There are secrets within secrets hiding within this whole system of power. The Interface, Firmant, this whole idea of Threads, Concepts, and Talents. The boundaries between them are less distinct than the Interface would like to believe.
It's telling that Ahkelios is surprised by what we've learned, despite possessing the Concept of the Sword—he stares at the Interface window for a bit, puzzled. "I don't think I ever got any notice about Threads of Sharpness," he mutters. "Or Threads in general. Although I guess that explains two of those Inspirations."
"You probably just managed to grasp the full Concept without needing to pick up all its Threads," I say. "It does ntion that's possible. Depending on the practitioner."
"So I'm a genius, is what you're saying."
I snort. "Did you need the Interface to tell you that?"
"I needed you to tell that," Ahkelios says, a hint of smug satisfaction entering his voice.
I just shake my head in response, hiding my grin. "Don't let it get to your head."
Back to the point at hand. The Thread of Insight has shown up several tis by now; the first few tis, the Interface only said that I "touched a Thread". After that, it told sothing about "gaining access to the Thread of Insight".
Despite what the Interface has told about Threads, though, it doesn't exactly feel like the Thread of Insight gives any new information. It's not feeding ideas into my brain the way Inspect does. Instead, it feels more like it's just speeding up a natural process—like it's helping make the right connections to co to a conclusion I would have anyway.
Perhaps more importantly, it gives confirmation that my natural instincts don't. Without it, any conclusion I co to is guesswork at best, but the Thread of Insight seems to tap into so fundantal truth; when it's active, I know for a fact that the conclusion I'm coming to is the right one.
So.
If I want to know more about the fourth phase shift, that Thread is probably going to be my best bet. Kauku's been leaving hints, hasn't he? He's ntioned at least two things that might be related to the phase shift: first that I have all the information I need to uncover whatever the Interface is hiding regarding its skill categories, and second that the Soul Space skill is sohow crucial to the next shift.
As far as I can tell, he doesn't tell things for no reason. That he's done it twice now ans what he's told is probably crucial. I just have to figure out how.
"You okay there, Ethan?" Ahkelios asks. I wave it off.
"Just thinking," I say. "Give a minute. I'm going to try sothing."
The main problem right now is that I don't know how to intentionally activate the Thread of Insight. The Interface tells that I've gained access to it, but activating it isn't as simple as activating a skill—there's no construct in my soul that allows to manipulate it, nothing I can feed Firmant into to enhance.
Even with my new understanding of Threads and Concepts, the new sense I gained from the fight with the Abstraction, and the Abstract Crown the Interface granted , I have no idea where to begin.
Nothing to it but to try, though. The Thread has always responded well to my intuition, so I figure I might as well keep doing exactly that.
And right now, my intuition is telling to ditate. To reduce external stimulation as much as I can and examine my core—try to see if I can identify this fourth-layer bottleneck.
"Keep an eye on , will you?" I say. "This might take a while."
Ahkelios and Guard blink, glancing at one another, but nod. "Don't take too long," he says. "We don't know when Naru's going to be done."
"I won't."
I start by taking deep, slow breaths. I close my eyes and let the world around fade away, going as far as to pull Firmant away from my eyes so I'm not even left with the pink nothingness of my eyelids. I let myself get used to that for a mont—not darkness, but nothingness. Ꞧ
Then I focus on the noise around . The sound of the wind, the crows, the gentle humming of Guard's systems. Drawing Firmant away from my ears leaves without even the ringing I hear in perfect silence.
I should do this more often. It's surprisingly peaceful.
Next the sll of wet earth. Mari's cooking, rich and savory. The scent of the nearby forest, thankfully masked by the village's activities. It's not exactly pleasant. I acknowledge it, though, then let it fade until it's nothing more than the passage of air.
Then the feeling of the log beneath , scratching against my thighs. The weight and texture of my clothes against my skin. My Firmant withdraws until all that remains is the slowly-fading pulse of blood as it circulates through my body, until even that is nothing but a dull hum.
Taste doesn't change much, though I pull my senses back from it anyway, just to complete the set.
And last but not least... There's the Firmant sense that's accompanied since almost the mont I started this journey. This one I can't just turn off—but I can turn it inward, focus the entirety of it on my core.
With everything else shut down, I can sense the shape of my soul with startling clarity. I let myself soak it in for a long mont, feeling out the edges of what I've beco and the choices I've made. It's fascinating. Everything I've done is inscribed in here in so small way, like a tapestry of decisions that map out the texture of my soul.
I don't regret them. I don't think I can afford to. Whatever mistakes I may have made, they've shaped who I am today; all I can do is take that with with every new step I take. That realization settles into , and with it, a newfound clarity.
I can feel the effect of the phase shifts.
It's like a slight shift in perspective, and suddenly I can see the way each shift I've been through creates a new, foundational layer that builds up on everything I was before. The three I've been through work in concert to create what I can only na the bedrock of my soul. The foundation on which everything else is built.
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It's the reason my Firmant has grown so much stronger, I realize. It's solid in a way it wasn't before. Three stages of synchronization with three layers of power has given my Firmant a presence and strength that's altogether missing from most of what I encounter in the wild.
And yet...
I pause, looking a bit closer at my Firmant and frowning ntally.
And yet it's not quite there. It's about as close as it can get, certainly—right on the precipice of becoming sothing real and tangible—but it feels almost like there's sothing missing from it, sothing crucial it needs to be fully realized.
This is it. The bottleneck that supposedly prevents a Trialgoer from achieving their fourth shift. Without completely solidifying the first three layers, the fourth can't be built, and whatever's missing here isn't sothing that can be overco just by shoving more Firmant into it.
I feel the Interface responding to this realization. It cos through like a ripple in my soul, originating from the part of that's linked to it. I'm too deep in my soul to read whatever notification it just gave , but I can guess what it says.
[Thread of Insight activated!]
Or sothing along those lines.
I go back to studying the not-quite-solid bedrock sitting in my soul. It's hard to pinpoint what it's missing. For the most part, it just feels like there's so final ingredient that hasn't been added, sothing that's needed to transform this from "almost real" to just "real".
That alone is a familiar idea, though. It's almost like...
Almost like an Abstraction.
I consider that thought for a mont, turning it over in my head. That isn't a Talent I have, and it's not a Talent I know how to even approach getting. More to the point, I don't think Talents are required to progress with Firmant—if they were, all the Integrators would be stuck at the third layer, just like I am. From what Gheraa and Kauku both have said, I don't think the Integrators have these Talents.
But I can take cues from the idea of Abstraction. It's an ability that takes sothing conceptual and turns it into sothing real. Can I do the sa?
Not directly.
I can't create sothing out of nothing. That's what the Talent does—it makes sothing real through nothing more than force of will and presumably so intrinsic quality that allows soone to adopt a Talent.
But I don't need to.
That's why Kauku forced to pick Soul Space. Because it's a skill that takes sothing real and turns it into sothing not-quite-real, sothing that can be stored within the soul. If I study the chanism, if I understand how Soul Space does that—better yet, if Soul Space itself can be used to fill in those gaps and solidify my Firmant?
I'll have the foundation I need to break past the bottleneck and complete the fourth shift.
That's almost enough to make pull out of the trance. I have my answer—all I need to do is experint with Soul Space. See if I can use it to complete the solidification of my soul.
And yet... I hesitate. Sothing makes stop just before I pull my awareness back. Sothing I've put to the back of my mind for now.
Gheraa.
More specifically, the imprint of him tucked away inside my soul. It feels almost like it's reaching out and calling to —except that's impossible, surely? It isn't alive. Not the way he was or even the way his construct was. It's a blueprint I was barely able to capture before it faded. An echo of who he was.
I cast my mind toward it anyway, just in case, trying to identify whatever it is that's getting my attention.
It feels like it's resonating. Not reacting, exactly—a reaction would imply that it's still alive in so way—but even just as an imprint, it seems to sohow be responding to the state of my soul. I look it over carefully, trying to understand the cause. It's almost like there's sothing different about the way my Firmant flows through it, but it's so subtle that it takes a long mont of deliberate examination to see it.
Gheraa was at the sixth layer, wasn't he? Or sothing close to it, at least. Echoes of that remain even in this so-called echo, causing my Firmant to move just a fraction slower, creating an outline of his core.
The first three layers are solid. Rigid. They're the foundation of it all, and even devoid of Firmant I can sense their depth. The upper layers are so complex as to be nearly invisible to .
But the fourth? I can see it with shocking clarity.
It's the fourth layer that's resonating—creating tiny, almost unnoticeable ripples as my Firmant moves through it. It's bouncing off sothing barely there, barely visible.
Four of them, to be precise. It's like there are four pillars in addition to the foundation, used to hold the fourth layer together. The only problem is that they look... unstable, for lack of a better word. The bedrock is strong, the frawork solid even in this imprint, but the pillars?
They're shaky. Like they ford accidentally more than anything, a natural result of building out the fourth layer.
Sothing about that strikes as odd. Phase shifts have always been about solidity, about deepening one's connection to their Firmant. Why would the fourth layer include shakily-defined pillars?
The more I think about it, the more I realize there has to be sothing more to the fourth layer. Sothing that maybe even Gheraa didn't know about.
It's strange in the first place that it would take just one skill to get past the bottleneck. As much as that explains why it's so difficult to get past the third layer—random chance is hardly sothing I'd bank on to get a fundantally required skill for progress—every phase shift before this has required to solidify sothing about my soul. To make a decision that defines .
Even if this next phase shift doesn't, there must be sothing else I need to do. I'm suddenly certain that if I achieved the fourth shift as I am now, I'd end up with sothing incomplete. Maybe not dangerously incomplete, but incomplete nevertheless. It'd be a flaw in my foundations that I might never be able to recover from.
Shit. Just keeping a hold of Gheraa's imprint like this might have just saved . It's a strange thought. Gheraa is still helping , even indirectly, even without being alive. What do I say to that? Thanks?
It doesn't feel sufficient, considering all he's done to give a shot at this. To give Earth a shot at breaking a cycle I didn't even know existed.
"You better be ready for to bring you back." That's what I settle on. No more waiting. I find myself aning it, too. Sowhere along the way I've decided that he's soone I want fighting by my side when we end this. With everything he's done, he deserves to see this through.
The only question is: how do I use what he's given now?
Because I get the feeling it's important. Very, very important. Sothing the Integrators won't see coming, because it's sothing they don't know themselves.
Four pillars and a foundation. Five in total. That number feels important. It's not the first ti I've run into it.
Five Ritual stages.
Five skill categories in the Interface.
There's sothing about that. The Thread of Insight thrums, making connections, bringing up mories.
It won't be quite the sa as performing the fourth layer shift... but I think there's sothing I can do now. Sothing that will pave the way. The first three shifts required to make decisions about who I am and who I want to be, but I don't think that's what this next one needs.
Not a decision. A revelation. I've defined myself: now I need to define my relationship with the world around , and to do that, I need to know the world around .
Easy enough. I'll begin by tearing apart a lie.
Ahkelios stared at the Interface popups in front of Ethan, growing increasingly concerned.
[WARNING: Strength overflow detected!]
[WARNING: Durability overflow detected!]
[WARNING: Reflex overflow detected!]
[WARNING: Speed overflow detected!]
What was Ethan doing in there?
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