After Falaen explained what she had experienced in the dark room, Jack examined the dungeon down to every brick looking for the mannequins Falaen saw. The only thing he could find was some strange pieces of porcelain and an energy residue that he could not immediately identify. He took the pieces for testing later, and then went to the dungeon core which had dug out the area and looked at its records to see what had happened with that area.
From it's records, he found that it had not actually carved out that particular area, as it was already open when it reached there. The core had marked it as a naturally formed cave, but looking at the data Jack saw it looked like it had actually been carved out by people. Given the age of it Jack assumed that it had been built at least forty thousand years ago, long before the temple above it was ever built.
In fact they had even made use of some of the original stone bricks that had been set in that place. Unfortunately besides that most of the other parts were completely destroyed by the manipulations of the core. Jack was unable to tell exactly how the original room looked like. Still something was there beyond his senses. Having no no desire to risk the safety of visitors to his dungeon he made the decision to seal away this section until he figured out what was going on.
Now that he identified what to look for, he discovered some of that energy residue on Falaen's back where she claimed to have been pushed. After that he informed Bella and the other base minds on what he had found. They said that they would keep out an eye for anything odd and would inform him should they find anything. Satisfied for the moment, Jack went on to one of the temples rooms to go to sleep.
Now that he was free of distractions he had found that he was now quite nervous. When Falaen had informed him that JP and the soul council were sending a dream to him, he found himself at a crossroads. He both liked and disliked learning more about his past, so he was immediately conflicted about it. Not to mention he had never had advance warning to a dream. It had been a while since he had dreamed of his past so he was unsure of what he would see in the dream.
Veronica had wanted to go with him, but he asked her to sleep in another room for the night. Jack appreciated her company, but this felt way too personal to share with her at the moment. He needed time to be alone to digest what he dreamed of. Closing the door, he looked towards the bed that took up most of the small room. Before they had left the city Jack had picked up enough supplies to help furnish the temple so it would be comfortable for the base mind and visitors.
The bed was simple, yet it was still comfortable. Sitting down he laid on it and stared at the stone ceiling. He briefly thought of the things that he would need to do tomorrow but shook those off. Taking a deep breath he let himself go and fell slowly asleep. It felt like he was falling and then he found himself pushing through a tunnel that was being torn apart. Blood was getting in his eyes, and a throbbing pain in his head told him he had been hit on the head. Still his past self ignored his injuries and yelled out calling his sisters name over and over.
He managed to get to a twisted metal door and got inside of a massive room. From what Jack was seeing, this was a continuation of one of his dream segments, where the accident took his sister. He could see space itself was twisting and tearing, sending energy waves throughout the place. The walls of the tunnel could not withstand the increased stress of what was occurring and was cracking and collapsing by the time Jack managed to enter the room from which the source of the energy seemed to be coming from.
Specifically it seemed to come from the center of this massive room in which a giant crystal was glowing a fierce orange color that hurt to look at. Throughout the room was equipment tossed around and broken, and tears in space that pulsated with the energy flowing through the room. Jack had to carefully move around one of these tears that seemed to be showing a constant explosion of gases. When he got into the room proper, he began to search looking for any sign of his sister.
While his past self was doing this, his current self recognized the energy as being creation energy. It reminded him of Maya's power, yet it was different as if it was being tortured into doing something it was not meant to do. Jack could see the threads of the power pouring from the crystal, and it was twisting and tearing the space opening ways to far away locations. Luckily there seemed to be a barrier across these portals to limit what could and could not come through.
Jack knew that the main controls for the giant crystal were in another room, however there was a backup near the crystal itself. Taking care to avoid the tearing of the energy as best he could, his past self went to the controls. The data screens were completely obscured to Jack, likely because his soul council was blocking his view of them. He typed something into the control and the crystal's constant hum dimmed quite a bit, but did not totally stop. Looking at the crystal, Jack could see that his past self had managed to stabilize the situation for the moment though he got the sense that it would not last long and would start to spin out of control again.
Once the immediate threat of spatial collapse had been postponed, Jack began to search for his sister. He checked every crevice of the room and eventually came to the conclusion that she must have fallen into one of the spatial tears. Most of them would have been instant death had she fallen into them. He was able to however narrow it down three portals that luckily looked like one could survive falling into. Going to the first one Jack picked up Alexia's notepad which he knew she carried with her everywhere. This portal was the most likely of the three where she had fallen. Through the portal Jack could see what looked like a forest filled with snow.
His past self hesitantly reached out and touched the rip in space. He could feel a slight shock as his fingers pushed through the mesh of space and entered into the world beyond. The other side felt cool against his fingers and gathering his courage Jack stepped through the portal. He had to slightly bend down to get through the portal, and when he stepped through his feet sank into the soft snow. As he was wearing a business suit, it felt quite cold in this world.
The trees looked very similar to fir trees, and Jack would have assumed he was still back on earth had there not been a massive planet overhead. Its surface was a mass of swirling brown and white gasses. While his past self was more concerned about the safety of his sister, his current self was still amazed by the beauty of it. Jack looked around and could see no tracks in the snow indicating that Alexia had not come here. Seeing no reason to remain he turned around and pushed against the tear.
A little worryingly this side had far more pressure he had to fight as he forced his way through the portal. Jack was still able to get through by pushing his full weight against it. As he passed through it felt like he was moving through thick water. He struggled until all of a sudden it seemed to pop and he fell into the laboratory his skin prickling as if he had just been jolted with a nasty static shock.
The first thing he noticed through the dream when Jack returned was that the energy from the crystal was starting to go wild again. His past self glanced at a nearby clock and saw while they had only been gone a few moments at least an hour and a half had passed back here. Jack frowned this meant time was going significantly faster through that portal. It was entirely possible that Alexia had actually gone into that portal, only for snow to cover up her tracks before he had managed to enter. His past self cursed and debated entering the portal again before deciding that he had to take the chance to check out the other portals first. He had wasted too much time already.
The next one was near the backup control console, and was the one most likely that Alexia would have fallen into had she been at the controls at the time of the accident. Taking a look through it, he saw that it was facing a stone wall that was lined with deep blue almost purple fabrics. The stones reminded him of a castle wall. Pushing his hand against the portal Jack found unlike the previous one the shock of this one made his arm feel numb.
Gritting his teeth, he continued forward and nearly crashed into the wall. His body screamed in agony and he had to take a few moments just to adjust to the pain in his body. When he was ready, he slid around the portal and found himself now standing inside a rather lavish room decorated in the fabrics and gold throughout the room. On one of the side walls was a fairly massive bed, on which a being must have been sleeping when he had come in and now was staring wide awake at him.
After a moment it leaped from its bed and approached Jack saying something that he could not understand. This strange being that Jack did not recognize looked incredibly odd. It stood just over Jack's height, and it had four arms that had numerous gold bracelets on them. He took note that a few of them had a weird greenish glow on them. On its head were four eyes that were glaring at him. It was wearing a sheer dress that looked like it was likely sleepwear. It was slightly transparent, which likely made his past self take note that this being had a fairly large pair of breasts on it.
Feeling a bit nervous his past self put up his hand and said "Um Hello? Would you happen to have seen a person like me except with long red hair come through?"
The being looked surprised briefly at Jack's speech then continued speaking a language that Jack could not make heads or tails of. Even his current self did not understand it. He could perceive a bit of the meanings, but actual words were completely beyond him. His past self began to gesture trying to communicate with the being. "I'm sorry, I do not understand what you are saying."
The being shook their head and made a frustrated sound. At that point it raised it's two upper arms and began speaking in a low tone. The words hurt his past self to listen too and even made his current self uncomfortable even if it was merely a dream. Observing this scene, he could see that this being was some form of magic that Jack was completely unaware of. It specifically utilized magical energy in ways that directly went against the laws of magic that he was familiar with on Mantaras.
A greenish magical glow enveloped her arms and Jack hesitantly backed up. At that moment it let the spell go, and it sent a surge of magical energy that surrounded Jack. He felt his past self-ears pop as the spell collected around him. Shaking his head, he heard the creature speaking and could understand it this time. "Do you understand me now, armless being?"
"I do, yet you're not speaking english, how is this possible?" Jack asked, confused.
"That was a simple translation spell taught to all nobility of the Kynsmarks Isles, even the weakest mage is able to cast it." It looked closer at Jack and said "I don't sense any magic within you. Tell me odd armless creature, how exactly did you enter my chambers, and what sort of magic is this thing?" It gestured towards the portal.
"Ah that? It's not actually magic." Jack said. He could feel his past self's hesitation. He apparently didn't believe in magic at that time of his life. "There was an accident and tore open a portal to this location. It was under no circumstances intentional and will cause no harm when it closes. In the accident it appears that my sister had fallen into one of these portals. I've come looking for her have you seen her?"
"I have not encountered another of your kind. I did not even hear this portal of yours open in the first place. As my chambers are currently secured there is no way that your sister could have left this room. So armless one, your sister is not here." The being leaned closer to Jack. It's four eyes looking Jack over. "I've never seen anything quite like you. Tell me what sort of creature are you?"
Jack stepped back and said "My name is Jack. As to what kind of creature that would be human. Thank you for telling me about my sister. Since she has not come this way, I must go back and search for her elsewhere."
The being reached out and grabbed Jack's face and pulled him closer to it. "Not quite yet armless Jack." At that moment a pulse of the greenish energy poured from the arm holding him. Jack suddenly found himself paralyzed. "I am Queen Helacarna, the first woman to rule over the Kynsmarks Isles. Though unfortunately my other family has disputed my authority and taken control of my own soldiers and have secured me into my chambers while they debate on what to do with me. I think they want to make me a puppet for I know the people still love me and would hate to see me killed."
Straining against whatever was gripping him in place Jack groaned in frustration as he found his muscles simply refused to move. The sole thing he could shift was his head. "What do you want?" He growled out annoyed.
Helacarna made a squawking sound that Jack took then to be her form of laughter. "I have never been asked that before. Even if you are not here willingly, I can appreciate the question. What I want is to put back onto my rightful place on the throne. However, I don't see how you could help with that at the moment. Rather I'm more interested in this portal of yours. If I know how to create something like this I would be able to speak to my people bypassing my cousins. I want you to tell me all that you know about it?"
"I don't mean to sound obnoxious when I say this, but for you to even begin to understand the complexities behind it would require me to spend at least a year teaching you the necessary mathematics. Which I do not have time to do as my sister is in danger right now and the device keeping this portal open is nearing criticality. In any event I doubt you would have the ability to replicate easily as it would take an immense amount of energy to create it, which would be hard to hide from your captors. I ask you to please let me go so I can find my sister." Jack said.
The Queen looked closer at Jack and let out a sigh and ran her fingers through Jack's hair playing with it. "I will let you go on one condition. You will give me something important of yours. I will keep it for you, and if you want it back, you will have to come and teach me about these portals. If you do not return, I will get to keep it."
Gritting his teeth, he said "Fine, if that will satisfy you I will give you something of mine. I will also promise to teach you all that I know about the portals as long as you let me go find my sister."
"If you agree to a magically binding contract on that promise I will agree to let you go." Helacarna said after a moment.
Jack glared at her for a moment and then said "Fine. But I will only promise that one the condition that I am allowed to go back through the portal. I may not return, so I might be unable to teach you."
Helacarna said "I have no worries about that. I feel as if the fates have made this connection possible. I am sure this meeting will lead to great things. I will release you now and perform the ritual."
As she said that she waved her two upper arms and the green glow released the hold on his body. Finding he could move again, Jack looked through what he had on his body that he could give to her. Jack felt she was quite intelligent, so he could not trick her with anything worthless. He caught sight of his watch, which was gold plated and undid the strap on it. He gave it to Helacarna and said "This watch was given to me by my sister. If you look on the bottom of it, you will be able to see an engraving. Will this be enough to satisfy your conditions?"
She took the watch from and glanced at it. After a few moments she placed the watch onto her arm and nodded. "Yes, I can feel the lingering sentiment in this item. This will satisfy my initial condition. Now for the ritual." She raised all her arms and began chanting in that language that made Jack's head hurt. After a bit a green circle appeared in the air with two smaller circles inside. "This is a binding contract. In return for letting you leave I will gain possession of this item until the time you teach me all that I want to know about these portals. To sign off place one of your arms into the smaller circles."
Not seeing much choice, Jack placed his arm through one of the circles as did Helacarna. The circle suddenly constricted forming a brief string of green energy between the two of them. Jack observing this through the dream saw that it had actually tied their two souls together in this contract. "Is that all Queen Helacarna?"
She was staring at her arm then shook her head and said "Go, good luck in finding your sister."
He entered the portal back to earth and found that at least a half-hour had passed since he had left. The orange crystals hum was beginning to ramp up again and some of the portals in the room were sending sparks out. Seeing that he did not have too much time left to search for his sister, Jack quickly moved to the last portal that Alexia could have fallen into.
Unlike the other two this one was horizontal and right above a table. Jack had to climb onto the table to take a look into the portal. It was hard to judge distance through the portal as the view was distorted, but it looked like a pretty large fall. He braced himself and jumped through the portal, and he fell nearly fifteen feet to the hard rock below. When he landed, he rolled to minimize the force of the impact, through this ripped up his clothes and he got some cuts on his skin on the sharp rocks.
Pushing himself off the volcanic rock ground as he took in a breath he coughed as the air burned his lungs from the intense heat. The air was rippling in the distance and plumes of yellow gasses popped up in the distance. A foul stench of sulfur made Jack nauseous. He could see a series of mountains in the distance that were sending out towering plumes of ash and fire. One of them was completely covered in lava. In the sky far above, he could see it was a massive rock sky with dripping lava down upon the ground below. In the sky far above, he could see it was a massive rock sky with dripping lava down upon the ground below.
As he looked up, he saw the portal and looking around could see no easy way to get back up to the portal. If his sister had fallen here, there would have been no easy way for her to climb back up. He took a look around for any evidence that Alexia had fallen here. While it was a bunch of stone so it was hard to tell, but it appeared that two different tracks went off in different directions. However what concerned Jack the most was the trace of blood he could see on the left most path.
Worried for his sister he took off jogging down the path. He began to make his way among the rocks and boulders being careful to avoid tripping and getting caught up on the sharp rocks. As he ran around a corner, he nearly ran straight over a cliff and into a large pool of bubbling lava. Skidding to a halt he looked around and saw a trail of blood going up a short path against a cliff.
The trail was perilous, rocks kept tumbling from above as under the constant quakes the land was experiencing and several times he had to press himself against the cliff face just to make it across. Along the way he kept spotting more blood, to the point he was alarmed with just how much he had seen. When he finally crested the cliff, he found a figure laying on the ground. "Alexia,'' he cried out and ran towards the figure and carefully flipped her onto her back. Getting a look at her face, Jack frowned as he did not recognize her at all.
She was wearing a labcoat that bore his company's logo, yet he had never seen this woman before and he was familiar with all the personnel that worked in the building. She could have been from one of the other locations but only a few of the researchers had access to the inner laboratory so he now had an idea how this woman could have ended up here. In fact the only two people scheduled to be in the laboratory were his sister and her wife.
Her clothes were badly scorched, and she didn't appear to be breathing. Checking for a pulse he found he didn't feel anything, she was dead. Through the torn clothes he found a nasty stab wound from which she must've bled to death from. He quickly checked her pockets and found one of his company IDs in her pocket with a matching picture of her face on it. Through something about it looked off, he resolved to have it checked out. The only other thing in her pockets was a black device that looked like a piece of it had been broken off.
Unable to help the woman Jack was about to leave when he saw something on her wrist. It was a tattoo, three sevens above a strange looking symbol that Jack did not recognize. His past self seemed to know what it meant and a fury rose within him and he let out a series of curses. He pulled out a device out of his pocket and fiddled with a glowing screen before aiming it at the tattoo. Seconds later a bright flash lit up the area and a picture of the scene appeared on the screen.
After putting the device away he turned back and was planning to backtrack to follow the other trail when the ground began to shake even harder and the path he had just climbed up from collapsing into the lava below. He had to even move backwards as a huge portion of the cliff fell taking the woman's body into the lava as well. In the far distance one of the mountain's sides exploded open and seconds later a thunderous roar slammed into Jack knocking him off his feet. His ears rang from the assault on them from the blast.
Pushing himself back up to his feet, his past self could see something happening in the distance. Whatever it was filled him with terror, but it was blocked from Jack's current self from seeing. Forced to backtrack to the portal over sharp rocks, Jack cut his clothes and skin as he moved back to the portal. Eventually, as he crested a hill, he managed to see the portal. As he got closer the ground shaking began to get worse, and there were horrific roars in the distance as something began to approach.
As he had just made it past the portal and started following the other trail, when all of sudden Jack heard a shout coming from above. Before he could look up someone fell from the sky and bounced to stop right before Jack's feet. A man wearing what looked like a track suit looked up at Jack and said in a thick accent "Ah hello there. Kinda surprising to see a person here. How did you come to be here hmm?"
As Jack was about to respond, the man jumped to his feet and looked past Jack towards the portal. "I see now, yes you came through that portal. Very curious. Now tell Sergey why you have come?"
"I am looking for my sister, there was an accident and she likely fell to this world. Who are you?" Jack said.
"There are more people here?" The man said, looking concerned. Then he said "I am Sergey the renowned Icecarver, champion of the masses and a lover of a good drink. Now you say that your sister fell here?" Sergey looked towards the portal and nodded "I can see the echoes of two people coming here at once. Then sometime later I see your echo, and now that I look at it your portal is quite unstable. Seems like your world is in real danger from that accident of yours..."
"Can you see where she went?" Jack asked.
Sergey hesitated and then there was a fierce roar in the distance causing the both of them to look. While Jack's vision of what was going up in the sky was obscured, his past self was really starting to freak out on what he was seeing. Sergey grimaced and said "Kinda hard to see, but in this landscape finding a human's not going to be easy. Though now that I take a proper look at you..." Sergey looked closer at Jack. "You are not quite human yourself."
"Excuse me?" Jack replied confused.
"I can feel the exposure of creation energy you have face recently on you. It makes you stand out to those who can see it. While creation energy is more tame compared to some of the other energy types, the amount you were bathing in would have killed any regular human. Therefore how are you alive?" Sergay asked. He began to walk around Jack rubbing his chin. "Ah I see it now. Your soul is looking strange. In fact it's way too sturdy, it's not from the creation energy, how curious I will have to ask love about this."
Jack tried to push past Sergey "This is not about me. I need to find my sister. If you can't help me, please get out of my way."
Sergey forced Jack back and said "Sorry pal. I'm afraid I can't allow you to pass. My love and the boss said to clear out the area of living things so they wouldn't interfere with the battle, and you are living. So I'm going to have to ask you to go back through that portal of yours."
Several booming sounds from the sky ahead brought forth a fierce blast of hot wind that nearly knocked Jack off his feet. Sergey grabbed him and kept him on his feet. Shaking free from his grip "I have to find my sister and you are not going to stop me."
"Look I understand where you are coming from, but I can't let you go into that area until they secure the" Sergey continued speaking but the sound of the dream suddenly cut off. This blocked whatever Sergey said until he had finished and then the sound kicked back in. Jack wasn't proficient in reading lips, but he got the sense Sergey said something about an eye.
"I don't fucking care about whatever your after. All I want is to find my sister. Now get the fuck out of my way." Jack growled at Sergey.
The man seemed to hesitate briefly and was about to respond when there was a horrific ripping sound in the sky above them. Before Jack's past self could even look up he smelt a horrible stink that made him gag. It was so overpowering that it was even making Jack sick through the dream. At that point he looked up, and his knees nearly buckled under the sight. Whatever his past self saw was nearly breaking his mind. Even worse was even though it was blocked from his view he could feel whatever was behind the gash in the sky it was looking down at him.
Glancing upwards Sergey said "Oh man that's not good. She must've been able to punch through because space has been weakened with your damn portal."
"What the hell is that thing?" Jack yelled on the verge of freaking out.
"Nothing good that's for sure. What's worse for you I'm afraid that she has taken notice of you for some reason. She really is glaring at you huh. Best to get you back to your world now before she really starts to push through." Sergey said and picked up Jack with one arm.
Trying to struggle out of Sergey's grip, Jack found that it was impossible as the grip was like iron. While his past self was struggling to escape from Sergey, his dreaming self could see that the corruption energy was pouring from the crack in the sky. "No, I will not leave without finding my sister, no fucking demon or whatever the fuck that is will not stop me."
Sergey sighed and then said "I'll take a look for your sister, but I'm sorry I have to send you back and close the portal before she gets a hold here." At that point Sergey flung Jack back towards the portal. At that moment however everything in the dream seemed to freeze except for Sergey's head. Jack realized what he was witnessing was not in fact part of the dream and that Jack could feel that Sergey was somehow communicating with him through the dream.
"So there you are Jack. I've been looking for you. Right now I'm all tied up with my own troubles, but I will be seeking you out soon to call upon that favor you owe me. Talk to you later!" Sergey said and then the dream seemed to start up again the dream quickly began to move forward again.
"I will look for your sister and bring her back to you if I find her." Sergey yelled as Jack flew through the portal popping out above the table then landing hard on the table. Pushing himself up, Jack was about to jump right back through the portal but he screamed in fury as the portal closed right in front of his eyes.
He brought his fists down on the table several times letting out a string of curses before Jack flipped the table and sank to his knees in frustration. Before he could vent his emotions fully, the orange crystal in the center of the room began to make a whining sound that made his bones ache and his past self ran to the control console. While he could not see what this past self saw, he could feel that the crystal was reaching its peak energy and would release an immense burst of energy if Jack did not shut it down now.
At the same moment he found his past self debating with himself over the possibility of using this overload to punch a hole back to the place where he thought his sister was. Just as the thought came, he immediately threw it out as he knew it would be far too disastrous to this world. The amount of death it would cause could never be justified no matter how much he loved his sister. For all that he hesitated briefly before shutting the system down. As it was an emergency shutdown, it would wipe the system entirely clean, that would erase all the data containing the location of his sister. He doubted he would be able to find it again.
Taking a breath Jack knew what choice his sister would desire him to make, he could only hope that the strange Sergey would be able to find her and protect her. With a heavy heart Jack pushed some buttons and the whine coming from the crystal slowed down and then shut off completely. With the load being taken off the crystal, it could take no more and began to crack and fall apart. The space around began to slowly recover, and the portals began to close. Just as the one nearest the control began to close, Queen Helacarna jumped through surprising Jack.
She had landed a bit roughly and the portal behind her closed just as a sword came through and was sliced off clanking down the floor. She let out a sigh and then looked around and said "How interesting, there is no magic in the air here. Though there is a residual energy residue, I'm not familiar with it. Curious despite the lack of magic, I do feel an echo resonating with my own magic."
"Helacarna, why did you come through the portal?" Jack asked.
She glanced at him like he had said something stupid. "Surely you saw that blade come through? It was my uncle who came to kill me. Apparently there was a vote and they decided it was best for them to kill me. Luckily I was able to escape their foul plot by escaping through your portal. The fates have left a path open for me to live." She looked around and said "Were you able to find your sister?"
Jack said a response, but the words were far away and Jack's vision of the dream began to fade as it ended. He soon found himself lying back on his bed in the temple. The dream had brought up the raw emotions he had felt when he had lost Alexia, making him lay limply in the bed staring up at the stone ceiling. He finally managed to pull himself together and got up out of bed and took out the crystal ball he used to contact JP with.
After meditating on the crystal ball, he soon found himself standing once more inside of his soul realm. The soul echoes of people in the city were running around in a panicked state and soldiers were dashing towards the middle of the city. Glancing that way Jack was startled to see a massive pillar of what looked like ice standing in the middle of the city. Vehicles raced by blaring alarms and Jack had trouble making his way to JP's building. The crowds eventually let him pass, and he entered the tall glass building and took the elevator up to the top of the building.
He passed the secretary's desk in front of JP's office, which stood empty. Entering into JP's office he spotted JP who was in a deep discussion next to a being that appeared to be an exact duplicate of Queen Helacarna with the exception that she was wearing a business dress that had been modified to fit her four arms. JP looked over and said "Good you are here, we have a lot to discuss. Unfortunately, due to the ice problem, we don't have much time to chat."
"What is that?" Jack said looking out the window towards the massive ice pillar.
"A piece of Sergey's power that he sent to contact you through the dream. We are working to remove it as fast as we can." The duplicate of Queen Helacarna said.
"Are you?" Jack asked, looking towards her.
"Am I Queen Helacarna? Yes and no. I retain most of her memories, but I'm more of a piece of her soul that attached to yours after she passed away of old age. I am part of your soul council at the moment and assist them on matters of Magic. Since you encountered her in the dream, it was decided it was time for you to actually meet me. You may address me as Helen." She moved to a nearby glass table and took a seat. As she did so, Jack noticed that on each of her arms was a watch, with one being very similar to the one he saw in the dream.
Jack sat down along with JP and asked "Is that Ice pillar dangerous?"
"Not in intent, we believe that he just used it to communicate with you. However, it's more a less a splinter of his power embedded into your soul. Due to the nature of the sundered power it can be dangerous to weak souls. For their safety sent all the weaker soul echos into soul bunkers until we have removed the ice splinter." JP answered.
"Okay, I'm assuming that seeing Sergey in the dream is the reason why you sent it to me." Jack said.
"Indeed." Helen said. "When the base mind revealed that they knew about the sundered we had to unlock a portion of your knowledge about them. As full knowledge of them is too dangerous we only let through the very bare minimum. Even then we felt that it was best that you needed to see the very first time you met a sundered. Especially since one may be in the world at the moment. Still the result was far more than we anticipated as he made the decision to contact you through your dream."
"How did he even accomplish that?" Jack said.
JP sighed and said "Our knowledge of the sundered is not complete. We were aware that the sundered can feel when someone speaks their name, but we didn't know that ability can even extend to dreams. We were even more alarmed that he could send a splinter of power directly to you."
Jack nodded. "That is alarming that they can do that. Is there any way to protect my soul from that?"
"We are working on ways to shield your soul better, but to be frank with you if a sundered wants to get through they will. Only a being like Maya could possibly stop them. So if you want to protect yourself Jack, the best way is to get stronger." Helen said.
"Is it possible that the sundered that the base minds detected was this Sergey?"
"Maybe." JP shrugged, "Though if he was here he should have had no trouble detecting you. He would have appeared to you in person rather than contacting you through a dream. Of course he did mention he was dealing with something. Hard to say, and I'm not sure it's wise to go seeking them. If it isn't him, then it's another sundered."
Helen nodded "Due to the way sundered come into being, most of them are slightly unhinged. This makes them unpredictable and hard to figure out."
"Why is that?" Jack asked.
"The process of becoming sundered causes immense pain. Imagine the worst pain you have ever felt and times that by a trillion and you would not scarcely get one percent of the pain they feel. It destroys them until the only thing that remains is their willpower. Which is the source of their power." JP answered."I won't go into further detail beyond that. Too much information about them leaking out tends to draw their attention not to mention it also increases the likelihood of one being created in this world."
"Could this one that the base mind detected be one created here?" Jack asked.
"Unlikely. They tend to come around in very large and noticeable events. Think massive planetary disaster level and that's when they like to arise." Helen said.
Jack nodded in understanding and then said "Is this limiting of information the reason why you blocked my vision so many times during the dream?"
"For the times in the lab, we felt the knowledge was simply too dangerous to be leaked even to you Jack. When you get more powerful, we would be more comfortable in granting it to you. As for what was going on in the sky, it's complicated. The council was split, but I made the final vote to keep what I saw then from you. It's for your own protection, what I saw that day left deep scars onto my psyche. For years afterwards, I had nightmares. Jack, you are not prepared to see what I saw. No one is, and I pray that you never see what I saw."
Helen spoke up then and said "Indeed JP is not kidding, when Queen Helacarna shared a bed with him, he often woke up screaming in terror. Honestly, the only way he fell asleep was when he took naps near Maya's crystal."
Jack was surprised and said "So you had a relationship with Helacarna?"
Helen laughed and said "Relationship is exaggerating it. Though Queen Helacarna respected Jack, it was not a romantic relationship. Rather it was more of a friend with benefits."
JP coughed in embarrassment and said "Yes, well there is no need to go deeper into my personal relationships."
"Don't worry JP, you certainly went pretty deep last night." Helen let out a weird giggle and then looked towards Jack and said "But seriously, you probably have noticed how sexually active JP is. It's a minor side affect from his exposure to Maya's crystals, which come from Maya's own seriously high sex drive. In fact I speculate that this may have even affected this world due to Maya's presence in the past. I suspect it likely has even affected the base mind given that she was cooped up to one of Maya's crystals, even if it was empty of Maya's power."
"Alright, I think that is enough for now. I will let Falaen know if we need to speak with you again." JP said.
"Before I go can you at least tell me what was the point of that laboratory. I know a bit of it, but I just want to know what you were attempting there that led to Alexia's disappearance."
JP paused and sighed "That orange crystal was grown using Maya's crystals and filled with her power. I modified it in some ways. Officially I was attempting to explore new power sources. Unofficially I wanted to use that crystal to create a pocket space, similar to your white space. However the incident occurred resulting in the events in the dream. Later on with Queen Helacarna's help, I was able to build a safe space for Maya while she was adapting."
Helen nodded and said "I'm glad I finally got to meet Jack. In the future I would like to provide you some ideas regarding your more magical classes."
Jack nodded and stood "You have given me much to think about. Much appreciated for giving this information to me."
"Talk to you later Jack." JP said.
Jack relaxed and left the soul realm and went back to his body prepared to start the new day.
I bet Alexia became a sundered instead of dying. Likely Sergay was drawn because of this, and is training her enough that she won't accidentally destroy the world. (Well, that's my guess. First time reading).
19 hours and am up to date o.o just got to say I love your story so far!