Experimentation

Goleil sat at a table in the City Guardhouse, staring at a quickly cooling bowl of rice porridge. He had forgotten that he couldn't eat, nor did he need to.

'The real question is, why don't I need to eat?' He thought.

He sighed as he smelled the food.

Ty'Bral materialized behind him. "I have been wondering that for a while, and I also don't know why you can suddenly use Elder magic. Now that you can, though, you should use it to find out more about yourself."

Goleil glanced around him at the bustling guardhouse, many of the city's finest were beginning their day, and he didn't want to seem crazy by talking to himself.

'It's worth a try. We should go to the City Library as well. I need to speak with Murdoc about my lessons on magic.'

He closed his eyes and slowly circulated the energy within his heart. Now that he could actually take his time and truly experience the Elder magic, it felt incredibly old, and it was an indescribable feeling.

Goleil had never seen the Outerlands or the destroyed Great Kingdoms, but he imagined seeing it felt like this.

Remembering the memories Ty'Bral had given him when he first tried to teach him Elder magic and his own experience with magic, Goleil cast his perception into his body and began inspecting it.

After his time in the Inbetween and Ty'Bral's attack, he knew intimately where his soul was located.

'Let's take a look at how our souls were melded, shall we? I can't drink locraf until we figure this out.'

Ty'Bral placed a hand on Goleil's shoulder in affirmation. The tentacles roiled around, making the sun knight uncomfortable, but it wasn't worth arguing over. The eldritch was an extension of his own mind, after all.

As his mana reached his soul, he immediately could tell something was different. It had doubled in size, and the soul tendon connections had increased drastically in strength.

Looking closer at the soul itself, it seemed so different from the old one, except larger.

'Any ideas? I can't tell anything from this.'

"Yes, because I was a mage while you are a mere knight," Ty'Bral mumbled.

Goleil scoffed.

"My Lord." Ty'Bral tacked on the end.

'Whatever. What can you see?'

"Let me give you some background first. Look at the soul tendons, and look at the big picture. There are eight of them, one for each arm and one for each leg. One for the back. One for the chest and core. Two for the brain, and they are the most important two. Don't touch them."

'Got it, I see them. Why does the brain have two?'

Ty'Bral sighed. "Well, the ancient Akkadians believed it was because the brain operated in two modes. Conscious and unconscious, and the two would do different things at the same time."

'Who are th-'

"Later, Godling! We are doing something! Focus on the task at hand, or we will never get through this."

'My apologies.'

Ty'Bral shook his head and sighed. "Well, it wasn't just your soul that was strengthened. The tendons were too. They respond faster now, more efficiently. Basically, your reaction speed increased. It wasn't very much, but it was something."

Goleil nodded, trying his best to follow. He looked closely at the soul tendons, trying to see why this all mattered.

Ty'Bral thought for a second, his eyebrows furrowed. "It looks like my soul jelly coats your original soul tendons like a sheath. It's thin enough for a trained eye to see through, so maybe your soul was strengthened the same way. It's far easier and safer than simply mixing two souls and hoping for the best."

'Ah! That makes sense!'

"Of course it does. Now, I need you to concentrate, move your mana and spread it over your soul like a net. It's time we do some reverse engineering."

As Goleil did this, he began to lose track of time. We world outside didn't matter, only inside his body. The mana moved with a mere thought, transforming into a sphere that contained his soul.

Goleil began to inspect the soul jelly directly inside the mana net and discovered that while he knew it was part of him, it felt off, different somehow. It was the same all around the sphere.

'This is all an addition to my soul, I think you're right!'

"It matters little how they added it to your soul, as I'm positive we can do it now that we've figured it out. It matters far more how they removed my consciousness from the jelly."

Ty'Bral looked closer into his old soul jelly, and noticed that it was tinged a slightly golden color.

A tentacle stroked his chin as he pondered.

'Figure something out?'

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure that instead of outright destroying my memories, whoever did this simply replaced mine with yours, effectively reappropriating the soul jelly. That means that if we can catch the soul jelly in the state before memories are imprinted and attach it to your soul, there should be no worries."

'Perfect. It seems I can drink locraf without talking to more imaginary friends then.'

"A little company wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Speaking of which, you have had company for a while."

Goleil opened his eyes, and the first thing he noticed was that his plate of food was gone.

He quickly looked up at discovered that three people had joined him at the table.

"I heard from Mord that you scared the entire Colosseo senseless, Goleil. You've earned my respect. Those pompous knights and nobles deserved it," Rick said while chuckling.

Gwen grinned and said, "Why were you just sitting here with cold food? We were half convinced you'd take your mask off and eat it!"

"Yeah, then I ate it since you didn't do that," Mord said, then whispered, "By the way, your Majesty, when will you come and get some more locraf? I seriously recommend you get your daily dose."

Goleil thought for half a second that Mord cared, then saw a mischievous glint in the man's eye and realized he was just trying to get him to take his mask off again.

The Sun Knight sighed. "I would like to go to the City Library, Gwen. Do you mind taking me again?"

"That wouldn't be a problem?"

"Can we come?" Mord asked.

Goleil nodded. 'I see no reason why he can't, but it's going to be boring for them. Murdoc might kick them out anyway.'

Gwen got up. "Let's get going. There is someone you should meet."