There were far fewer formalities in sending a member of the city off than Theo had expected. By the time the next morning came, Sledge and her babies were ready to head out. Yet the alchemist wasn’t sure he was. His confidence in his abilities to manipulate the void, and migrate the woman into his realm was absolute. But he had never done this, causing some amount of reluctance.

“You’ll be fine,” Tresk assured him, patting the alchemist on the back. “Big steps, right?”

“We’ll do her first,” Theo said. “Then the babies.”

“Right,” Tresk said. “Just in case you turn Sledge inside out.”

Theo gave her a concerned look.

“I’m just kidding! Everything is gonna be fine,” Tresk said. “Searching your thoughts, I know you know how to do it. Just that last bit that’s dangling.”

“Right. The last bit. The part where I need to weave someone’s soul into the fabric of the void, then bind it to Tero’gal,” Theo said. “No pressure.”

Tresk gave Theo a few more pats on the back. Truth was, this was something Theo had put some thought to in the past. Once he learned the gods weren’t real gods, but pretenders who took the mantle of ascendants, he thought about them. Souls would fall into the void, drawn to places of power. And when they got there, those people would be integrated into the realms. There was one person he trusted to ask about this, but he had hesitated.

“I need to see Glantheir before we go,” Theo said. “I need to talk to John.”

“If you say so,” Tresk said with a shrug. “Sledge is ready to go whenever.”

Turning his eyes skyward, Theo thought about the heavenly realms. He wondered if he could pierce the barrier. Maybe, but it wasn’t the time to upset the system. She seemed stressed as it was. Instead, he folded the void over himself, appearing in the snowy landscape a moment later. He sighed when the system appeared.

“I wanted to talk to Hallow alone,” Theo said.

“You’re never alone,” she said, a faint smile playing on her face. “I’ll summon him.”

It took about half a second for Hallow to appear, his ghostly form flickering into existence on his corresponding sigil. The smile that spread across his face was genuine. “Theo. What can I do for you?”

Theo looked between Hallow and the system, clicking his tongue. “Wanna give me a crash course on soul magic?”

Hallow blinked a few times, his eyes darting to the system as his brows peaked. “Uh, is that allowed?”

“I really don’t care,” the system said with a weak shrug. “If you need me, I’ll be everywhere within the sector at the same time.”

And she vanished in a snap, leaving both Theo and Hallow looking at the spot where she just was in confusion.

“That’s one way to do it,” Theo said.

“Soul magic?” Hallow asked. “You’re not becoming a necromancer, are you?”

“God, no. I need to migrate my people to the middle realms. But every time I’ve taken a mortal up there, they get sick. I figured since the ascendants had been absorbing the souls of people using their realms, there had to be some soul magic to bind them.”

“Well, that’s much better than what I expected,” Hallow said. “So, you’re determined to move some mortals your own way, despite what the gods desire?”

“You know I can’t trust the gods,” Theo said. “That’s how this whole thing started.”

“Fair enough,” Hallow said with a shrug. “I don’t care either way. The way they’re still holding on is pathetic. When the reset happens, we’ll have a definite barrier between—”

Hallow went silent.

“Ah, said the wrong words,” Theo said. “Too much information for someone as unimportant as me. I’ve figured most of it out, system. Don’t worry about it.”

Hallow probed at his throat, eventually coughing a few times. “Rude. Anyway, the trick isn’t too complicated. The biggest thing you need to know is that the soul will need to roost. That means, it has to want to live in your realm.”

“Should be easy enough. But there has to be more.”

Hallow shrugged. “How about the souls that came to your realm when it was a realm? Did you do anything special with them?”

“No, but they didn’t have bodies.”

“Fair enough,” Hallow said, giving a playful smile. “Have you sensed soul energy before?”

“Maybe. I don’t think so.”

“With your willpower, it should be easy. Focus on the soul, and once you’ve done that you need to—”

Silence again. Theo’s brows knitted, and he looked to the spot where the system should’ve been. He wasn’t puzzled that she had silenced him. He was confused as to why she hadn’t silenced him sooner. The system should’ve known he could piece together the rest of the formula from those few words, so why didn’t she?

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

It clicked.

The monitor system

.

“That should be enough,” Theo said, nodding to Hallow. “Sorry for getting you censored.”

Hallow shrugged, then gave the thumbs-up.

Theo took his leave from the realm, but instead of going back to the mortal plane, he made his way to Erradon. Fenian’s world was fairly lawless at this point, so when he landed outside the city gates to Vesta, he was unsurprised to find a small skirmish taking place in the distance. Over the fields, the residents of this world did battle. The alchemist’s first instinct was to stop the fighting, but this wasn’t his world. Instead, he turned to approach the city gates, only to find guards brandishing spears and standing at attention.

“Gentlemen,” Theo said, nodding to each.

“Papers,” one guard demanded.

“This place is going to be a mess, isn’t it?” Theo asked with a sigh. He extended his senses, his darkened aura flooding over the guards. They jumped, looking around before their eyes narrowed on him. “No need to worry, fellas.”

“Stop it,” one guard demanded.

Theo pushed his senses into one guard, aiming at his chest. That’s where he had learned the soul was. It was a murky cloud of something that lingered in the chest of everyone. The alchemist hadn’t cared much for understanding it before, but this time he probed with academic intent. The soul of the guard he scanned felt faint, as though he wasn’t as strong as his attitude claimed.

It took Theo only a few moments to find what he was looking for. A wisp-thin thread snaked from the soul, connecting it to the energies of the realm. That’s what Hallow was going to say when they were back in the system’s little domain. This soul was bound to Erradon, meaning other souls were bound by the same thread to their respective realms. It was likely a thread that formed naturally as a soul adjusted to their new realm. It might’ve been something he could emulate or force, either through alchemy or magic.

“Thanks, guys,” Theo said. “Keep up the good work. I guess.”

With two more points of data to collect, Theo next went to Tero’gal. He checked in with Belgar, who had some super-duper interesting reports about administrative structures, and confirmed a similar thread. He then returned to the mortal plane, finding Tresk and Sledge hanging out in the manor… with all the marshling babies.

“Are they eating the banister?” Theo asked, looking on in horror as a marshling chewed on his beautiful railing.

“It’ll grow back,” Tresk said, waving a dismissive hand. “We have a babysitter for them, but they’re late.”

“Are we ready?” Sledge asked, her voice thin.

Theo cleared his throat. “Almost,” he said, withdrawing a Soulbloom from his inventory and placing it in a flask. He reached out with his senses, probing into Sledge’s soul. There, he found nothing. When he checked Tresk, he felt her connection to her own realm. Then he found Sarisa hiding in the shadows in the corner, and found nothing. “Okay. Souls from the mortal plane don’t have a binding. That means I have to forge you a new binding to Tero’gal.”

“What does that mean?” Tresk asked, patting Sledge on the shoulder.

“Two options,” Theo said. “First, I sculpt your connection by hand.”

“No thanks,” Sledge said.

“Second, I use an express version of the Reforge Soul potion,” Theo said, holding his hand over the flask. He decomposed the bloom and added his mana, creating the workings of a new essence. “It’ll hurt like hell, and I doubt it tastes good, but it should work.”

“Are you going to put my babies through pain?” Sledge asked, her voice carrying a flinty edge.

Theo reached out, feeling the souls of the baby marshlings. Each felt like putty. He doubted it would take more than a suggestion to bind their souls to Tero’gal. “Nope, I think they’ll adapt on their own. If all my theories are correct.”

Sledge gave Tresk a concerned look.

“He knows what he’s doing,” Tresk said. “Just trust the nice demon.”

The essence bubbled in the flask. Theo didn’t want to tell Sledge this mixture was closer to ‘Reforge Soul on Hard Drugs’ rather than a pleasant way to say it. He suspected the process would be almost instant. But all the pain would come at once.

“I trust the demon,” Sledge said, sagging.

“Good, because there’s no better demon,” Theo said, forcing his will on the potion. He withdrew another flask and got to work on the second half. “This might be my first time making this potion, but the concepts are familiar. Xol’sa drank a version of this, and he’s fine.”

“If you say so,” Sledge said.

“She’s just ready to go,” Tresk said. “Get the potion done, buddy.”

Between his Willpower and his new skill, Theo made quick work of the potion. I combined the exact concepts of the Reforge Soul potion, and cranked the power up to an absurd degree. The feeling he had about this one was that it should happen quickly. Almost instantly, with any luck. He gave the potion one last swirl, nodding with approval.

“That’s it,” Theo said, holding the potion up to the light. “We can go whenever you want.”

“Now. Yesterday,” Sledge said.

“Okie dokie,” Theo said, spreading his aura out.

“I’ll watch the babies,” Tresk said, nodding at the gaggle of ravenous creatures. “Hope backup arrives soon.”

Folding the void over onto itself again, Theo teleported him and Sledge to Tero’gal. They appeared outside the recently developed landscape of Boar Hollow and she sagged. The alchemist caught the marshling and hoisted her into a princess carry.

“Tired, aren’t ya?” Theo asked, nodding at Belgar in the distance. He was already jogging over, waving like an idiot.

“I got a house ready,” Belgar said, looking down at Sledge and grimacing. “Is she okay?”

“She should be fine,” Theo said, turning his senses to her soul. Wisps of it were already snaking off, searching for a connection to Tero’gal. He wondered if they would eventually make a connection without his help. “Lead the way.”

Belgar had transformed Boar Hollow from a small reception town to something greater. Many people now lived there, and Theo couldn’t deny how much it looked like Broken Tusk. He appreciated how they had gone with stone and timber buildings with painted wooden roof tiles. Although the style was similar to that back home, they had incorporated a lot more decorated wood into both the structures and the streets.

Theo looked at the effigy carved in a pole of wood outside a building. Belgar was gesturing for him to enter, but he hesitated. “Is that a goat?”

“I’m not sure,” Belgar said, stepping over to get a better look. “A pozwa?”

“Not enough horns or feathers,” Sledge groaned. “Can we get this over with?”

“Inside we go,” Theo said, leading the way. Belgar came in right behind him. “We’re ready for her kids, right?”

“I had a metal playpen constructed for the purpose,” Belgar said, rushing forward to pull covers from a bed he had arranged in the room’s center. “It is a local metal alloy. Very durable.”

“Okay. Let’s get this done.”