Chapter 83

Chapter 83: 83 "I have an idea," I said. "Go ahead," said Yidi. "How about something like Soul Sundering?" "Soul Sundering?" asked Zhan as he looked over Yidi’s shoulder at what he was looking up on his laptop. "Is it related to Soul Forging?" It was half an hour and many attempts at shattering the jade later. "No idea," I replied, "But I wouldn’t be surprised if it is." Yidi finished typing. "Ah, I found an entry. In Soul Sundering, a special technique is used to make an incision into the subject’s soul... then... however..." His voice trailed off but I knew he’d found the right entry and I couldn’t help marvel for a moment at the power of Shengnü and also feel slightly concerned that such a dangerous technique was just floating around on it for anyone to find. Or at least, anyone with beta access. I made a mental note to remind Yidi about the security later... "Why this spell, Misha?" asked Zhan. "Because," I started as I pressed a hand against the cool jade slab once again, "I think the way your family’s technique works is by replacing the soul’s natural membrane around it with jade that can be manipulated to allow qi to flow in a more controlled manner." "Huh, you’re not half bad," said Zhan. "Where’d you learn that from? Bran?" "No, someone else," I replied, though he wasn’t about to tell him it was from Aunt Yeung. They might not be on opposing sides right now, but I still didn’t quite think of him as a friend. Not yet anyway. "Yidi, can you send me the entry?" "I can, but are you up for this? It looks pretty complicated..." "Well..." "I’ll help." Even through the pixelly screen I could see Yidi jump at Zhan’s declaration. But before he could say anything, Zhan had risen and headed to the shimmering bit of wall. "Wait-!" Then Zhan was in the cave with me. "Y-you..." "Me what? I said I’m here to help. Let me see your phone." Left with no option, I handed the phone over to Zhan. "It looks pretty complicated," he said as he scrolled through the inscription and accompanying breakdown. "Okay. I think I’ve got it. You stand on that side." I looked where he was pointing and did as I was told, though hesitantly. "You... understand it?" I ventured from my spot on the right side of the jade slab. "More or less," he replied. "I’ve never been good at spells, but I have enough experience to work my way through it." He ran a finger over the jade. "Thank you for believing me," he said. "You’re welcome," said Yidi through the phone when it became clear that I was too shocked to reply. A little embarrassed, I rubbed my hands together. "What should I do?" Zhan stooped to place the phone on the ground between us so that we could both see the screen while freeing both his hands up to work. "It’s a bit of an old technique," he went on. "There’s no physical inscription, just all energy work. I’ll do that part. You just need to channel me the energy." I’d read over the entry on Shengnü and so knew he wasn’t making it up. I held out a hand. "So, do I just..." Without waiting for me to finish, Zhan grabbed my hand with his right one, then placed his left against the jade slab. Immediately I felt the tug of energy and I let however much he needed to flow from me. Since that night of the attack on the temple, I’d become a lot more aware of my qi and I knew I had a large reserve. Zhan flinched and I slowed the flow. "No, keep up the power," said Zhan, gritting his teeth. "But-" "Just do it." I knew he cared about his sister, but I could already tell this was reckless. While the flow of energy was one way, the connection through our hands gave me access to a kind of vague impression of how Zhan was doing, and it was not well. "Zhan." He didn’t reply. "Zhan," I repeated. "What?" he asked, irritated. "Let me help." "Help what?" "Tell me what to do and I’ll help you." Zhan didn’t reply immediately so I waited. "Close your eyes and put your hand on the stone," he finally said. Without waiting a moment, I did as I was told and immediately felt myself split. Or maybe split isn’t quite the right term. It was like I was suddenly in two places at once, one standing in real space in the cave and the other existing or floating in some other dimension, but with full control and knowledge of both. "Channel your energy counter-clockwise around the sphere." It was black before my eyes yet somehow something like a galaxy suddenly sparked into being in the dark, perhaps prompted by Zhan’s words. I was about to ask which sphere when I saw a spark of green by one of the planets. As soon as I noticed it, my non-existent body sped towards it like it was purely just my attention being evoked in the space. Up close, this ’sphere’ was massive, like Jupiter or Saturn with swirling clouds and ever changing patterns. The green light remained just a pinpoint of light and I sent a small pip of energy in its direction. "Is that you?" I asked in real space. "It is." "Okay." I urged myself closer to the pinpoint of light and saw that he was sending out a torrent of fiery green light toward the sphere which, now that I was closer, I saw that there were even rings of dust rotating around it, though unlike Saturn, these rings weren’t in a single line and instead were at all different angles, constantly changing their trajectory. I sent out another pip of energy, this time toward the rings, just to see what would happen. Interestingly, my energy was a bright silver and when it touched the nearest ring, the colour from it bloomed from the spot, dying the ring silvery like a drop of ink into a glass of water. After a few moments, the gold faded but I understood the theory. Drawing up a larger font of energy, I directed a stream of it to the side of the planet opposite to Zhan and watched as the rings quickly started to glow. Unlike my first try, I kept up the flow this time and through the connection - much like my connection right now with Zhan - I ended up being able to sense the internal structure of the rings. They were the ’membrane’ around Zhan’s sister’s soul and what we had to rip apart. It seemed an odd moment, yet I felt a pang of sadness at the thought of having to destroy such a beautiful thing - the way the rings slowly and silently twisted around the planet, protecting it and nurturing it felt so perfect that to break them seemed wrong. "Hurry up if you’re going to help," I heard Zhan say. I could also hear that he was out of breath. I really had get a move on. But then a thought occurred to me. "Zhan, wait a second." "What?" I didn’t explain (I didn’t know how to) and instead gently drew back my energy from him, let go of his hand, and instead went forward alone toward the planet, a font of silver fire in either hand. "What are you-" "Give me a moment," I said in the real world as I held my hands together and imagined myself becoming a long string in the mental world. A string so long that it could wrap all the way around the planet. As soon as I thought this, it came into being and I was now suddenly a silver ring among the others, also slowly rotating. I don’t know where I learned it, or if I’d ever had. All I knew was that I knew exactly what I needed to do. I span, faster and faster, drawing up all the rotating rings into my orbit so that they followed my every movement. When the moment was right - again I don’t know how I knew this - I... split myself. One ring of silver became two and along with me split the rings. As soon as this outer shell broke it was like a windstorm had suddenly kicked up on the planet and its surface swirled, circled, then silently escape out between the rings. There was still a melancholic sadness in my throat as I saw this, but I knew that this was the gentlest, kindest way to set the girl’s soul free. I let the image of the stars and planets fade and slowly opened my eyes. The cave was dark, yet it felt too bright to me and I had to rub my eyes a few times before they adjusted. Then I looked around. Zhan was still standing next to me, though this time instead of an annoyed or dissatisfied expression on the boy’s face, there were tears. "Zhan..." He rubbed his face roughly with the back of his hand. "Thank you," he croaked. I said nothing more and just nodded, turning away a little as though I hadn’t seen the tears. "Did it work?" came Yidi’s voice from the ground. I stooped and picked up the phone while turning the phone around to show him the shattered jade lying all around. "Yep." "Nice! Now we can..." There came a sharp beep and I peered at the screen and saw Yidi looked just as confused. "Did you hear that?" I asked. "Yeah," he replied. "It’s someone-" And then the video call ended. Before I could react, a new phone call came in. I put the phone to my ear and answered it. "Tuesday?" "Huh? Is that Misha? Why do you have Yidi’s phone?" came Tuesday’s voice over the phone. "I’m just borrowing his SIM card at the moment. Do you need to find him? I’ll just get him..." I turned as I said this to where the teleportation portal shimmered on the wall. Or at least, where it had been shimmering. "Zhan, the portal!" The boy, having mostly finished with this emotions looked around then went up to the wall. "It’s closed," he pronounced. "Eh?!" "Listen, Misha," said Tuesday, voice crackling, "you need to-" Then the phone went silent. "Hello? Tuesday?" I said. I took the phone from my ear and saw that the screen had gone dark. I pressed at the buttons but there was no response. The battery was dead.