Chapter 1384 (Patreon)

Two days after I first found that faint trace of the Charland, I was feeling as if I was getting closer. The biggest issue hadn’t really been the search here, but a few projects back in Maggie’s community that took up more time than I would have liked, as well as having to help Luna. Sometimes I simply couldn’t spend my time as I would have liked, but at the end of the day, I knew I would regret not spending time with my daughters. There simply wasn’t enough time in the day, which was a rather strange thought. It wasn’t as if there was a time limit on any of my projects; they would come to fruition when they did, and until then, I could simply spend as many days on them as necessary. So, why was I feeling as if I needed to accomplish some things as quickly as possible? I just didn’t know; it was a slightly odd sensation. 

Sadly, while I had managed to pick up the faint traces of the Charland within the Astral River, that didn’t mean I could readily follow them. I had considered trying to work purely through the Astral River, creating scrying constructs when I felt the traces were getting stronger, and inching my way towards my destination that way. But that might take a lot of time, especially since the Astral River wasn’t a constant or particularly logical place; it could be incredibly chaotic. I had no desire to spend hours upon hours, day after day, trying to figure this particular puzzle out. 

Instead, I was pursuing a much simpler solution. My first idea was to simply fly up and look around from above. With the Charland being what it was, I should have no issues detecting it from above. By flying at a high altitude, I could see a huge area, and even at night, the weirdness of the Scorched Land should stand out. The numerous fiery critters in the area should cast enough light to make them stick out like, well, flames in the night.

Sadly, when I tried that, I couldn't see anything. There might have been some small scattered lights, but nothing that would indicate the massive expanse that was the Charland. At least the massive expanse the Charland should be, if there weren’t some dimensional or spatial trickery going on. Meaning, I was either incredibly far off course, easily a hundred kilometres or more, or the Charland was somehow self-contained and could only be entered, or discovered at ground level. Which would be weird, but, annoyingly, not the weirdest thing I had come across during my travels. Whatever the case, it looked like flying wouldn’t work as easily as I had hoped.

Which left me with the simpler but likely more time-consuming method of searching: I had to sniff out the traces the Charland had left in the Astral River and follow the tracks on foot. I couldn’t fly; the traces were faint and difficult to detect on the ground. Even then, I needed to focus and shift my perception a bit by using some of my traits to find them. While flying, I had no real chance to find these traces, certainly not if I wanted to fly high or fast. So, once again, walking was the best available mode of transportation. It gave me all the time to sniff out the Charland’s scent, hopefully allowing me to track down the spatial anomaly.

And so, I started to make my way north-east. Luckily, I was able to detect the positions of my two towers even from this distance, which allowed me to compare their direction with the one I was currently moving in and determine that. Otherwise, I would be rather screwed, as magnets had started to become less reliable over the last two years. Maybe Terra had a different magnetic field from the Earth of old, or maybe it was simply a side effect of the Astral River; I wasn’t sure. Either way, having a reliable way to determine one’s direction was incredibly useful, making me wonder how others did it.

The Astral River could be used to navigate, but only on a small scale, using known locations to determine direction and then applying that knowledge. Granted, that was pretty much what I was doing, only that I could perceive my towers even at this distance. Otherwise, it would be rather difficult without known landmarks to calibrate your perception against. 

By now, winter had largely faded away, or maybe the area here was lower in altitude than the one around Jademoon Tower, to say nothing of the Nexus Tower, where winter was still going strong. And likely would continue to go strong throughout the year, that was one of the reasons I enjoyed being there so much. Here, spring had already forced back the snow, leaving the ground muddy and squishy. Soon, the heat of summer would burn down on the world, driving any sensible creature into its burrow, or at least into a comfortably cold space.

Even now, with summer months away, I couldn’t help but shudder for a moment, wishing to cover the world in cold, comfortable Ice, so nothing could move, nothing could disturb me. Just an eternity of endless winter, a world covered in Ice and Darkness held in my claws. It would give me an eternity to study, learn and grow, until I decided to move on one day, to find another world. It was such a wonderful dream, but, sadly, I was fairly certain I would never truly wish to achieve that dream. For the eternity of endless winter would also mean I would have to leave behind Luna, I would have to abandon Carnelia. And I would have to give up on Sigmir, making the entire idea completely and utterly moot.

The thought alone was enough to make me give up any dream of an eternally dark winter wonderland. No matter how pleasant, no matter how cool it would be, I could never give up on my beloved. For a moment, I wondered if that was a healthy attitude, but the thought was banished from my mind as soon as it popped up, beaten down by the purity of purpose that had carried me so far. I wouldn’t give up, so I could only go forward, even if the direction wasn’t quite consistent and I likely took a few detours. Like the one I was taking right now, exploring an entirely different field of magic in an attempt to build tools that would allow me to learn more. 

While walking, I started to work on my Soul Prisons, the original reason for this journey, again. Blood and Crystal Magic were the key to creating the raw material, maybe calling them Soul Gems would be appropriate, but to go further, I needed runes. 

Blood Runes, especially those to imbue objects with Astral Power, to absorb Astral Power and perform sacrifices, would be useful to drain power from the captured soul. Crystal Runes would, hopefully, allow me to strengthen the gem and let me use power drained from the captured Soul to sustain the binding. Death Runes, or maybe Soul Runes, would hopefully allow me a better binding, maybe giving me a way to capture souls during combat, instead of having to use the rather awkward Blood Magic method I was currently using. There were a few possibilities, though, at the end of the day, this was all just one step on the way. 

As I was walking and sniffing the Astral River for the strange scent from the Charland every so often, I wondered if there were other possible methods. The Soul Prisons were important because I needed a way to bind a soul, so I had time to prepare Sigmir’s future body and shove the Soul into the Body, while connecting, and possibly even recreating, the Mind as a bridge between the two.

Would it be possible to begin those steps first, and then pull in the Soul mid-way, so I wouldn’t have to subject Sigmir to a Soul Prison? I had no idea how pleasant any stay within one was, as the only being I knew that had been bound in such a way was the Nidhögg. Given that he immediately went towards destruction and genocide once freed, it could mean that any stay within was rather unpleasant. Or maybe the ancient beast had been imprisoned because of their intent to commit destruction and genocide, I wasn’t sure.

Regardless, I would have to keep an open mind. Just because I had one idea that might work didn’t mean it was the only idea that would. In fact, it was almost certain that there were a number of ways to accomplish my goal, some harder, some easier, some better and some with serious side-effects. 

I would have to test the method I ultimately came up with, making sure that Sigmir would be comfortable and happy with the results. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to take it if the method used was so flawed that Sigmir resented me for it. Or worse…