Chapter 517: Heart to heart

Chapter 517: Heart to heart

“Oh, shit,” Noah said. “Didn’t see that one coming.”

Noah then froze, as he hadn’t actually said anything. That did nothing to change the fact that he’d most certainly just heard himself speak.

“What the—”

“Fuck?”

Noah spun toward the source of his voice and found himself face to face with... Noah. A complete and utter copy of him, down to a stray hair sticking out from the top of his head. They stared at each other for several seconds in stunned silence.

“Yeah, no,” Noah said. “That’s not happening. You did not just finish my sentence.”

“I’m pretty sure I did,” Noah replied, scratching his chin as his brow furrowed. “Or did you finish mine?”

“You finished mine, and you did it wrong. I was going to say, ‘what the hell’. You got it wrong.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“No, you didn’t,” Noah admitted. He thrust a finger at the other Noah, who returned the gesture. Their eyes narrowed in unison and their hands lowered back to their sides.

“Are you copying me now?” Noah asked, upon which Noah’s — the other one — fingers twitched.

“We are not getting into this. There isn’t even anyone else here, so there’s no point doing some weird shape-stealer bullshit,” Noah said, crossing his arms. “Seriously. What the hell is going on? And who are you? You’re not me. I’m me. You’re someone else.”

“No, I’m most definitely you.”

They paused for a second.

“Okay, this is getting confusing.”

“Quite.”

“You’re Noah-2. I’m Noah-1.”

“Why do you get to be Noah-1?”

“Because you’re in my damn head. You — what, came from the Rune I just made? Is that even possible?”

“No clue,” Noah-2 replied, scratching the back of his head and letting out a huff. “And how could you have made the rune? I made it. Not you.”

“Don’t even try that.” Noah glared at his double. “I am not so easily gaslit.”

“Okay, I was fucking with you. You did make it,” Noah-2 said with a snicker. The smile fell away from his features a moment later. “I really am Noah, though. At least, I’m pretty sure I am. I know I’m not you you, but I am you.”

They were silent for another few moments.

“That was a bit confusing, wasn’t it?” Noah-2 asked.

“I’m going to bash you over the head with a rock.”

“I’d probably try that too if I were you. Which I am. Kind of. Unfortunately, no rocks here.” Noah-2 cast his gaze around the shadows of the mindspace around them. “And even if there were, I’m not so sure it would actually do anything. I don’t get the feeling that I’m alive.”

“How’s that?” Noah asked suspiciously. “Didn’t you just claim to be me?”

“What would you have done if you just suddenly found yourself existing in another variation of yourself?”

“I would have tried to — wait. You tried to leave my mindspace?” Noah glared at the other Noah. “To what, take over my body?”

“Of course. It’s what you would have done.”

“Fair point,” Noah admitted. It was a little difficult to get too mad when that was the exact step he would have taken if he’d been in his clone’s position. “I take it that failed?”

“Completely. I don’t exist outside of our mindspace,” Noah-2 said, tapping his foot on the ground and letting out a sigh. “Which means you’re probably actually Noah-1. So that leads me to my next question. What the hell am I?”

They both looked over at the Fragment of Self.

“Not exactly a difficult guess,” Noah said.

“Doesn’t tell us much either,” Noah-2 said.

“Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way,” Noah muttered. “If this was something that could be brute forced, I’m sure Azel would have done it to Lee. Maybe we have to be subtle.”

“Subtle is not our specialty.”

“Well, we’ll have to adapt then. I’m not going to give up and let Lee get stuck where she is forever — and that’s assuming her rune doesn’t destroy her — because subtle isn’t my specialty.”

The other Noah winced. “Yeah. You’re right. How can we be subtle, though? We tried connecting to the Rune. It didn’t do anything. If we don’t know how to use the rune, then we can’t do anything with it.”

It was several seconds before Noah responded. “We might not know what it does, but maybe we’re going about this the wrong way.”

“We’ve been trying to separate it. That seems like the right way to me.”

“Yeah, and maybe that’s the problem,” Noah mused, rising to his feet slowly.

“I thought we just agreed not to give up,” Noah-2 said.

“I’m not giving up.” Noah approached the merged runes until he stood a foot away from them, their pressure winding around his chest like a constricting snake. “What if that’s our mistake? I mean, the Fragment of Self is literally a rune that’s meant to represent me. A portion of me at the least. If I want to control that...”

“You want to try and pull it back into your soul instead of cut it out?” Noah-2 asked, his eyes lighting up. “That’s genius. We’re so smart.”

“Tell me about it,” Noah agreed. “You... well, stand there, I guess. It’s not like you can do much.”

“Just pretend I’m Moxie. I can be moral support.”

“I’ll pass.” The corner of Noah’s lip curled up and he let out a slow breath, letting his eyes close for a moment as he steadied himself. He’d tried to grab the Fragment of Self so many times that he was already more than used to the uncomfortable prickling energy that attacked his insides when he touched it, but that didn’t mean he liked it.

Then his eyes opened again and he extended his hand. He rested it on the surface of the black strands of his soul. Energy poured into Noah, but instead of trying to find a way to wrest it away or control it, he pushed back.

Noah drove his intent into the rune, shoving the energy aside as he turned all the runic pressure he had to bear into the Fragment of Self. His vision focused in until the only thing before his eyes were the two merged runes.

His runes. Even if he didn’t know what one of them was, the other was a part of his soul. He didn’t need to understand what the Fragment of Self did or how it worked. It was a part of him. They were one and the same.

A river of chills rolled down Noah’s spine as a dull chime echoed through his soul.

All the rushing energy ground to a halt. Distant echoes rung in his ears and an odd feeling washed over his body as the world swayed. He could hear his heart beating in his chest and the blood rushing in his ears. Then even that stopped.

There was only silence. The rune did nothing, but not because it didn’t work. It did nothing because it was already working. It always had been.

Noah’s hand dropped to his side.

“Oh,” Noah breathed, unable to keep a faint laugh from slipping free of his lips as he finally realized what the rune truly was. He turned to Noah-2, who watched him with an inscrutable expression. “Seriously? The first guess I made was basically right.”

“Hardly. You used it the wrong way,” Noah-2 replied with a faint smile. “Took you long enough.”

The Fragment of Self was nothing like the other runes he possessed. It was him. Or at least, a portion of himself. It was the connection between his body and his soul. The rune was the passageway that let him access the rest of his runes, but it was more than that. It was everything he desired. Everything he was. It was literally him.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Noah asked. “Did you know?”

“I didn’t know anything more than you do.” Noah-2 shrugged. “I figured it out when you did. I’m just a fragment, Noah. You made me. Splintering a section of your soul off can hardly be healthy, but it’s a damn good way to get a look at yourself. Did you like what you saw?”

“Not answering that one. I’m more than aware we only get philosophical when we’re bullshitting.”

“Got me there.” Noah-2’s eyes changed. Something swirled deep within them. A vine bed. The outside world.

Noah extended a hand — not to the rune, but to Noah-2. “Until next time, Noah-2.”

“What makes you think there’ll be a next time? I only came into being because your mind needed a way to represent everything... well, you.”

“Because I’m remarkably good at screwing up, and you’re me,” Noah replied. “I reckon it won’t be long.”

Noah-2 laughed. He lifted his hand and clasped Noah’s. “I suppose you’re right. Until then, Noah-1.”

A ripple passed through Noah’s soul and his clone vanished. He was alone once more, but things had changed. His soul felt different. More vibrant. It was as if all his senses had been dialed up.

Noah looked back to the pair of conjoined runes floating before him. He’d been trying to split the Fragment of Self off this whole time, when what he should have been doing was the exact opposite.

He couldn’t cut a piece of himself off. It would have been like removing a portion of his personality. Fortunately, Noah didn’t have to. Fragment of Self didn’t have to be removed. It had to be taken back.