The Dreamer's Fall

Chapter 37 - Dead Ends & New Paths

After his short conversation with Kyren, Arthur took out his research journal to clear his head. The familiar English words filled his sight as he read over his notes.

Arthur's journal was written in English since he was the language's sole proprietor on Nithe. His choice to use English for his notes added an extra layer of difficulty if someone attempted to gain insight from his journal.

Of course, the spellwork was still written in plain Aetherin. There was nothing he could do about that other than inserting some English words here and there to make anyone deciphering the spell a bit more frustrated.

Encrypting his spell work was a non-option for him, at least as far as his research journal was concerned. The necromancy spell was complex enough without Arthur deciphering it every time he needed to check his notes. As he told Kyren, he was just a regular guy, and that level of intelligence was beyond him.

The words the stranger mentioned about Arthur having a broken soul still rattled in his mind as he contemplated a solution to capturing a spirit. If he assumed his belief that the soul was what allowed the spirit to control a physical body was correct, then it may be possible for Kyren to simply hop into the mana core and bind his consciousness to it without Arthur's help.

However, Arthur didn't intend to test his hypothesis. There was no way of knowing its effects on Kyren should it succeed. He may even become trapped within the mana core, and Arthur would lose his boisterous guardian angel as a result.

Instead, Arthur needed to find another test subject to experiment on. Unfortunately, Kyren was the only ghost he had met, which meant he'd have to find a way to break a soul and free the bound spirit to which it was attached.

He'd also need to find a way to control said spirit or a method to capture them, as the unwilling volunteers likely wouldn't want to follow the commands of the boy who killed them. But, luckily for the people of Nithe, and perhaps unluckily for the animals, his experiments wouldn't require a human spirit. At least not yet.

Arthur looked up from his journal toward Kyren, who was floating around nearby. He attempted to use telekinesis on him without much luck.

Kyren's face distorted. "The shit you doing, kid?"

When his telekinesis had no effect, Arthur sighed. "Of course, it couldn't be that simple... Have you ever been affected by any spells since you became like this?"

Kyren looked up and thought for a moment. "...Not that I can remember. It's not like I was hanging around battlefields, though. I hung around libraries, remember? Not many spells being shot around in libraries."

Arthur hoped that a spell existed somewhere on Nithe that accidentally included some sort of astral interference without the creator realizing it. Otherwise, finding the correct assortment of letters in Aetherin would be like finding a needle in a stack of needles.

"What about any spell having to do with breaking a soul? Since the soul-severing poison exists, something else might have a similar effect."

"I didn't even know something like the soul-severing poison existed until you told me about it, kid. Besides, I doubt anyone would waste their time on a spell like that since spells that directly attack a mage are useless."

Arthur was aware of that fact. Mages naturally released a small amount of mana at all times, which acted like an aura. It had no effect on a spell that was launched toward them like a fireball, but it prevented an enemy's magic from forming directly on or inside their bodies.

As a result, a spell to stop an enemy's heart at a distance would be useless against a mage as the magic would be unable to form within their chests. Telekinesis had a similar limitation in that it couldn't be used to directly interfere with another mage. So Arthur would never be able to toss another mage around in a similar fashion to his hidden blades.