The journey the following days was certainly… interesting. Elizabeth did not quite radiate nervousness, but there was an intensity to her as she practiced magic while Irwyn carried them over the vast forest. A palpable anticipation, as if the world was waiting with bated breath for the step she would take after dusk. Alice, on the other hand, was tossing rocks. ‘Ballistics practice’ she had called it. Hitting a quickly moving target while also at speed, needing to account for both their velocity, friction of the air, the relatively low strength of her arm… all for precise rock throws.

  Now, all of that was a blatant lie. Irwyn knew it, she knew it, Waylan knew it. Elizabeth was distracted enough she had probably not even heard, in all honesty. The reason why Irwyn had not called her out on the overt deception was, of course, how she carried those rocks and what she was targeting. So, Alice once again reached into her pillowcase, withdrawing a large piece of stone. With a flicker of magic, she broke it into two smaller chunks, then tossed them ahead and a bit above them. They followed a very small arc before they lost enough speed compared to the people on the platforms that they collided with their group in just about two seconds.

  Well, with a specific person from their group to be precise. Waylan tried desperately to dodge but it was a bit troublesome, given Irwyn was keeping him attached to the platform up to his calves. Higher on the legs than the day before, yes, but a reasonable precaution given how fast they were flying. Definitely just a precaution.

  “If it makes you feel better, I also didn’t have no feathers in mine,” Waylan shouted. He actually managed to barely avoid one by twisting his torso but the other hit him in the shoulder. It wouldn’t actually hurt. They were moving incredibly fast but the rocks ‘inherited’ - as Alice put it - their speed when she tossed them. The impact was not like hitting something at their incredible aerial velocity, but rather as if they were moving as fast as the resulting difference was.

  “You didn’t?” Irwyn frowned. Who had taken his then? Alice did not seem like she had.

  “Well, if I had kept mine, dear Alice would have just nabbed it with her magic,” the sneak immediately ruined any chance of forgiveness. “And then she would have a whole pillow, wasting my hard work.”

  “You filled yours with weeds,” Alice squinted her eyes. “It left marks on my clothes when a bunch fell out.”

  “Well, yes. Took a while to find all the ones that stain the most.”

  “I will need bigger rocks,” Alice looked down at the pillowcase in her hands. It was half empty and most of the largest chunks had already been split apart.

  “Want mine?” Irwyn offered.

  “You kept it,” Waylan blinked.

  “Well, the bag has enough space,” Irwyn shrugged, taking it out. “I was going to swap it with yours in a few weeks, maybe months, when you thought you were safe. This is more immediately gratifying.”

  The landscape they were flying over was not a jungle. Yes, it was a deep forest with tall trees but the details did not fit. What made a jungle? Irwyn imagined tangled vines, dense moisture in the air, trees towering above the largest hills. It would be in the climate as well, in the exotic bugs. So no, it was not a jungle, just a dense forest sprawling over an incredible area. The animals looked mundane from what he had seen. The trees tall but not that tall. In most places, the ground might be traversable on foot - yes, with detours and some rough rooted terrain but not impassable because of sheer biomass blocking every step. Definitely did not fit the bill for a jungle. No way.

  “How do you know what a jungle even is,” Alice challenged when he explained as much.

  “I have read it,” Irwyn defended.

  “Where?” she pushed further.

  “In a book.”

  “I meant exactly what title, author, and peer acceptance.”

  “It’s obviously not a jungle!” Irwyn tried to deflect, unable to remember.

  “How would you know! It’s a gargantuan overgrown forest. Who cares about the details?! It’s a jungle.”

  “It’s probably not a jungle,” Waylan interrupted, shooting Alice a wide grin. He was slightly bruised from the rocks on one cheek – which was when Alice finally stopped. It had not helped the sneak to keep needling her until she began to use even larger pieces. Also, while the rocks she tossed would still be moving as fast as them… but Alice could slow them down before Waylan hit them, magnifying the impact in accordance with her level of frustration.

  “Unbelievable!” she yelled.

  “But maybe it is,” Waylan pretended to be thoughtful, putting a hand on his chin in an exaggerated gesture.

  “Playing both sides will not win you any allies,” Irwyn said warningly.

  “But it will annoy the most people,” Waylan grinned smugly. Irwyn contemplated letting his friend freefall for a dozen meters before catching him again but decided that would be a bit too far.

  “Stop,” Elizabeth suddenly said, unexpectedly cutting into their conversation. She had been quiet all day besides a few sentences during a brief lunch and it was getting well into the afternoon. Irwyn obviously did halt their flight, wondering what warranted it. There was no urgency in her voice but there would be a reason.

  “I don’t see anything off,” Alice informed everyone.

  “Over there,” Elizabeth pointed, diagonally left of the direction they had been heading. So North-West, Alice had kept them on course without trouble.

  “Nothing in my sight either,” Irwyn admitted but did begin to move them in that direction. It was just all the same forest. Elizabeth seemed disinclined to explain more though, focused on something. Her finger kept intently pointing in a direction, the smallest corrections done when Irwyn inevitably veered a few degrees off-course.

  “Here, right below us,” she said. They were… well in the middle of a forest. Nothing extraordinary was around at a glance. Just more trees. Maybe a squirrel? Irwyn thought he spotted one scurrying away.

  “What are we looking for?” Irwyn questioned, trying to make her explain. She was still in her strange state… no, even further into it. The presence that had been around her had only intensified. However, his question had at least woken her enough to answer.

  “I will carve the concept here. It is the perfect spot,” she simply said.

  “Hardly a place for a camp,” Alice muttered. There were trees all around and the ground was not exactly even. There was nowhere to even put up tents. Well, not yet.

  “We can make one,” Irwyn decided, summoning Flame to dance on his palm. “I take care of the trees, you the ground?”

  “Fine,” Alice nodded. She had also noticed the strange state Elizabeth seemed to be in and thus did not argue.

  “I will just be standing here them, out of the way,” Waylan said, still very much on top of the platform. “At least let me sit down eh? We are not moving anymore.”

  The trees, as it turned out, were not particularly resistant to fire. They were not exactly flammable either – it was the thick bark, absorbed moisture, and high density, all things that helped them endure possible fire sources. Irwyn could, however, evaporate most mundane metals in seconds. Trees did not stand a chance. Irwyn willed it and the forest burned.

  The entire area around them was set ablaze in not much slower than an instant. Yet the heat did not scorch the other three people, Irwyn intentionally regulating the air around them. He could have also made the flames not hot but worried it would slow down the deforestation. Given he was kind of trying to show off, he opted for the sure way. An application of special barriers also funneled all the dark smoke from the incinerated wood upwards and away from them.

  The closest thing to a hiccup were the roots. They stumped Irwyn for a few minutes because he could not perceive them in the ground which made burning such targets difficult. One way to burn those away would be to let his control over the fire slip so that it would gradually proliferate through them. Which risked an accidental widespread forest fire that he would prefer to avoid – not to mention the wood in the ground struggled to burn away easily. Without Irwyn controlling the Flames would become mundane and thus required oxygen again rather than just mana. Eventually, he realized that there was literally no reason to remove the roots. They just needed to camp, removing the trees was the means, not the end.

  Alice in the meantime had the work cut out for her with excavation. She was no Realm mage. She could not just will the soil to move into shape like Irwyn could Flame. Rather, she had to twist and push space around in a way that also moved the soil by dragging it along. By the look on her face and the pace she was working at, a rather frustrating task. When Irwyn was done with the trees, creating a sizable clearing without needing to even step off his platform, she had barely begun to make progress.

  “We only need it even enough for tents,” she decided after 15 or so minutes. It took her another ten to have four perfectly flat spots a bit larger than they strictly needed to be. The erection went smoothly, Irwyn managing to finally put his own tent up. Alice did not even need to fix anything.

  Elizabeth was still absentminded. She had taken a matt out of her pouch and sat at a specific spot she refused to move from, even for even-ing. It would yet be some hours before dusk so Irwyn came to ask her if she needed anything else before then. She managed to focus for a moment and told him to bring Alice.

  “These,” she took out two white-rimmed monocles. “Will allow you to directly observe my Soul as I carve it. I will have to disable my protections either way. Try to glean what you can, it is helpful, even without understanding the concept itself. It will be Void.”

  “Why did you choose this place?” Alice tried again to use her moment of sudden lucidity.

  “It calls to me,” Elizabeth said, looking down beneath her feet. “It has been since last night, I think. I just needed to get closer to realize it.”

  “What do you mean?” Irwyn tried to get her to elaborate.

  “I don’t know,” she hesitated. “But this is the right place. I feel it down to the marrow. In my heart. In my Soul. Right here I will carve my first concept, just after dusk.”

  Irwyn was wary when the sun set. Whatever Elizabeth had sensed was almost certainly related to the Void and not irrelevantly, given how she was acting. Of course, the Heiress of House Blackburg would be fine. He was more worried about the remaining three of them. Therefore, he had made arrangements, if simple ones. If things went wrong, Alice would try to teleport them a few dozen meters up and to the side. Meanwhile, Irwyn would summon platforms to carry them away. Both would assume the other person might fail, just in case. A reasonable precaution - Irwyn thought as he put on the monocle when Elizabeth gestured for them to.

  His vision changed in that eye, forcing him to close the other so that he could better focus on the new perceptions. The world became bleached as he stared at it. Like everything had lost its natural color and were instead replaced with shades of white. It was not black and white. White was the only color that existed, if only in a few spots. Its opposite was absence. Usually, black was how absence looked to the naked eye but not in with the monocle. Where white was scarce in this new sight… something else lingered. Irwyn struggled to describe it. Like a non-existent color that the monocle let him perceive and interpret from moment to moment but not internalize, remember, or understand.

  When he looked around the world was different. The ‘absence’ was almost everywhere and on everything. Trees and soil were seemingly wholly colorless, as were most things, yet little spots of dim white shone on them. Just tiny specs, so small they were barely noticeable even in the strong contrast against nothing. Insects, Irwyn realized. He had not known they had something close enough to a Soul to be seen as he was. He tried to commit it to memory. Because that was what the monocle had to be doing - letting them see Souls.

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  Then he looked at his friends. Waylan was hard to spot, even when not hiding. The sneak had agreed that he would stay visible just in case but Waylan had become different from a mere human. That was more apparent than ever at that moment. For even when not trying to conceal his presence, Waylan’s Soul was almost invisible againts the background of nothing behind it. Large, yes, as a human ought to be and deep pure white, yet also dimmed at the same time. There was plenty of color hidden within though, just hard to notice.

  Next he glanced at Alice. Hers was larger than Waylan’s by at least three times and so much easier to see. It also let Irwyn realize that what he was witnessing made little sense. Her Soul was nestled in her chest, by the heart… but also behind her eyes. Two spots yet it occupied them at once. The Soul also did not have a shape. Not ‘strange’ or ‘indescribable’, it simply lacked geometry. When Irwyn tried to process it, his mind dumbed it down to something close to a circle but that was merely a massive simplification.

  There was, also, a second Soul shining on Alice’s hand. He had not noticed it at first… because it hadn’t been there. Perhaps Alice had decided to allow the ring to appear and likely to also shortly shed whatever hid the artifact’s soul. It was massive, Irwyn knew that much, but could not tell how large at all as if the ring still made sure to keep at least that a secret. Yet because it lacked geometry, the Soul still neatly fit inside that intricate but little ring without even hinting at its actual 'size'.

  Elizabeth’s Soul was black with hints of smoldering red. True black rather than white. Like the Void, if not as intense. And burning red of Flame, even if a bit less of that in comparison. He could tell thanks to the monocle that there was still mostly the white of a Soul beneath that veneer of Void and Flame so their colors were not too intense and full. An attuned Soul, Irwyn knew the term. Something few attained even in Conception, much less before it. Dervish had once told Irwyn his own Soul was one such. Clearly, so was Elizabeth’s as was only to be expected.

  Hers was also large. Far larger than Alices. By how much? Irwyn did not know. Perhaps it was more than the protection of a ring that stopped him from estimating its potency. A lack of insight. Of knowledge, or a frame of reference. All he knew was that he did not know, just that it was much larger and more potent than even a prodigy like Alice. He could have guessed that. But actually figuring out the difference would likely require training, if not outright Soul magic.

  “It’s easy to forget what monsters you two are, day to day,” Alice smiled, eyes flickering between him and Elizabeth with the slightest tremble across her fingers. “I shouldn’t. I really shouldn’t.”

  “What do you see?” Irwyn asked, making Alice look at him again, their eyes meeting behind the monocle.

  “A Star, shining like the sun. Hard to look at,” she shuddered, then quicly turned to Elizabeth. “And… she is the opposite. A bottomless black that will swallow the last flicker of light. Both of you, so grand I cannot understand the extent of it.”

  “I also do not really get how potent hers is,” Irwyn assured. It also showed that the 'bubble' around his own Soul was not easily visible, at least through this method. Unsuruprisingly - otherwise it would have been noticed by someone before Johnson.

  “But magnitudes more than mine,” Alice sighed.

  “Well…” Irwyn hesitated to say it out loud.

  “I am not so delusional as to truly compare myself to either you,” she ruefully smiled. That she said the words out loud did not mean she was wholly happy though. “Twice so after this reminder.”

  “I will start now,” Elizabeth interrupted, sitting deathly still. Like a statue, not the slightest sign of a fidget going through her body. Irwyn turned to her. The sun was truly gone behind the horizon by then, the night in full swing. The moon was almost new so it gave little light and Irwyn decided not to summon a source. The monocle let him surprisingly see just the same even in near total darkness.

  It began slowly. That red and black ungeometric Soul sat still for several minutes, unchanging as Irwyn intently observed. Then, there was the slightest quiver as a focused force began to push against its surface. It reeled back for a moment but was immediately grabbed and held in place, the force intensifying and magnifying further. It took Irwyn a moment to realize what invisible powers was moving the two: Elizabeth’s control over magic.

  It was not quite willpower but close. He knew that when wielding magic, part of the mind split to control it but it was capable of more afterwards. Irwyn could not focus on a hundred different things at once, yet he could easily guide a hundred different spells. A thousand if they were simple enough. Control was thought, yes, but converted. Changed by something intrinsic to all mages Irwyn did not fully grasp, becoming an intangible hand.

  Elizabeth was using it to chisel a line. The process was meticulous and slow. The Soul was trying to quiver, as if instinctually rejecting the alterations, being made upon the surface yet Elizabeth did not allow it to. Perhaps her pace was not fast but it was certainly unwavering. Bit by bit, the line appeared. It was not straight, nor was it merely flat. It twisted up and down, deeper in or further out - yet paradoxically remained firmly on the surface of the Soul, once again defying all rules of geometry.

  When the line was done, there was a flicker. An exceedingly powerful tremble going through the Soul which Elizabeth allowed to happen unsuppressed. For several seconds it shook in place quite intensely before calming down again. Elizabeth’s face remained completely serene throughout. Not a trace of worry nor pain, even though the process looked like it would be at the very least unpleasant. When serenity returned, Elizabeth took a deep breath and began carving the second line.

  Irwyn could not tell what the lines meant. Not with his eyes nor magic, anyway. On the other hand, his mind could speculate quite easily. They had to be intentions. A Concept was made of nine, arrayed in a specific way. But it seemed the process was not about carving them all at once, but rather one at a time. It was also getting visibly harder. On the second and third lines, Elizabeth did not slow down but her Soul tried to tremble out of her grasp increasingly often. Starting from the fourth, she became even more deliberate. Slowing down so as to not allow even a single flaw. By the time the fifth was done, the shape was starting to radiate power. There was almost physical weight to it.

  Irwyn had lost track of time. It must have been at least an hour or more as he stared at Elizabeth carefully carving into her own essence. No matter how hard he tried he would never be able to understand what they meant - such was Void to his Light - but the process was still fascinating. While he could not grasp the meaning, he could glean insight into how they were being drawn. The shapes were geometrically impossible, yes, but they were still all being made in one gradual stroke. So, while there could be no deconstructing the end result, Irwyn could watch exactly how those impossible leaps were made at the time. How the line crossed itself without touching. How a circle fit into a loop half its diameter. How four right angles somehow resulted in a triangle. That and so much more beautiful impossibility.

  By the seventh line, Elizabeth slowed again. And the low presence of something connected to the Void suddenly multiplied by orders of magnitude. Irwyn felt the Light part of him roiling a bit, even from the decent distance he sat at. An instinctual rejection of its anathema despite all the insulation between them. When she finished drawing the eight, the feeling multiplied again. At the first stroke of the ninth, the expected surprise arrived. Mana surged in the area but it was not a person’s. It was like the ambient mana in the air but more intense and not quite present. Irwyn could feel it clearly yet he could tell it was behind a blockade of some kind. He was also able to identify that it was Void in nature and about to break through directly in front of Elizabeth. He hesitated – wondering whether ‘helping’ wouldn’t do more harm than good.

  “Let it,” Elizabeth said before Irwyn could actually intervene, freeing him from having to decide. So, he kept sitting down, erecting a second nine-intention barrier besides the one he already had ready, one specifically designed to block out the Void. He remained ready to flee if it came down to it.

  There was no sound when the boundary shattered. Not even a pop of displaced air to hint at the fact that reality had just been rent asunder. Void spilled onto the other side as if from a ruptured barrel, a stream of dense mana surging essentially into Elizabeth’s face. And something more too. Irwyn realized that much but could not tell what. As the Void surged, it dove into Elizabeth’s Soul like moth to a flame, finding a natural outlet that attracted it. She paused for the slightest moment, then continued carving. Irwyn assumed that for her it was more comforting than distracting. The ninth line was drawn slowest yet also caused her to struggle the most. Her Soul was no longer attempting to shake once in a while but always. Seconds dragged into minutes. Irwyn stared, and not just at the emerging shapes anymore. He was watching whatever it was that had just broken out of the Void.

  The breach had sealed quickly and the mana had been absorbed by Elizabeth with natural ease. But that presence Irwyn had felt remained. It was floating right by that nearly finished concept, a pitch-black formless existence. There was no hint of white underneath that so it was not Soul - yet it was still close enough Irwyn could see it through the monocle. And it showed signs of agitation as Elizabeth neared the completion of her work. When the last stroke was finished, there was no mistaking it. The concept’s power surged so strongly Irwyn nearly flinched. The world around them shifted, as if focusing on the scene. Acknowledging what had just happened and giving it its proper weight. The nine lines had intersected in many places during the carving yet they had still been fundamentally separated. When the last stroke was finished that changed. All of them suddenly becoming a whole. Void.

  Right at that moment, that entity that had emerged earlier leaped forward. It was not-quite-a-Soul, more like a raptured, patchy remant in the monocle's vision. Yet it was pitch with the Void's attunement and maddened by a ravenous frenzy. It surged towards the newborn Concept, as if meaning to swallow it whole. Yet it had no maw nor teeth to do so. Not to mention Elizabeth did not let it. She allowed its approach almost within reach of the surface of her Soul, then counterattacked.

  There were no tendrils or grabbers that emerged. But rather, Elizabeth forced her whole Soul to shift a bit. To simply move. There was no artistry to it, Irwyn could tell. It was… like moving a limb to grab something. Yes, that sounded easy and natural but Johnson had made Irwyn think about that. What was simpler for him: To grab something with his hand or to grasp it with magic? Which was easier?

  Irwyn could lift a carriage with his magic with barely a thought, then toss it out into the distance just as easily. The only reason he rarely did such was the force of habit. He was used to grabbing things with his hands… and perhaps it was something ‘human’ to it. He did not have the time at the moment to intensely analyze his conscious and subconscious reasons for that but the conclusion was that he had better control over magic than his own body.

  Just like Johnson had once pointed out to him. He moved his hand but did not micromanage every fiber of muscle. Did not choose which hormones would course through his veins at what quantity. Could not regulate the beating of his heart. He would never manipulate his limbs the same way a Life mage could, but with sufficient training one could learn to move their Soul much like their body. What Elizabeth did to move her Soul was much like that. A layman, moving an arm.

  It was still enough to grab the Void entity. In its tangible hunger it had approached the Concept and realized too late the trap waiting for it. And by then it was far too late. Elizabeth enveloped the brief assailant and then returned its intent, immediately beginning to erode and devour it in turn, her magic surging. All of that happened perhaps within a second of the Concept first forming. The second surprise Irwyn had not seen coming. And neither had Elizabeth, judging by the shifting look on her face. Just as the incorporeal being was enveloped and at her mercy, a new source of power surged. It was, once again, Void in nature. Not that of a living being again. Except it was by far more powerful. So much so Irwyn once again found himself lacking a frame of reference. That was not the most shocking part thought:

  Because it came from within her.

  Irwyn did not - could not - notice the seams from which that power emerged. All he knew was that it had to be from Elizabeth's still shapeless black and red Soul, given how it coursed to the surface and all around it. In just a moment it enveloped everything in a bubble of sorts making it much harder to see what was happening. Irwyn tried to keep his eyes on the carved Concept as best he could but it became difficult. Despite its incredible power from just moments prior, it seemed meager compared to the new surging tide.

  Then it withdrew in the blink of an eye. One moment it was there - overwhelming, suffocating, all-encompassing power - the next Irwyn barely caught the last remnants of it being re-absorbed back into Elizabeth’s Soul. He blinked, then quickly refocused his gaze onto the concept. The shape was the exact same, Irwyn was certain of it. Yet something about it had changed. Become stronger. Deeper.

  “What was that?” he asked. Elizabeth was gasping for air, taking deep breaths to calm down.

  “Which one?” she managed a smile full of bravado.

  “Either!” Alice shouted. Irwyn realized she had moved a few steps further back, perhaps instinctively. Irwyn had certainly wanted to flinch away several times.

  “The first was an echo,” Elizabeth nodded, as if that explained anything. He would need to press her for more later. “As for that second… I have almost no idea.”

  “How can you have no clue what is within your Soul!” Alice said, a bit too emotional. Then she paused, a sudden calm going over her as she reconsidered, a ring flickering on her finger. “No, I suppose that is not that strange. Still, it was terrifying.”

  “Recently, Johnson had told me that he knows what is so ‘special’ about me,” Elizabeth said thoughtfully. She had managed to mostly calm down by then. “And also said that telling me would do more harm than good. This is likely it. Something that did not manifest during imbuement but dwells deep within me… hmmm.”

  “Or perhaps it did,” Irwyn opined. “Johnson told me that my talent is impossible for a pure human. Yours is at the very least comparable.”

  “House Blackburg has some Elven blood in its ancestry,” Elizabeth shook her head. “But I already knew that. It cannot be just that. But you have a point that an earlier manifestation might be related to my sheer affinity.”

  “What did it even do?” Irwyn inquired, ever curious given that the immediate worries had passed. “And for that matter, what is an ‘echo’?”

  “Well…” she started sorting her thoughts.

  Then things became intensely bright. Everyone flinched, caught off-guard. There was no hint of magic around, yet their little clearing had been swallowed by a white glow as bright as day, perhaps more given it was so direct. Irwyn looked up - unable to be blinded - finding it was being projected from the front of something high up in the air. Something large. Though he could only see an outline against the night sky it had to be as big as a whole street of a city at least. “What is that? It’s massive.”

  “An airship,” Elizabeth took a few moments to answer. She needed to get her bearings and squint - with an added pinch of magic - so she could even see through the sheer brightness. Then she finally identified the flying giant. “A large balloon actually takes up most of its bulk. Have you never seen one? There are a few flying around the Duchy of Black… I suppose they have no reason to go near the capital or Abonisle - the Beacon makes them obsolete for most transport and powerful mages capable of magical flight are obviously better for military purposes.”

  “What is it doing here then?” Irwyn questioned. “We had not seen even a hint of civilization so far but now an airship just appears?”

  “Well, I think we are going to find out soon,” Alice sighed. “Because they have certainly seen us.”

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