Fates Parallel Chapter 254 - Divide

The exercise had barely started and things were already going off the rails. Heian—who’s cat form was much larger than Yoshika remembered—was staring down at the ground, looking contrite, while Muddy quivered in fear behind Ja Yun’s legs.

There were so many things wrong with that picture. Muddy expressing fear was strange, as was that strange mimicry of Ja Yun’s voice. The fact that Heian’s cat form was running around in her soulscape while her human form played with Narae wasn’t something Yoshika had realized was possible either. She’d seen the two forms separately before, but only while both were in her soulscape—this was new.

She rubbed her temples as she tried to put things together.

“Okay, let’s start from the beginning. Heian, what’s going on with you? Have you always been able to split yourself like this?”

The cat spirit’s response came in the form of a wave of complex emotions and concepts, but after so many years of communicating with spirits, Yoshika was getting better at putting them together.

Fear. An experiment gone wrong. Imprisonment. Safety. Relief. A child’s love for their mother. Consequences. Schism. Incomplete. Co-existence with oneself.

The last concept came as a surprise to Yoshika—it was an extremely familiar one, but something she considered to be unique to her own existence. Clearly she’d rubbed off on Heian a bit.

“The spell you created with Hattori? When you almost accidentally turned yourself into a shikigami, we saved you, but it resulted in you partially splitting into your cat self and your human self. Ever since then you’ve just been living as two connected versions of yourself, kind of like I do?”

Heian nodded. Ja Yun’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

“You understood all that?”

Yoshika turned and raised a curious eyebrow.

“You felt it too?”

Ja Yun and Eunae both nodded, and the princess rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she regarded the cat spirit.

“I think we both did. I understand what you mean now about the communication with your inner spirit being difficult. Mine always just spoke normally, but if that’s how it’s always been for you, I can understand your frustration.”

Yoshika scratched her head and turned to Ja Yun.

“Speaking of difficult communication—Muddy, was that your voice we heard back there? Or...Iseul?”

The faint blob at Ja Yun’s feet melted into a puddle, then reformed into a disturbing facsimile of Ja Yun’s face—as if it had been modeled out of clay by a child. Ja Yun herself shuddered as it began speaking.

“I don’t know. I don’t understand anything here. A world without a world. It's a paradox. It’s wrong. I can simulate the memory of Iseul, but something is missing. I am incomplete here.”

Muddy’s voice was a mimicry of Ja Yun’s, dull, echoing, and just wrong enough to be unsettling. It was also rather confusing, so Yoshika went back to dealing with Heian for the moment.

“Heian, why were you chasing Muddy around?”

Heian’s piercing blue gaze met hers, and another torrent of feelings washed over her.

Intruder. Violation of sanctuary. Hunting pests.

Yoshika frowned.

“You could have just tried talking to it first.”

Impossible. Weak spirit. Incomplete.

Interesting that both Heian and Muddy would agree on that particular part. Yoshika pursed her lips and returned her attention to Ja Yun and Muddy.

“She says that she was trying to get rid of Muddy because it doesn’t belong here. It’s a foreign existence that she can’t communicate with. Muddy, did you try talking to her?”

Muddy’s ‘face’ shifted into what looked like an anguished scream, which was completely incongruous with its monotonous tone.

“There is nothing to speak to. This place has sound without sound. Thought without thoughts. It is wrong. That creature does not exist. It is incomplete.”

Yoshika groaned in frustration.

“This isn’t getting us anywhere.”

“Oh! I get it!”

Eunae’s outburst brought everyone’s attention onto her, and Yoshika gestured for her to continue.

“I think I see the problem here. Elementals and spirits are both beings of pure essence, but they are different forms of that essence. An elemental is a mind, thoughts and memories capable of reason but not emotion. Spirits, on the other hand, are the opposite—souls without bodies or minds to provide context to their feelings. They exist in a world of concepts and emotions rather than thoughts and memories. In humans, our bodies act as a bridge between the two, but for them...”

Ja Yun snapped her fingers.

“I see! It’s like a blind person trying to talk to a deaf and mute person! They both mainly communicate in ways that the other can’t perceive. Elementals and spirits are confusing and alien to us humans, but to each other...”

“They practically don’t even exist.”

Eunae finished for her, nodding solemnly. Yoshika shook her head.

“No, that can’t be right. Muddy and Heian have interacted before haven’t they? Like when...when...”

Yoshika wracked her brain, but nothing came to her. Heian and Muddy had never once acknowledged each other for as long as she could remember. Even when Narae had briefly joined in on the game of trying to get Muddy to eat things, Heian had just stood by passively.

“Huh...I guess they haven’t. Okay, well part of our goal is to teach Muddy to get more in tune with its emotions, right? Maybe Heian and Muddy can learn to get along as practice—for both of them. Actually, that reminds me...”

She turned her attention back on the cat spirit, still waiting patiently.

“Heian, why aren’t you speaking normally? You’ve been doing really well in your human form lately, so why not just talk to Muddy that way?”

Heian shook her head.

Illusion.

“Oh right. Like Muddy said, ‘sound without sound.’ Everything here is just a representation of the soul—oh, ancestors, this must be horrifying to Muddy! It can’t make sense of anything it’s seeing can it? No wonder it’s freaking out so much.”

Ja Yun blinked.

“Well I’m glad someone understands what’s happening, because I am extremely lost right now. Is this a test? Part of the training?”

Yoshika shook her head, glad for the reminder of why they were here in the first place. She couldn’t let herself keep getting distracted.

“No, sorry. We should get back on track. Heian, we’ll talk later. Ja Yun, you stick with Muddy and just observe for now. Eunae?”

The princess clutched her hands together in front of her to steady her nerves and nodded resolutely.

“I’m ready. What do you need me to do?”

“Let's start by showing you where I’ve gotten stuck in my own practice.”

Yoshika closed her eyes and brought forth the multi-colored flames that had been stumping her ever since they’d left Goryeo. The act of using her divine spark to control the stolen essence gained the attention of her unwanted passenger, and Jianmo’s miniature copy sprouted from the ground like a mushroom as the flames flickered into existence around her.

“Ooo! Here to bang your head against the wall some more? How exciting! I don’t hate stubborn brats like you. I see you’ve brought some friends this time, too.”

Yoshika tried to ignore him as her friends bowed awkwardly in greeting. Eunae smiled stiffly at the demon as she rose.

“Hello again, Jianmo. I hope you’re taking good care of my friends. We didn’t get the chance to speak much last time, with everything going on.”

The pint-sized demon bowed with a lazy flourish.

“Of course! No need to stand on formality with me, princess—I’m not even the real Jianmo.”

Yoshika rolled her eyes.

“You’re just as annoying, though.”

“Hah! Your compliments are wasted, darling, but appreciated nonetheless.”

“Anyway, Eunae, do you know what these are?”

Eunae turned her attention back to Yoshika and examined the floating balls of fire—one orange, one green, and one iridescent.

“Fire, Soulfire, and Plasma, right? Why these, specifically?”

Yoshika shrugged.

“I thought maybe I could figure out what Soulfire is made from, and these seemed like the closest elements to it.”

“Hmm...Plasma is the yin aspect of Fire, and it burns mana without touching the physical. It’s a popular element for disenchantment and defense among those who can master it, though its rarity makes it difficult to find good materials for talismans.”

As expected, Eunae knew her stuff. Yoshika had learned about the effects through trial and error, but Eunae’s education was top tier.

“Right. I’ve learned a few techniques in the element myself—mostly as Jia—and I thought it was kind of similar to Soulfire, but aside from the superficial comparisons I’ve hit a total dead end. Both of them burn essence without causing physical harm, but how? Why? Is Soulfire, as an esoteric element like my Shadow essence, made up partly of Plasma? And if so, what else does it have that makes it different?”

Ja Yun raised her hand nervously as she interjected.

“Um, esoteric elements aren’t very well understood. Mages have been studying them for centuries without making any noteworthy breakthroughs. They occur naturally only in extremely auspicious circumstances, and are otherwise almost exclusively unique to spirits. I’m not sure that trying to break it down like that is the best way to go about it.”

Yoshika nodded.

“Yeah, I’m definitely learning that. I’ve been stuck on this for weeks, so I’m open to any other suggestions you might have.”

Ja Yun frowned, opened her mouth, then closed it again and shook her head without saying anything. Yoshika sighed.

“Just say it, Yun. I’m not going to get upset with you.”

“S-sorry! I was just thinking...it’s a lot like the thing with Heian and Muddy isn’t it?”

Yoshika cocked her head.

“Is it? What do you mean?”

“Well, you’ve been saying ‘essence’ over and over again, but isn’t it more accurate to say that Plasma burns mana, while Soulfire burns qi?”

“They’re the same thing. We’ve been using qi, ki, and mana interchangeably for years—it’s all just essence once you know how to manipulate it, right?”

Jianmo snorted from his spot off to the side, apparently no longer content to just observe.

“Who told you that?! Not all essence is the same, sweethearts.”

Yoshika scowled at the useless fragment of a copy of her least favorite teacher.

“You’re the one who taught us the word ‘essence’ in the first place! It was your meddling that showed us how to unify my cultivation by bridging the pathways between body, mind, and soul. It’s probably the single most useful lesson you’ve ever given me, and that was before I became your disciple—now you’re trying to tell me it was wrong?”

Jianmo shook his head ruefully.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. I don’t hate headstrong little disciples jumping to conclusions. Everything is made of essence, honey. Just because they’re made of the same stuff, doesn’t necessarily mean they are the same thing, understand?”

“No. Not at all.”

Jianmo laughed, but Ja Yun stepped forward.

“Wait, he’s right, actually. We were just talking about it weren’t we? Spirits and elementals are both made entirely out of essence, but they’re so different that they practically can’t even see each other. I think this is the same thing.”

Yoshika frowned deeply as she mulled it over. It made a frightening amount of sense, actually, and the more she thought about it, the more right it felt. Perhaps understanding that difference would be the key to making a breakthrough in her research of Soulfire, but there was something else bothering her.

“Jianmo, did you know that this entire time? Like, it’s not something you just picked up during our travels—your original self knows all this too.”

“Of course, sweetheart. I don’t hate being overestimated, but a half-baked copy like me isn’t actually very good at learning new things.”

“And this entire time, it never occurred to you to say anything about that? I’ve been stuck on this for weeks!”

Jianmo’s face fell slightly, and the everpresent grin grew just a little bit stiff as he laughed it off awkwardly.

“Aha, well, you know...I just never thought of it. I figured you already knew that.”

Yoshika buried her face in her hands.

“Ja Yun...when Rika complains about my teaching...is this what she means? Is this what it feels like?”

Ja Yun refused to meet her gaze or respond, and when Yoshika turned to Eunae for support, the princess blushed and looked away as well. Their silence spoke volumes.

“I’m so sorry.”