Mortal Limits

"So are you alright now?"

"Yeah better than alright. I'm a little tired but everything else is fine." I shake my head and swing my arms around a bit to get a feel for everything.

"Anyway it looks like if you try to get in touch with your arcanum it shows. It makes sense since this isn't your human body, but if so how are you talking to me like this?"

"Ah, yes when I sensed my arcanum I also noticed something about that. You see this isn't really a dream. It's closer to my mind then a dream. This form I have is a representation I can use to talk and traverse this mind world, but the entirety of the world is me."

"So basically I'm inside your mind instead of a dream?"

"Yes that seems to be correct. Also what happened before was me unconsciously channeling my arcanum. Luckily we're inside my mind so I didn't break any of the rules regarding it or I would have been sent back to tenkai."

"Alright that makes sense, but if so how will you be able to assist me against Shendu?"

"You see the rules involved are mostly agreements restricting the use of arcanum on gekai. This however is not gekai but our minds. As such I can channel my arcanum as much as I want. I won't actively use it as that could lead to issues but simply displaying it should be fine."

"You had me worried there for a minute."

*Haha* "Don't worry. Even without my arcanum I still have all of my memories. I'm sure I could whip up something that could help you."

"Alright then if that's so I think it's about time I returned your hospitality and invited you over to my dreams." Smiling I summon a door to my dream. Lord Miach seems pretty impressed as I show him around my defenses though explaining where the ideas came from was a little difficult.

"So this is the memories you stole."

"Yes these scrolls contain Shendu's memories. The easiest way to tell is mine are all in book form while Shendu's are all in this scroll form. Luckily I can move them around without having to read them." Currently I am showing my collection of stolen memories.

"I keep them separate for obvious reasons and I wanted to see if you could read them before I did."

"Let me see." Picking up one of the scrolls he opens it and focuses before suddenly glowing slightly. The room begins to quake as the walls crack, and I fall to my knees with a splitting migraine. Lord Miach quickly drops the scroll and stops the light show.

"Good heavens! I am terribly sorry about that, Jack, are you alright?" He drops beside me and tries to keep me up.

"Yeah, I'm alright just a headache. I don't think trying to contain your arcanum in my mortal body is a smart move."

"Yes, our bodies were created by our arcanum and can support it. Anything less would pop like a balloon."

"I can tell. Anyway what prompted that reaction from you?" I get to my feet unsteadily and try to divert the conversation.

"Ah yes, that was because of the invasive nature of these memories. What your doing when reading them is actually living out the memories. More than that these scrolls are more than memories. They act as if they are a literal part of Shendu's soul."

"But how can that be these are all copies I had made! I didn't dare take the origionals for that exact reason!"

"It seems like your copying was a little too good. I can't really tell what happened as this is outside my divinity. Still the reason my arcanum flared up was because the memory was corruptive."

"I can understand how the memory might twist one as I've heard stories of people not being able to separate reality from a story, but this is just that a story. Sure it might be a true story, but how can it try to corrupt you?"

"Let me exam it again." Walking over to the fallen scroll I pick it up and hand it to Lord Miach.

"Sure just be careful okay." I give him a tired grin.

"I will treat just as carefully as when I'm mixing medicine." He grins slightly back before staring at the scroll.

He turns it over a couple times and runs his hands along it with his eyes closed. He also asks me for some of my memories which I oblige and hand to him. Ones of after I came to this world of course. He repeats the act with my books and compares the books and scrolls. After a while he mutters a little before handing them back to me.

"From what I can tell this scroll contains something that I can only liken to poison."

"Poison?"

"Yes, you see these meories contain not only knowledge but emotion as you've told me. These emotions are the poison. From looking at your own memories I can tell that if they belonged to a mortal it would not be as big of a problem, but these belong to a demon. Something about the emotions is corruptive at its very base. If these were the originals and not copies you would be in a much worse condition. The symptons would be a change in personality. You would progressively become more and more like the demon before he eventually ate you from the inside out."

"But what if I ate him first?"

"Jack! That is a foolish thought! If you went down that path there would be no telling between you and the demon!" Lord Miach becomes incensed at my question, and I hold hands up to try to calm him down.

"Okay, okay, it's just I can't see what's different between doing that and stealing his memories like I'm doing now. Besides how else can I get him out of my body and take his powers." Lord Miach seems to calm down at that before explaining.

"The difference is in how you handle the emotions. Your personality is in part made up by your experiences and the emotions related to them. If you try to take these memories in whole they will eventually overwhelm your own memories in number until you are more the demon than you."

"Then how can I turn this poison into medicine?"

"Well what you..." Suddenly a smell hits my noze and everything starts swirling until the darkness swallows it all.