Chapter 264: Very simple was my explanation

My thoughts grind to a halt, and I turn to Suri in disbelief.

“Hold on, you mean the stars Starmother made... are weapons?”

“Well of course,” Suri chimes haughtily in reply. “What did you think they were, decoration?”

I share a glance with Kaitlynn, whose eyes look as big as mine feel, and my mind flashes back to the beams of pure Cold that erupted from Big Bortha back during our Seventh Trial.

Back then, after barely managing to push Kait aside at the last moment, I nearly died to a stray beam myself...

I clear my throat. “No, yeah, I guess it makes sense. Anyway, that’s... scary. But good to know.”

“Indeed,” Goddess intones. “Your insights into Mara and Peilinor are already proving invaluable. Is there any other kind of assistance you could offer us?”

Suri raises a brow. “Well, I’m sure there is,” she chimes dryly. “But for the best results, I would recommend being a little more specific about what kind of assistance you require.”

Goddess actually smiles at that, ever so slightly. It’s a little unnerving.

Still, this is an opening I’m not about to pass up. “Actually, I do have something to request, Suri. If we’re going to save our friends, we might very well end up needing a means to keep them alive in Spiritual Realmspace, so... I was hoping you could teach me that umbilical cord technique the Peilor use to feed others Espir.”

A spark of interest appears in the eyes of Goddess. “We, too, have long been eager to find out how this is done.”

Huh. Even Goddess doesn’t know how they do it , then...

The value of this knowledge just rose significantly in my regard.

Suri folds her arms over her chest and purses her lips. “I believe you’re referring to what is known as the Blank Space technique. I suppose I don’t mind trying to teach you, but I have to warn you it’s quite difficult, and it took me a long time to master. There are actually very few Peilor who have; my mastery of it is one of the reasons I made it onto the show, as it was a requirement.”

My brows rise for a moment. “Right, you wouldn’t be able to do Skilldreams without it, would you?”

“Exactly. Mastery of all the Skills and how to teach them was also a prerequisite, of course, though there were definitely differences between participants regarding that. I like to think I’m a pretty good teacher.”

“You are,” I admit softly, suddenly hit by a strange sense of nostalgia.

How I could ever miss the days I spent in the Trials is beyond me, but somehow, thinking back to the time I spent learning how to wrangle the mysterious energies of their Realm... well, I guess it wasn’t all bad.

“Yes, well,” Suri chimes, awkwardly. “I suppose I had a pretty decent student. However, this technique may be beyond what I can teach you, at least in the kind of time frame you like to learn things.”

I frown. “Why?”

“Because it involves sectioning off a portion of your Essence inside of your Core,” she replies. “Which, subsequently, needs to be kept strictly contained and quarantined from the rest of your Essence. Only once you can manage that, can you attempt to entirely scrub the identity off the contained Essence, so that it becomes a kind of ‘neutral’ Essence. That, is the ‘Blank Space,’ and the neutral Espir it produces is quite special. It will conform to whatever it’s added to, whether that’s your own spiritform, or that of another being.”

So that’s how it works!

“Incredible,” Akir mutters after a beat of silence.

“Truly a fascinating technique,” Goddess agrees, her eyes dark and unfathomable.

Already, my mind is racing with possibilities. It sounds difficult, but not undoable!

However, that’s when Kaitlynn bites her lip, shakes her head, and says, “Emma, you can’t use it.”

I turn to her—as does the rest of the room—blinking in surprise. “Ehm... why not?”

“Because your Essence is still contaminated.”

My jaw drops, before I shut it again with an audible clack.

That’s... a good point.

A sectioned-off portion of neutral Essence like that would be as irresistible to the foreign Essence in my Core as Trisha’s lemon squares are to me. And if a little contaminant managed to get in and convert the rest...

Worse, if a little bit of leftover Gary managed to get inside, it’d be like an incubator for my garish alter ego.

I let out a sigh. “You’re right, there’s no way I can try that anytime soon. Hell, it might take months or even years of dedicated meditation before my Core is clean enough for me to risk it. Even you shouldn’t try, Kait.”

She nods, looking disappointed but relieved that I agree.

“I hadn’t considered that,” Suri muses, a mild frown on her face. “I suppose it’s a good thing I haven’t partaken in too much Essence. That could’ve ended quite badly.”

“I would like to request that you teach Trisha this technique,” Goddess states, managing to make it sound less like a request and more like a given that Suri would.

And indeed, after the slightest hesitation, Suri bows her head in silent acquiescence.

“Excellent,” Goddess intones, clearly in a good mood. “Trisha?”

“I’m already running a couple of experiments, Your Highness,” the aquamarine snail-lady answers happily. “I’m sure that with Miss Suri’s help, I’ll figure it out in no time.”

Right, she can try this technique in parallel in several drones, as they each have their own Core... Perks of being a hive mind, I guess.

Goddess nods. “I’ll have you instruct me on the finer points of the technique later; for now, the priority is to make sure we can sustain any spirits captured or rescued from Material Realmspace indefinitely. I trust this will be quite beneficial to the plans of our human allies.”

I gratefully incline my head to her. “It definitely will. Thank you, Your Highness—and Trisha, of course; we’re in your debt.”

Trisha smiles her toothless smile, her eye stalks wobbling happily. “Oh, it’s no problem dear,” she practically purrs as her quill scratches over the paper.

Something tells me I just added this favour to my ledger. Crap.

“What a crazy technique,” Marty mutters, seemingly to himself, as he fiddles with his monocle. “Can I ask how it was invented and why?”

“I actually don’t know,” Suri chimes after a moment, sounding mildly surprised at the realisation. “Well, the who, at least—it’s a rather ancient technique. I have heard it was originally developed to boost the mental capabilities of host-creatures; it’s actually still mainly used for that, the idea to use it to sustain spirits brought along to the Realm of Imagination is relatively new, and I believe Starmother is the one who came up with that.”

Suddenly, something sparks in my mind. Dots line up and seem to connect a little too well to be a coincidence.

However, there are holes in the picture that’s forming, so frowning in concentration, I speak up. “Hey, Suri... Explain something for me please. Back in the Yin-Yang Realm, you would sometimes perform a mind-meld with me, and it allowed you to read my thoughts, right? It was something you had to do to allow you to drag me into a Skilldream. But then when we got here, you no longer seemed aware what I was thinking. Why is that?”

“Ah, I understand your confusion,” Suri chimes politely, managing to make it sound only slightly condescending. “The mind-meld technique is actually an extension of what you know as Telepathy. It indeed allows for the reading of surface thoughts, but that’s based on studying Lavi Flows in the brain, rather than Espir. It does facilitate the forming of an Espir-based connection with the Blank Space Technique, however, which is the actual prerequisite for bringing a being with you into a Skilldream.”

The pieces start falling together faster and faster, and suddenly, I see the whole thing.

“Yes... yes, that’s it!” I exclaim, jumping up from the couch in my enthusiasm. “That’s how Starmother did it!”

Everyone’s staring at me, but I’m too hyped to care.

Goddess cocks her head to the side at a very precise angle. “How does Mara do what, Emma?”

I lick my lips, fighting to get the speed of my thoughts under control so I can convey them coherently. “Goddess, you told me you beat her badly the first time you fought, but then she came back much stronger, right? Except she didn’t have much denser Espir, she just had way more of it.”

“Correct,” Goddess replies with a nod.

“I hate to burst your bubble, Emma,” Agath suddenly huffs, shaking her head. “But it’s not the Blank Space technique. It can’t be. Because—”

“Because having more Espir is useless if you can’t control it, I know,” I interrupt. “What you need for that is a stronger Core, or...” I pointedly look at Trisha. “Or more of them.”

Goddess nods slowly. “You believe Mara is a hive mind. It’s a theory we’ve considered before, yes, as it would indeed explain why she has lots of Espir with relatively low density. However, it’s unclear how its possible for her to have become...”

She trails off, a flash of insight seeming to go off behind her eyes.

“Exactly,” I state, proudly folding my arms over my chest.

“Can somebody who does get it explain please?” Akir grunts after a moment.

“Right, sorry,” I quickly say, sheepishly dropping my arms and turning to him. “Here’s the thing: I think Mara turned herself into a hivemind by using the Blank Space technique against other Peilor. Basically, I think she either invades their Blank Spaces and uses those as a staging ground to take them over from the inside out. Or maybe that’s just how she started out... by now, she might be capable of forcibly removing the identity from all of a foe’s Essence, before she simply contaminates that Essence with her own.”

A silence falls over the Cinnamon Circle. Akir frowns, while Kaitlynn looks at me with wide eyes.

Agath clears her throat. “I apologise for speaking too soon. Your theory holds merit.”

“Certainly,” Marty glubs placidly. “But it’s still just a theory. Can we come up with any evidence that supports or gainsays it?”

I mull that over for a moment, then turn to Suri, who looks to be in deep thought. “Suri, have there been any mysterious disappearance of large numbers of Peilor, a long time ago?”

She seems to startle a little at my question, then frowns in concentration. “No, I’m quite sure... no, wait. There was, once. Back when the Voidcannon was in development, it misfired. Or so they claimed. Thousands of Peilor attending a gala were void-shifted, and they were never heard from again. The host opposed Starmother, come to think of it, so most of the guests probably did as well. There were whispers, even back then, that it wasn’t an accident at all, that she’d simply arranged for it to happen, but...”

Goddess sighs. “I always suspected she’d found a means to harness the power of her people, though I could never figure out how. If this is truly her method, it is more deplorable than I expected.”

“Well, I certainly wouldn’t put it past her,” Suri chimes darkly.

Akir squints his eye-slits together. “Hold on, even if she’s managed to turn other Peilor into copies of herself, that wouldn’t make her a hive mind yet, would it?”

I blink. “That’s true... But a mind-meld­ would solve that! Suri, does Starmother have an estate somewhere, or some kind of restricted zone, that only she is allowed to enter, and where she spends most of her time?”

Suri sighs. “She does. It’s called Starlight Palace, and it’s strictly off-limits.”

I snap my fingers. “Bingo. Maintaining a mind-meld requires close proximity, so I’m guessing the bulk of her Peilor-bodies is there at all times, and only her original body will sometimes leave to make a public appearance, serve as a mouthpiece for the hive.”

“Wait but if she really took over all of those Peilor, wouldn’t that make her both Yin and Yang?” Kaitlynn asks suddenly. “Shouldn’t that be impossible?”

We all turn to Suri.

She hesitates for a moment. “That’s an interesting question. Starmother is officially Yang... but if she copied her own mind into a Yin Peilor, I don’t think that would violate the Yin-Yang duality. For all intents and purposes, it would still be a separate being, just with a similar mind. And there’s nothing preventing Yin and Yang beings from mind-melding. In fact, Starmother being a Yin-Yang hivemind would go a long way in explaining how she managed to create something as ridiculous as the Twinstar.”

“Well then,” Marty glubs happily. “It sounds like we have a rather successful theory, then.”

However, my attention remains on Suri, as she suddenly freezes and goes rather pale.

Author's note:

Thanks for reading! ^^