of the orb strong around his neck, but already dimming, Mark dove back into his soul and he began making statues of himself— The statues suddenly reminded him of what Nobody Important did with his massive mithril siphons that floated around him like monks praying— The prismatic darkness crackled all around Mark's soulhouse and tendrils seeped inward, reaching, coiling, settling into the soil and the air and the walls—" Fuck you!" Mark Called out, voice full of rage and hate and power.

His entire soulhouse flexed with Mark's anger, and the tendrils sunk into that flexing, hiding in the floorboards— Mark opened his eyes to reality for a moment, just long enough to focus his astral body through the dull orb on his neck, returning it to full diamond-brightness. The antimeme flowed away, and Mark went back into his soul.

He rapidly conjured statues of himself with brooms in hand, dancing around the property and leaving behind after-images of himself holding that broom, placing them at 12 points around his house, and then he went to the roof and changed out the rooster weather-vane to a rooster weather vane standing on a broom, like all of the brooms held by the statues of himself out by the edges— Something shifted.

The new rooster weather vane did a twirl, accompanied by a great sweeping sound and a wind that was not a wind at all. Darkness spilled away from every surface of the house, the air, the grasses, and Mark's own self, like the Bad part of a Union flowing away on the wind. That darkness coiled and bunched as it fled, revealing itself as tendrils and eyes and many different mouths all soundlessly rushing away, brushed away by the power that Mark had instilled into his own soulhouse.

Gradually, slowly, the rooster calmed down, it stopped spinning, and then it went still. The brushing sound stopped. Mark felt better. He smiled, and then he patted the rooster statue, saying, "Looks like you're keeping eyes out for more than just vectors, now." The solid black rooster, of course, said nothing.

It was a statue, same as the statues all around Mark's house— Something blue manifested in front of his face— A bunch of blue boxes appeared before him, rapidly transforming into System Prime messages and a new Status Screen. Secure connection established. You may now access System Prime anywhere within the governed areas. Status Check! You have achieved Foundation!

Mark Careed, Age 19, human (Elf, as per System) [Inheritor] Physicality set to: Weak, [Variable], Full Mana Type: True Adamantium House: Foundation Extra Lives: Secure Utilized: 59/148 Cohort: 0/2 Bindings: 3/4 Active Ritual: Clean House Body, Adamantine Immortal: 099 Shaper, Adamantium: 099 Mind: 99 (Unusable; Familiar Detected) Natural, Union: 099 Soul: 99 (Empty) Arch: 99 (Empty) Archived Abilities (Old): Strong Body (Incomplete), Healthy Body (Incomplete), Low Shaper (Incomplete), Bolter, Breeder, Camouflage x3, Eater, Healthy Body, Hider x7, Ice Shaper, Parasitize x3, Plant Body, Slick Body x8, Strength Unending, Strong Body x2, Stunner Body, Water Shaper x2 Archived Abilities (New): None Archived Spells (Old): Protect, Vision, Listener, Tracking, Extended Protect Archived Spells (New): None Mark stared at the blue boxes, and said, "Well hot damn."

He had a secure connection to System Prime, now—" System Call, Help!" Mark exclaimed to the prismatic dark of the sky above his soul house, suddenly realizing he could do something important, "Who the FUCK is Godking Dominant and how can I oust him from the Empire of Okuana?!" Invalid Query"… Okay. Let's try again. System Call, Help: Why does the separation of the word Waterpeople into Water People cause an eldritch antimemetic response?"

Mark glanced to the side, to the space beyond his house, as something shadowy flickered around the space. The black rooster weather vane did a twirl on his broom, and then faced the shadow again. That shadow was unable to get inside— A blue box appeared. Invalid Query Mark frowned.

"... System Call, Help: What can you answer?" I can only answer questions based on facts about your Status. Further options might be available to Emperors, or to those in control of a throne, but they are not available to Inheritors. Right. Same limitations as back in the elven lands.

"… A 'throne', huh..." Mark would pursue that information more, later, but he was pretty sure it meant whatever physical thing that controlled, like, the Lightning Spires of northern D'Australia, that were part of Metrovaka r va, the Dragon King's original Empire that the goblins were currently digging into and trying to find. Or, more personally, and for Mark, the throne of Xerkona somewhere in south-central Sheorune. But Mark looked at his Status, and at the '3/4' listed by Bindings.

That was a lot more important to him, personally, right now.

"System Call, Help: Can I use another Binding in my soul without giving up something else?" You may include a fourth aspect to your Binding without issue in the categories of Arcane, and Arch. Your Mind is already occupied by a familiar." Neat." Quark asked, "What is happening, sir?"" I'm not sure, but I don't want this session recorded for others."" Shall I purge this from my memory banks?"" No no… No need to get that extreme. At least one of us needs to remember these things.

I just don't want others to be able to lie to me before I confront them about today's memetic issues… which had to have been around since before the trip to Endless Daihoon? I was supposed to do Waterpeople before then. For a while, actually…" Mark went quiet, thinking.

"Waterpeople allowed me to actually clean house, and with a clean house I have a connection to System Prime… So did Dominant do this?"" Can I help in a specific way, sir?"" I don't know, Quark. I'll think about it. Maybe United Sapients… But not right now."" Understood, sir."