Chapter 564: Fragments

As soon as Sticky voiced her assent to his request, Noah called upon Empty Proliferation. The Mind rune might have been made to defend himself against Wizen and other mind mages, but it also served a very useful second purpose of letting him knock on the figurative door of someone else’s mindspace.

The Rune was nowhere near as effective as a Mind Meld Potion. The maximum amount of time Noah could keep it going was probably no more than ten minutes if his target wasn’t actively trying to shunt him out of their mind, but it was free — and he didn’t have to carry a bunch of vials around with him everywhere he went.

His mind prickled as it brushed against Sticky’s, but her soul was so weak that there was almost no delay before his consciousness entered the small demon’s mind.

Color bloomed all around him. Gentle blue-green water spilled across the ground and formed into a deep ocean, as smooth as a mirror and still as a painting. Ripples of energy rolled out as Noah’s feet alighted upon its surface.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Gentle light shone overhead, illuminating the cloudless sky. There didn’t appear to be any source for it. The light was simply there. It warmed Noah’s skin and wrapped around his body like a comforting blanket.

In summary, it was the least demon-like soul that Noah had ever seen. Even his own soul felt like it fit the bill better than hers. Then again, given what Sticky was, perhaps this was the most demon-like soul that he’d ever seen.

Noah’s neck craned back. There wasn’t a single rune floating anywhere. Her soul was completely and utterly empty. He’d known that to be the case, but it still felt odd. Incomplete.

This is... odd. Shouldn’t Weave be here somewhere? Wizen definitely didn’t keep it. I saw the rune in Sticky’s eyes.

Now isn’t the time to worry about it. Perhaps it managed to hide itself somehow.

His eyes lowered back to the surface of the sea.

Sticky stood across from him, looking up with wide, nervous eyes. Her hands were tight at her sides. She wanted to hope, but she couldn’t let herself do it. Not yet — but Noah would fix that.

“What do I have to do?” Sticky asked.

“For now? Just stand around while I have a look at you,” Noah replied. His senses crawled across the ocean and reached into the sky.

There was a pattern hidden somewhere within this still world. It wasn’t a question of if it existed. Even human souls were patterns. Noah had seen that in his own soul, even if it didn’t fully qualify as a normal mortal one anymore.

He hadn’t even realized the pattern existed before he’d managed to harness a tiny portion of that pattern to mistakenly make his Fragment of Self. But now he did — and in theory, this was even easier than a human soul.

Demons were their runes. Sticky existed. And, thus, she had a rune that represented her. Noah just had to find it and carve a little chunk free with Sunder.

And so he searched.

Sticky watched on quietly.

Noah’s domain swept through Sticky’s mind in pursuit of magic. Seconds ticked by and turned to a minute. His mind and his logic warred. To his magic, there was nothing. Sticky’s soul appeared barren and empty.

It seemed as if there was nothing there, but Noah didn’t believe that for a second. There was a pattern. Everything had a pattern. Sticky was not so great an anomaly that she could somehow break every single law of magic that Noah had learned since he’d arrived in Arbitage.

I just need to figure out where it’s hidden. It has to be here somewhere. Maybe buried deep within the ocean, or hidden somewhere within the sky? She’s tricky. I’ll give her that. But there’s a rune here somewhere, and I’m not leaving until—

And then he saw a flicker

Noah’s eyes widened. He blinked several times as his mind adjusted. Noah banished his domain, pulling the magic back and looking on with only his eyes. He’d been looking at her soul the wrong way.

“I... don’t understand.”

“That’s fine. You don’t have to understand. I know you’re content with how things are. But is this really all you want? There’s nothing more in life you want than to die?”

Sticky stared up at him. At the energy in Noah’s outstretched palm. She swallowed.

“No. I don’t want to die.”

“Then change your fate.”

The demon’s features set. She extended her hand toward Noah.

Traces of light lit around Sticky’s fingertips. The power intensified and buzzed around her palm like a hive of angry bees. Flickers of magic slipped away from the energy Noah had gathered from Sticky’s soul and transformed into streamers of light that wove around her fingers like gray threads.

Sticky’s hands clenched into fists. The rest of the energy ripped away from Noah and gathered around her. A tiny prickle of pressure pushed into Noah. Two lines of gray light sliced into the air.

The strokes of a rune. They burned in the air, buzzing with silent power. More strokes followed after, swirling out to begin taking the shape of a rune. Wind howled past Noah and gathered around the small demon in a vortex.

Tremors shook Sticky’s hands as she fought to control the power. It might have only been a Rank 1 Rune, but she’d never had a rune to call upon before.

She needs a push.

“Say it,” Noah yelled over the growing howl. “What do you want? If you could have anything in this world, what would you choose?”

Sticky’s hands clenched.

The wind stopped.

“I want to live.”

The final stroke of the rune carved through the air.

Yes!

A brilliant flash of gray lit the small demon’s mindspace.

Noah staggered back, blinded, as a wave of crackling energy rolled past him. It buzzed against his skin and curled through his hair like an electric current. He raised a hand, blinking furiously and squinting through his fingers until his vision returned.

And then he saw it.

Noah’s face split apart in a smile.

Floating between him and the small demoness was a small gray Rune — and he could read it perfectly.

Fragment of Sticky