Waterstrider

Canvas Town, Tseludia Station, Pantheonic Territory, Fifthmonth, 1634 PTS

“So this is my soul…”

It was even smaller and more damaged than it felt. The remaining piece of a soul which had been sliced apart on numerous occasions and nearly dissolved on several others was misshapen and malformed. It was filed down to a nub. Any smaller and it might not be able to hold itself together or fulfill my requirements to practice martial arts. Moreover, the engrams had surely been so damaged that reincarnation would be impossible.

Still, I did not find myself worried about the lack of a next life. Matters in this one were far more worthy of my attention. Without my experiences and memories, I might as well be a different person entirely in such a scenario.

“The fact that you remain alive with it in such a state is rather impressive,” said Rachel. “Of all souls I have seen before, yours is the most unique.”

I barked a sharp laugh.

“Few would dare to be as reckless as I have been.”

“Few are even capable,” she added.

It was true. The Staiven and the Celans had only begun to develop technology that could interact with the shroud of one’s soul, and the Telaretians had long lost their own such technology. In the Pantheonic Territory, the only mortals who could safely cut away portions of their soul as I had were the practitioners of progression systems. And of those, there were few abilities such as my Soul Severance Art. Few would even attempt to develop them. After all, I was living proof of the consequences.

I felt at the shape of my soul with my senses, while simultaneously inspecting it with the visual Rachel had provided. It took me several minutes to adjust to the use of vision- I had never seen my soul in this way before. Still, I knew my soul quite well, so I was able to adjust.

“With this, I might as well begin now,” I muttered.

While it was important to be careful, I also knew that I could stabilize my foundation in the spirit refinement realm by initiating the refinement process. Each step along this path would bring my body and soul more in tune with one another, and grant me greater strength and control of my abilities. I needed to be as strong as possible if I wished to maintain my success. Especially given my upcoming plans. To balance myself between two opposing forces was a great risk. The assassination attempt I had previously survived was probably the mere first of many to come.

I took a deep breath, calming my mind. My awareness of Rachel’s presence faded, leaving nothing but the soft impact of the rain. My thoughts washed away with it, leaving behind nothing except the awareness of my body and my soul. I felt every inch of my body, and knew I could manipulate every muscle and fiber at will. I could feel the storm raging within my heart, could feel the rivers that it fed, coursing throughout my body, and splitting apart every time it was severed by ethereal nodes. I felt my soul, floating by me in a direction beyond the cardinal.

I breathed out, and time seemed to slow down. There were many methods of refining one’s soul. Each had its own advantages and disadvantages. Speed, risk, materials required, and other factors all influenced the decision. However, I only knew of two that were of the formless path.

The first method was called One With the Sea Refinement. It consisted of simply meditating on the flow of the ashatic currents and attempting to synchronize both one’s body and soul to their motions. The inherent dangers would be the soul merging into the currents entirely, annihilating itself in the process. The process was akin to carefully dipping a thin sheet of paper into water, and pulling it back up without tearing it. The process would need to be repeated numerous times as I further refined my soul. The unique benefit of this method would be the ability to reduce my presence, hiding from the senses of the souls of others.

The second method was more mysterious and complex. Known as the Thousand Soul Replica Refinement, it was not originally from the Downpour Sect. We had actually originally purchased it from another force generations ago. Thought it did not match perfectly with our sect’s vision of formless miasma, it was not impossible for us to practice it. I would need to shift the shape, structure, and composition of the outer layers of my soul to replicate that of another individual. The ultimate goal was to create a perfect replica in mere instants, over and over. Overall, this method was far safer, but to succeed without damaging one’s engrams was a task of extreme difficulty. The danger was of driving yourself mad. If I were to choose this method, I would need to do this numerous times replicating the souls of all sorts of different beings, until I could do so at a mere thought. Only a perfect replication would allow the refinement to take place, so given the current state of my soul, this method was not an option.

Of course, I could also use the traditional method of damaging my body to generate sanguine miasma to form a conduit. Said to be the first soul refinement method ever discovered, the Sanguine Rebirth Refinement Method was technically possible for all martial artists, not just sanguine practitioners. However, it was extremely dangerous, even by the standards of the other methods. Clearing out sanguine miasma from one’s wounds was a difficult and painful experience, much less if I were to willingly fill my entire body with it. The benefit of this method was merely the fact that everyone knew it had access to it if needed, though I would certainly not choose it for myself.

Ultimately, I was left with only the One With The Sea method. I was content with this, as this matched well with my attainments in meditation and understanding of my miasma. From my perspective, formless miasma was fundamentally entwined with water. While I knew that there was actually no direct relation between the two, such visualizations assisted in many ways. They made techniques easier to develop, soul senses more precise, and refinement easier. In essence, it was a framework for understanding the information one received subconsciously and allowing some of it to be put into action. The more precise it was, the better the result.

Despite having reached the spirit refinement realm, I could still not discern the differences between Rachel’s true body and a soul with just my soul sense. It simply was not precise enough to do so. Still, I could feel a soul very nearby. Distances in the spirit world were impossible to judge the further away from one’s own body, due to the distortion caused by the ashatic currents, but as Rachel’s conduit was right next to me as always, she was near enough to my soul for me to sense her location just fine. Unfortunately, with this refinement method, she would not be able to intervene if something went wrong. My life was in my own hands.

Somehow, I felt more comfortable that way.

I stretched out my senses, feeling the flow of the currents. They were wild and chaotic, filled with small ripples and eddies left by all of the souls with which they had collided.

The initial steps were trivial. As a formless practitioner, both my body and soul were more fluid than those of other practitioners. I could cause internal flow within my soul to match that of the river in what was once my meridians. I also shifted the nodes that were my soul severing core to match with the location of the shifts and eddies in the stream. However, this extent of correlation was not sufficient to refine my soul. I stood, raising my body upright with a hazy, flowing motion. My skin and bones shifted, warping to match with the currents of the world, as the tides of the river were raised and lowered. The pounding of the rain in my heart became the heartbeat of the world, and the outside world faded away even further.

The current grew in importance. I could feel my body move as I controlled every aspect of it. Even bone muscle, hair, and organs flowed according to my will, as my insides strained to accommodate the shifting of my cores. My soul writhed and squirmed in a manner that was just slightly off from my goal.

But it wasn’t enough. The profound motions of the heavenly energies were beyond me, my self control too limited to achieve my desired results. I shifted my bones further, and felt a sharp pain in my gut. I had accidentally crossed two rivers, causing them to overflow their banks and sear away at my internal organs. The injury was not severe, but the attempt was over almost as soon as it had begun.

I sighed as my senses of reality fully returned, taking another seat on the ground. As my senses returned, I once more felt the pounding beats of raindrops on my head. The attempt was a failure. I had known this would not be a simple process, but it seemed that there was a reason so many stalled in their efforts to refine their souls. It was both extremely difficult and extremely dangerous, with any mistakes at the critical moment capable of annihilating the practitioner or crippling them.

Rachel sat down in front of me in a relaxed manner as the rain continued to fall through her.

“Failure?” she asked.

I sighed and nodded, eyes unfocused.

“But I have an understanding of what to do next time.”

My shroud divorced me from the current, and I found it difficult to match with it without physically moving alongside it. However, what if I were to open my shroud, allow the current to pass through me? Wouldn’t I be able to become far more attuned to it? There was a risk of washing away my own soul, but this was not unexpected for this method. In fact, I believed that this is what my master had meant when he explained this method to me- being one with the sea. I was not to be a fish, but the waters themselves.

A martial artist would never progress if they feared to take risks. I would rest for a day to return myself to full condition, and then make another attempt.

Shroud: [The Shroud is a term for a type of ashatic membrane which surrounds the soul of a mortal. It holds in the ashata, preserving the vital structures such as the engrams which record trace records of the mortal’s mind. Shrouds mitigate the soul’s interaction with the ashatic currents of the Brink, allowing some energies to nourish the soul and forcing the rest to pass around. The function of the shroud of a mortal and the angote shell of an Osine seem to share certain similarities.]