“There and Back Again, by Bilbo Baggins.”

Tolkien

“When?” I asked

“No time the present,” Kyrus replied

“Okay, how do we do this?” I asked just for clarification before we jumped off into the unknown. I wanted to know if it was possible, but was it worth the risk?

“Simple enough.” He said. I felt the skill activating and saw his physical representation float off over the sea, angling up to shoot into the sky to one of the stars that represented Namir floating overhead.

I followed along.

Ding! Astral Projection (Lv2)

I soon joined him floating outside of Namir’s soul. “Now what?”

“Next, we need to go a little further.” He replied. It was the understatement of the year if ever I’d heard one. “But there is something I wanted to double-check first. Close your eyes.”

I closed my metaphysical eyes. Kyrus then spun my astral projection around horizontally and vertically until I had completely lost all sense of what was left or right or up or down before finally stopping me. “Okay, without opening your eyes, point back to our mortal vessel, our body.” He commanded.

Even with my eyes closed, it was easy to point back to where my body, mind and soul rested. An invisible bond pulled me back towards my mortal vessel to my heart. I opened my eyes to check, and sure enough, I was pointing back towards the world that made up my soul. My mind fortress sitting proudly atop its mountain in the sea of experience I had earned over my short lifetime here in the Compass Kingdoms.

Ding! Sense Soul (Lv2)

“Yes,” we said together in success. I was gratified at the system’s recognition of our progress.

“Right. Next, close your eyes and search for a similar tug, a similar pull on our soul.” He quietly commanded. “I’ll do the same with my eyes closed as well.”

Floating in the ether between souls together, we closed our eyes and searched for a soul with a similar tug. The individual that our lives had overlapped with for the longest time. The woman whose very soul had unknowingly sheltered our own when we first arrived scared and confused. The woman who welcomed us into this world, our mother.

It wasn’t the same frequency nor the pull as strong, but I could feel it: a string that tied my heart to another’s, a string that tied our two souls together, that bound us to our mother despite the distance.

Convinced, I said, “I’ve found her.” and opened my eyes to find Kyrus pointing in the same direction. In reality, it would have been south, but in the soul realm, it was merely another vector we somehow knew would end up arriving at our mother’s soul.

Besides, was it truly south if you considered the earth’s curvature? Would the soul stop at the lodestone or bore straight through it? How did you measure every vector in a sphere? It was so much simpler thinking about the 360 degrees on a compass face.

“Ready to risk the jump?” He asked.

I nodded. I was not wholly convinced, but I missed them, I missed my family, and I wanted them to know I was well as much as I wanted to see that they were okay, too.

“Ready to go home if only to be a fly on the outer wall of her soul.” He confirmed as he motioned to the soul of Namir, who we still stood next to, floating in the void between soul stars.

We launched ourselves along the vector together. The star-studded sky of souls elongated to flash past us as we flew to our destination almost instantaneously. As I bathed in the warmth of my mother’s soul, I knew I was home in spirit. Even if I was not home in mind or body, I was home in terms of my soul. Comforted, I relaxed in the warmth of her presence. How long had it been since I had a good hug? Namir was not one for casual touch, and now I found myself curled up tight against the warmth of my mother’s soul.

Ding! Astral Projection (Lv3)

It reminded me of when I had first arrived, confused and alone but still somehow feeling protected and held. Alone no longer . . .

I paused quickly, surveying my surroundings. I was alone. Kyrus had not made the jump. He might have left with me, but he had not arrived.

Frightened, I quickly felt for my mortal vessel but found the vector home still as strong as I had left it. I could make it back; distance did not seem to matter too much to the soul. I was sure I could make it. But where my clone had disappeared to, I knew not. Hopefully, I would find him where I left him when I returned. But I wasn’t quite ready to do that just yet.

There was something I needed to do first.

Slowly, I calmed, helped by feeling so close to my mother. I might be frustrated at times by her protection, but I always felt loved, and I had grown to love her in return. How could I not? Hugging her soul tight, I whispered. “I’m okay.”

I watched as her soul shone, hopefully, a little brighter in response to my words.

Could I do more than that? Couldn’t I use a different skill to reach her mind? Concentrating, I used Mind Sense to look within the soul to find the mind and tried to avoid the brightness that was her soul.

Ding! Mind Sense (Lv37)

I found her mind within the glow that was her soul.

“I’m okay,” I said, thrilled to be able to communicate to reassure her that I was alright.

Ding! Telepathy (Lv6)

“We made it.” I grinned. I might be at the northern end of the world but I was only a hop, skip and a jump from home. Mentally, at least, I was only a thought away.

“Kai?” she asked, shocked, and I could sense that she had flinched at hearing my voice in her head. “You’re alive! How? Where? How?” her internal thoughts bounced back and forth between delight, shock and amazement.

“We survived the storm, though it blew us off the maps until we finally hit the endless ice on the world’s edge,” I explained.

“When will you return?” she asked excitedly.

I hated to dampen her joy, but she immediately sensed my hesitation.

“What’s wrong?” she quizzed worriedly.

“We won’t be sailing back just yet. We were shipwrecked on the ice and the ship sank.” It was all I planned to say, but my mind jumped ahead, the thoughts conveyed faster than words. “Namir carried me for a few days before I regained consciousness.” I had not planned to worry her, but my thoughts ran ahead of me. “It took us a couple of days to get our feet under us and head east along the coastline.”

“But you are okay now?” She quickly asked for reassurance.

“Yes, we’ve met some giants and are returning to their Thorpe. Then, we hope to turn south and reach Tramontana. After that, we will reassess the fastest way home.” I explained. “We’re fine.” I tried to reassure her but was unsure exactly how successful I was.

“Good, good.” She replied, and I could sense that she was still relieved by my survival and shocked by my ability to reveal it.

“I didn’t want you to worry, but I didn’t know that I could do this before now.” I tried to explain I had only just come across this method by combining skills.

“How are you even . . .” she began the thought before I interrupted.

“My telepathy skill.” I grinned internally at her confoundment. Feeling another flash of achievement at another update from the system.

Ding! Telepathy (Lv7)

Long-range conversations were worth the experience, although I would never have found her without some form of soul sense and astral projection to make the initial connection.

“Did everyone else make it back in one piece?” I asked.

“Yes, they could sail back to Wester Ponente once the storm had passed and they made a few repairs.” She filled me in on the details.

“Father?” I questioned.

“Father is fine, other than beating himself up for not being on board with you. Arawn is much the same.” She replied, and I could sense her smiling along with the words. “I’m fine now that I know that you are alive. They will be, too, once I tell them.” She added. “Your sister seems to have taken your absence personally but has not been willing to give you up for dead, having been fooled once before. She was most adamant that you would return sooner or later.”

“Tell them I love them too.” I grinned heart warmed by what I was hearing. I was missed, and they loved me.

“You might not once you hear what she has been up to. Taking advantage of your absence, she has found your secret stash of otherworldly suggestions for our cousins, the Adal houses supporting the Silverseas, and has handed them out.” She stated.

I paused . . . “She what?!”

“She is continuing with some of your more ambitious ideas for the island.” Mother was proud of her child’s achievements even if that child was not me, and the waves she made were from my work.

“They were mine to suggest. I had not even finished working out which would work best.” I whined. I had only been speaking to her briefly, but I had already been reduced to a child complaining about my older sister jumping the gun and taking my toys away.

“She was not willing to wait on your undetermined return to continue to move forward with your plans. Don’t make a thing out of this when you talk to her.” She scolded.

My silence said more than a thousand words.

“Kai!” she reprimanded.

“Yes, mother. I feel I’m running out of Psi.” Part excuse, part reality there was no such thing as a crackly call to end the line. “I’ll call back when I can.” I finished the conversation but waited long enough to hear her final words.

“I love you.” She whispered. But the words sounded loud and clear in her mind.

“I love you too,” I replied before jumping back along the vector to my vessel.

. . .

When I returned, I needed to check a couple of things. I hadn’t been lying when I said I could feel myself running out of Psi. My reserves were exceedingly low, with only 550 / 1770 Psi left. I had burned through over 1000 on that short, long-range telephone conversation, and unlike my mana, I did not have a trait to reproduce it rapidly.

But this was not the first thing that I checked.

Once I had returned to my soul, I searched my soul and mind fortress for any of my multiple minds and found them all absent. A short activation and deactivation of the skill showed they were all still available, but something about sending my soul via astral projection halfway around the world had cut the skill straight off.

With the activation and deactivation of the skill, I could remember working on different things only to have my memories abruptly end as I jumped from just outside my soul to where my mother resided in the soulscape with Kyrus.

We concluded that up to four multiple minds could act independently within my mind, soul and even just outside. But jump too far, and my soul would only support a single consciousness. Maybe in time, I would work out a workaround, but for now, it was enough to be able to talk to home. However, how would I let Namir know that I knew they were all okay and they knew the same about us? I did not know, seeing as we were surrounded by admittedly friendly giants but stranger giants nonetheless.

“Doh.” I thought to myself.

A moment later, I was speeding across the soul space to knock on Namir’s soul and using my mental skills to talk in his mind.

“May you always walk in the light, Namir.” I intoned. As I spoke to Namir, I couldn’t help but affect a deep voice. I wondered whether I could get him to believe in the divine.

“What is it, Kai?” He quizzed internally, clearly unimpressed with my efforts and failing to fall for them.

“How did you know it was me?” I asked.

“Who else would it be?” He sardonically replied.

“God?”

“You are not a god.” He replied unmoved.

I paused for a moment before moving on. “Mother knows we are alive and will tell the others. “I explained, breaking the radio silence despite failing to convince him of anything.

“How?” He asked in his head.

“Same as this,” I replied.

“You can reach that far?” He sounded amazed for the first time.

“Yes?” Was that a question, and if so, I’d already answered it.

“Impressive.” He seemed to think for a second before giving me his own news. “A message from Lady Acacia arrived asking that very question while you were asleep.” He added.

“A message? How?” I asked, equally impressed that they had managed to contact us without my magic to do so.

“A calston. The same stone that called me to tell me she had finally found a student for me.” He replied. “It is not the quickest of ways to get in contact.”

“You could have got in contact with them all this time?” I sounded a little hurt, even to myself.

“What would I have said? We didn’t know where we were, whether or not we would make it back to the compass kingdoms or whether it was even possible. Until now, any hope I could have given them would have been false. Now, at least, we know roughly where we are and have a plan on how to get home.”

“Fair enough,” I replied.

“Time to wake up.” He commented. “Bjørn is pulling up.” He added, and I noticed the sledge sliding to a stop.