“A Fragnt of Self.” Lee turned the word over in her mouth like it was a fine wine, then nodded slowly. “So all I’ve got to do is make one of those?”
“Yes, exactly. Making a Fragnt of Self is the first step. I don’ t know if that’ll solve everything, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be a move in the right direction. Right now, you’ve got sobody else’s intent mixed in with your own. I can’t even begin to imagine how much that’s screwing things up. There are so many potential problems it could cause.”
“That makes a lot of sense. The only way to find out what’s wrong with would be to have sothing we can compare it against.” Lee nodded sagely and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I’ll make a Fragnt of Self.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t think it should be too dangerous,” Noah said with what he hoped to be a comforting smile. “It’s just a representation of you.”
“That’s good.” Lee was silent for a mont. Then she cleared her throat. “Noah?”
“Yes?”
“How do I make a Fragnt of Self?”
Noah opened his mouth and raised a hand. Then he paused. His finger lowered. He’d made his Fragnt of Self by, well, killing himself. That was generally how he made most of his strongest runes.
Lee — obviously — couldn’t do that.
“That… is a good question,” Noah said slowly. A frown crossed his lips and his brow furrowed in thought. He braced his elbows against his knees and interlaced his fingers, resting his chin upon them. “My Fragnt of Self ford when I drew on the energy that cos out of my gourd to create my new body. It got caught up in the Warped Matter Rune I was trying to make.”
Lee looked down at herself. She pinched the skin on her arm and pulled at it slightly. “Maybe I could cut it out of myself.”
“No!” Noah exclaid. “God, Lee. That is fucking horrifying. You are not carving a rune out of flesh.”
“Isn’t that basically what you did?”
Noah paused for a second. If they were going to get really abstract, Lee wasn’t exactly wrong. The smoke turned into his flesh. But it was energy, and that was the difference. He also wasn’t about to let Lee start stabbing herself willy-nilly.
“Not really. I am going to very hesitantly agree that you’ve got the right concept, but the execution is absolutely wrong,” Noah said. He uncrossed his hands and rose to his feet, shaking his head firmly. “You’re not cutting chunks of yourself out to do this. It wouldn’t help. Making a Rune from scratch needs three elents. Intent, power, and an inciting energy.”
“Intent is easy if it’s just a rune that represents . It’s the other two things that are the problem. What if I cut a piece of myself off and set it on fire? That would make energy.”
“You are not mutilating yourself!” Noah snapped. He was starting to get an idea of how Moxie felt when she saw him coming up with a plan, and he wasn’t so sure he liked the forced self-reflection.
“I have to do sothing! You found a way for to change my runes! I have to take it!” Lee protested, her hands clenching at her sides and shoulders stiffening.
Noah stepped forward and set a hand on her head. Lee’s gaze broke from his and dropped to the floor as her shoulders slumped.
“It’s okay, Lee,” Noah said. “We’re going to find a way to do this. Just because you can’t do horrible things to yourself doesn’t an there isn’t a path forward.”
Lee wiped at her nose with the back of a hand. “What if it doesn’t work?”
“Then we’ll find so healing potions and you can give that idea of yours a try,” Noah said with a heavy sigh, swearing to himself that he would absolutely never let that opportunity co to pass.
“Really?”
How did my life get to this point? Why are you excited to stab yourself?
“Let’s just focus on the other options first, shall we?” Noah suggested, ruffling Lee’s hair.
“Kay!” Lee said, looking up at him from beneath his hand and grinning. “So what else can we try?”
“Well, you can get the energy you need from breaking a bunch of Runes,” Noah mused. “That’s not really a roadblock. It’s easy enough to get those. We can just kill a bunch of demons in the Wastes or buy so trash off soone. The conversion rate might not be great, but it’s fine.”
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“So the big problem is the inciting energy thing?”
“Yeah. Using the energy that ca from my body re-forming worked really well for , even though it was completely unintentional. If we could sohow harness sothing similar for you, maybe it would work.”
“Would that even work for ? It’s your energy. If I was sohow able to use it to form a rune, wouldn’t it just have the sa issues that my runes currently do?”
Noah pursed his lips. Lee had a point. His energy had co from the gourd reforming his body. It was too specific to him. There was a chance Lee could commandeer it, but it would probably end up just replacing Decras’ rune with one of his own. Lee needed sothing that was completely beyond anyone’s influence other than her own.
“Using my energy may not be the best solution,” Noah allowed. “I think it’s a possibility. Any improvent is better than what you’ve got right now — but there’s got to be sothing else that can replace it. Sothing more unique to a demon, or to you.”
“Eating?” Lee asked hopefully.
“I think you might need a bit more than that. It has to have energy you can draw from,” Noah said.
Lee’s face fell. “Okay. Let think.”
“Take all the ti you need. We don’t have to find a solution imdiately. Just having a path forward ans a lot. We can keep an eye out for—”
“I’m done thinking.”
“That fast?” Noah’s eyes widened and he rose from his chair slightly. “You figured sothing out?”
“No. I couldn’t think of anything. Demons don’t use external sources of energy. I don’t know what to think about. We don’t even really start using external magic until around Rank 5. What should I be looking for?”
Noah let out a sigh and shook his head. He sank back into the chair. “I don’t know that part yet, Lee. The energy doesn’t have to co from you. It just has to be sothing we can harness. Death was just the easiest way to access it for . Is there so location in the Damned Plains that might sohow lend itself toward helping you… get more you?”
“What does that even an?”
“I’m not really sure,” Noah admitted sheepishly. “Is there so demon of ditation or sothing like that? Soone who’s really in touch with themselves.”
“You want to kill them and take their power?”
“I was more thinking to ask them for advice. Maybe there are so enlightened mountains full of peace energy that helps you connect with your deeper self sowhere down here.”
“Soone definitely would have attacked sothing like that if it existed. I doubt it would still be around. If it was, it would probably be incredibly difficult to find.”
“Can’t have shit in the Damned Plains,” Noah muttered.
“Don’t be sad. It’s okay.” Lee gave Noah an optimistic smile. “You’re right. We’ll find sothing. Maybe there’s an artifact full of magic I can use. If not, I’ll just fix everything up back in the mortal realm. There’s definitely sothing up there that can help . We can just keep an eye out.”
Aren’t I the one supposed to be reassuring her? Why is it other way around?
“Sothing seems like it got mixed up here,” Noah said, chuckling as he rose to his feet. “But that’s the attitude we need. We know so little about the world. About how everything works. That’s not entirely bad. We might be in the dark, but that just ans we have a lot to discover. We can find a way forward. It might be this. It might be sothing else. I don’t know what it is, but we’ll find it.”
“Yeah.” Lee nodded. They were both silent for a few monts. Then Lee cleared her throat. “Are you sure you can’t give a piece of your runes?”
Noah chuckled. “Even if I could, I don’t think it would really help you. I don’t want to replace Decras’ influence with my own. Who knows what that could cause. You might start killing yourself. But there is one thing…”
He lifted his hand and drew on his energy, tracing a glowing purple line through the air with a finger. Lee watched with rapt attention as Noah drew the shape of the Fragnt of Self before her.
“What is that?” Lee asked.
“My Rune,” Noah replied, taking a step back to let Lee take in the glimring magic before it faded away. “Can you read it?”
“Fragnt of Noah Vines.”
Noah grimaced. “I thought as much. It reads differently to everyone who sees it. To , this says Fragnt of Self.”
“I can’t use it, then.”
“Probably not,” Noah said. He waved a hand through the glowing lines and they curled around his fingertips, blowing away like smoke. “But it’s okay. It answers one more question. Decras’ runes function the sa way, and the Minuscule Fragnt of Decras is just a really small Fragnt of Self. It ans you don’t have to do anything different than I did to make my rune. I didn’t stumble into it completely on accident. Once we find that inciting energy, you’ll be able to make your rune. Until then, you’ve got sothing else to prepare.”
“I do?”
Noah nodded. “You need to really look into yourself and figure out what makes you, you. The Fragnt of Self is literally a representation of you as a pattern. No point finding inciting energy if you haven’t determined who you really are. Not your emotions. Not your desires or what you like doing. You.”
Lee looked down at herself, then scratched at her leg. “I’m going to need a mirror and so advanced stretching techniques.”
Noah sighed. “Not literally, Lee. Figuratively.”
She grinned. “I know. I’ll think on it. Thanks, Noah. For doing all of this. You didn’t have to.”
“I did. We’re friends, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t,” Noah said with a firm shake of his head. “Thank by finding a way to pull this off.”
“I will,” Lee promised.
“Good. I’ll hold you to that.” Noah returned Lee’s smile. “I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to help you figure yourself out, but if there’s anything I can do—”
“It’s fine. That’s sothing I need to do myself. I’ve already been thinking on it anyway. Now isn’t the ti.” Lee shook her head, then fanned her hands out. The air shimred and a deck of cards took form in her grip. “There’s so ti left in the potion.”
“You know how to play cards?” Noah asked, blinking in surprise.
“Jalen taught .”
“When did — oh, never mind.” Noah laughed as a table took form between them and his chair pushed into the backs of his legs. He sat down across from Lee. She deserved a break. There were much worse things to spend the last few minutes of a Mind ld potion doing than relaxing. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
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