Chương 69: Shade Passage

Over the course of the next week, Liesel spent most of her time trying to find a semblance of connection. While the practice almost perfected her ability to manifest a thread into material reality, she had to accept that no matter how much time she spent, the only way she could cut through the Realm was by mere coincidence. She still couldn't follow the rhythm. She managed to perform it two more times.

She first had to familiarize herself with Materializing longer threads so that the Shade Severance could accommodate her inside as well. Unfortunately, the opening was less than a split second. She was never going to damage the Shades deep enough that it would require seconds to recover. Auram was willing to attempt stepping into it and keep it open. She believed if it didn't work, she could run away. Unlike humans, Auram didn't have flesh that could be harmed and not recover. But that seemed stupid.

Spirits were very much mortal beings. Not to mention, the spirit could only be prepared if she knew which manifested thread would sever the Shade. That knowledge may allow Auram to be quick enough to keep the Shade Window open. As things stood, it may be an hour from then, or ten days, and they would be none the wiser. Liesel was finding the time right to an extent, but the problem was that timing was ever-shifting.

The amount of Materiality and the width of the threads changed that noise, so she couldn't just learn to time it perfectly. Under every circumstance, she had to learn the Rhythm of Materiality and act on it, which was impossible. So she began experimenting with the runes she had learned for the Crest. The preservation runes and the Binding Runes at first. A few of them could interact with the twined strings. Could one of the preservation or binding runes keep the tear in the Shade open?

She wove runes and kept them with her as long as they could be sustained in the physical reality, while attempting to perform the Shade Severing Strike. It took her six days to examine a successful interaction. The runes could preserve the severed Shade. The Binding Rune IV and the Preservation Rune I interacted with the Shade's tear—one extended the gap, and the other prolonged the duration of recovery by a second, possibly. That day, Arval finally seemed to hope again. She was growing quieter as time passed.

She practiced her magic, but she didn't wander around the Realm, as she had done before. Now she spends most of the time in the garden. There was an element of fear. What if, while Arval was somewhere away, Liesel and Auram left? Auram assured her they would never abandon Arval, but Liesel decided to keep herself from interacting with the child to that degree. Liesel's waking minutes went on experimenting. She had devised a perfect way to do it.

The Preservation Rune II, once left in the air, would not budge from anyone, except for Liesel's own Control. With it, she created a faux crest, which, instead of the energy, would preserve the tear in the Shade. It was a pair of half ovals floating side by side. She left a tiny gap between them. From there, she would manifest Shade Severing Thread. The preservation crest, however, was not permanent. Every four, Liesel had to create another. And then resume her attempts.

Weaving that many runes seemed to take a toll on her mind, disrupting and delaying enough of her mental energy to make it impossible to perform the severing even as a coincidence. By the time she regained focus, the window would once again require maintenance.

"Let me prepare the window," Auram offered.

"We will see it work; if not today, then tomorrow," Liesel said.

"We don't have to act desperate. I know what I am doing. And I'd rather handle myself." She didn't know how much the Spirit could handle Rune Weaving. It was extremely tiring work. She didn't suspect Auram's capacity; at the time, she didn't want to subject her to anything as rigorous as this. For Auram, it was not as worrying a reality as it was for them.

"Just watch over Arval. I will open the Shade, eventually," Liesel said. The child was sleeping on the stone floor, exhausted from all-day training and equally by the fear of being imprisoned forever. Liesel couldn't understand why the Heart would subject Arval to this treatment. The child would never return to this place after this.

"Don't you feel frustrated?" Auram asked.

"Doing the same thing over and over, for weeks, almost a month now."

"Behind me is a wasteland, a graveyard of my failures. They are distractions. No matter how unfathomable and hopeless the path may look, there is an end. We must keep looking ahead, at the destination. Before we know it, it will be closer than it is far. And until we have breathed our last, no failure is too great."

"Yeah. I guess I am dumb for expecting anything else from you. Sometimes I forget that you stared a Mindeater in the eye and then, a minute later, cut off its head," Auram sighed.

"I am just worried about Arval. She is too young to be experiencing something like this. Cut off from the entire world. Even this illusion is just that, an illusion. She is in prison."

"It is better for her," Liesel said.

"To experience the hopelessness here, in safety, than from outcomes of the future that she wishes to pursue." Even Auram, who might hate the Empire as much as anyone could, didn't hope for its destruction. Only a child who had not fathomed the vastness and might of the Empire could hope for such a thing.

"It doesn't have to be this. Children can just grow into adults without having to experience despair and horror, you know."

"What would that world look like?" Liesel uttered.

"It may be true for a few, but we are not the fortunate ones. This is the only truth we have." —------- In the coming week, Arval stopped talking. She replied when asked something, but otherwise she was quiet and withdrawn. She spent more time training. Had little to no interest in Auram's stories, or even Liesel talking about the outside world didn't get her attention beyond a few nods. Liesel was quick to give up. She offered to spar once, and that went badly.

Her body was not prepared to handle the weight of Enforcement. Arval was on her neck in a blink of an eye. Close combat was a death sentence now, Liesel recognized in the interaction. Arval's Materializing had come a long way, though she couldn't manifest Materiality as a thread like Liesel. She created orbs of energy, and they were useless. Even materialized, they were less like physical objects and more like a puff of smoke. That didn't seem to sap her motivation to train.

The monotony was a blessing, Liesel felt. The isolation, the settling nihilism, and the clear feeling of betrayal by the Heart would forge Arval into a stronger warrior than being coddled by an unfathomable existence would have. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Once that thought crossed Liesel's mind, she realized why she was here, and what the Realm intended. It was severing its influence from Arval's life.

Once Arval sought its escape in her grief, the Realm must've realized its role in the child's life. Liesel spent her day attempting to manifest the thread. Slowly, she had gained the ability to dematerialize the manifested threads. It may be an ability from crossing a Threshold, or a natural extension of the Materializing ability; it was hard to say. The System didn't consider it an ability yet, but that might be because it was not reconciling her Control either.

Now, the threads manifested like a wheel of blades falling through a millimeter-wide gap in the construct, and vanished a moment later. Every one left a hiss in the air. But the constant noise had become part of their lives. On the fourteenth day after preparing the window, she finally performed the Shade Severing Strike. The reality cut open. It let out a painful hum as the rune construct sustained the wound in the Realm.

"It's open," Liesel said. Arval got to her feet. She blinked once, staring at the tree in the Garden. It was night there. Hundreds of emotions swirled in her red irises.

"Don't," Liesel said.

"We have to see how it interacts with the physical objects." She ripped the sleeve of her worn-out cloth, manifesting a thread to guide it through the Shade Window. It phased through without any issues. And a moment later, the window collapsed.

"It was working," Arval mumbled. She sat on the ground, leaning against the bench leg.

"We could've left." There was no anger in her voice. Perhaps a hint of frustration if Liesel tried to find it, but mostly, it was empty.

"Next time, you will go back home," Liesel said.

"How many days would that be?" Arval asked.

"Hundred? Or five hundred? We have been trapped here for years; it feels like."

"It has not been more than three months," Liesel said.

"For your short lifespan, I can see how it must feel. A few more days, a week at best." Arval nodded, exhaling.

"Not like I have a choice. I can't do the amazing things like you. I... just have brute strength for being so special." She spat the word like a curse.

"You will do far more amazing things," Liesel said.

"Tame your expectations, Arval. What you see is the fruit of my entire life. It has been a blur with only a few recognizable memories. You will get here, and far, far ahead. It won't be easy. I will not say it is not an extreme condition for a child, but it is the easiest thing you will face if you wish to follow the path."

"Is that why I am not allowed to leave this place?" Arval asked. Liesel's lips parted. She was about to say yes. But she couldn't bring herself to affirm it for some reason. A pity was there. She couldn't be the one to shatter the child's spirit utterly.

"If that is the case... then," Arval looked in the direction from where she had guided Liesel into the stone garden. Arval shook her head and looked down. Liesel lowered her hand and patted the child's head. The entire time, the threads and runes kept manifesting to weave another Shade Sustaining Crest. Arval's spirit had been crushed. Even if she stubbornly denied it, they both knew Arval no longer cared about that goal or any goal at all. She just wanted to return to her home.

Even as an unintended consequence of the Realm's effort, it may have been the most positive outcome imaginable. Liesel tried to speed up her efforts. The act became as natural as breathing at some point. She was not just manifesting the threads, but also preparing runes and replacing them with the ones on the window consistently. Not for even a second of her waking moment did the threads stop manifesting.

She had realized the attempt to align the threads perfectly in one place had added another layer of complication, hence making it harder to perform the Shade Severing Strike. The Shade Severance was beyond her control, an impossible act for a human, Liesel had accepted. It made sense. If it was any other way, Liesel couldn't imagine the consequences of such power. Its impossibility was the universe's way of maintaining a balance of power.

"It is the natural state of things," Arval had said at the beginning of it all, "I have only ever performed a Shade Severing Strike once, and that was on my second attempt. It is just luck, isn't it?" Liesel supposed that was true. The oddity was her ability to perform this very same act with a sword without failure. —----- Finally, after almost another week, Liesel's effort bore fruit. The thread manifested in the air, swinging down like a blade. It left a trail of distortion in the air.

The runes immediately latched onto the barely perceptible tear and stretched it open. It was now an open passage to a different place. Arval was sleeping, so Auram kept her excitement in check. Liesel moved all the threads to the side. She looked at Auram. The spirit would go first, as she was the best person to do it. The Custodian may even save her if things went wrong. Though Liesel had an inkling the Heart would make sure nothing happened to Arval, no matter how heartless it had been to her until now.

Still, that was not a conjecture that would allow Liesel to risk the child's life. Auram flew into the tear. She seemed to be frozen somewhere between the two places. Auram looked back at them with a frown. She said something that Liesel couldn't hear. The Spirit quickly gestured for them to come inside. Liesel patted Arval's shoulder, pushing a tiny amount of Materiality to jolt the girl awake.

"We are leaving." She didn't have the time to let the child gather her mind. She grabbed Arval's hand and rushed into the window. Arval let out a surprised yelp. Liesel was expecting to enter the Primordial Vein's domain. Instead, she had entered a blankness between the stone garden behind and the Garden at the end of the passage.

"You couldn't hear me?" Auram asked. Liesel nodded. She looked at Arval.

"We are leaving." Arval still seemed confused, afraid as well.

"Is this a dream?" Her voice was hiding a rising panic.

"No." Liesel shook her head.

"I said, a week at best. It has been a week." Arval blinked again. Her eyes watered slightly. Auram grinned as she watched the child try to hide the overwhelming emotions. Liesel, however, didn't feel comfortable standing in the stretch between the realities. She pulled Arval's arm and began walking. It also gave Arval a moment to gather herself. The Materiality inside her shifted. Her Soul Veins seemed to become denser. And her Core also gained a slight weight.

At the end of the ten-minute-long passage was the Garden, just outside the cave where Liesel had found the Mutated beast. The moment they existed, the tear closed. It was night in this realm as well. The passage must be to decompress from the effects of the time stasis, Liesel thought as she breathed. She exchanged glances with Auram, who had reached the same conclusion. Arval exhaled. She looked around her with a bit of confusion.

"I thought we'd never leave." Liesel circled her hand on Arval's back.

"You can return to your home in a few more hours."

"Auram," Liesel shifted her gaze to the spirit.

"Can you find Fiya or Drahk, whoever is alone, and ask them to come take us... or," Liesel looked down at Arval, "Do you want to walk for a bit?"

"It might be dangerous. Something's coming..." Liesel felt it too. She channeled Materiality outside her body. [Materiality -3680] The System blinked into existence beside her. That was barely one-third of her total Materiality. It may take some time to recover, though. There was no way to know that in the Primordial Core. The flapping of the giant bird's wings echoed first. It cast a shadow on the ground as it rose out of the treeline, which was giant. Liesel wove the threads along with a preservation rune.

And then, just as the bird reached the edge of her domain, Liesel manifested the thread into reality. There was no twitch in her muscle. Weeks and weeks of constant use of her magic had given her a gift to hide her intent perfectly. A dozen threads caught the weird owl-like thing in their web, and then the runes attached at the tip began circling. In an instant, it was caught and bundled in a net. It landed on the ground with a dull thud.

"Do you want to see something amazing, Arval?" Liesel approached the fallen bird a bit down from the top of the hill. It stared at her in defiance.

"What?"

"Only if you keep this a secret between you and me," Liesel said.

"Promise?"

"I will keep it a secret." Finally, there was a slight curiosity in Arval's eyes. The golden ring was finally revolving again, nothing like how it used to. Liesel settled her hand on the demon bird's head. She began by crashing all the Materiality in the air at its body. Its pupil dilated as it shivered under her palm. She wove the Unravelling rune on the palm of her hand. In an instant, the bird was thousands of threads that were absorbed into her Soul Veins.

Liesel immediately used her Soul Hand to gather it and began collapsing it into pure soul. It was barely one-tenth of what it was originally. Once it was the same consistency as her Soul Form, she pushed it into the damaged blob of soul. [Withering: 43. 11% Time Remaining: 1239Hours 15Minutes] Liesel exhaled. It was working as she had expected. The question was... could she also increase the size of her soul with it? Arval stared at her in awe.

"How did you do that?"

"My special skill, the only one I have as of now." [Soul Healing! Prestige Point +1 Prestige Points: 132]"What does it do?"

"I stole its soul," Liesel grinned deviously.

"Now, do you want to walk for a bit?" Arval nodded, of course.

"Is it still alive?"

"No. Once I trap something, it is dead. A painless death, you can say." Liesel shared tidbits of its uses, nothing too revealing, as they ventured down the hill and into the path that should lead back to the Caravan. Unfortunately, after a few minutes, a dozen Pathstriders flocked around them from all sides. Their Spears drawn. How many days has it been outside? Liesel wondered.