Sweat poured off of Diana and the two Goddesses as they struggled to carry Jack and Alicia forward, looking like a dark parody of a schoolyard cavalry battle. Diana struggled with her footing in the dark forest, lacking Lisaseron's piercing sight or Syraviel's affinity for shadows. As she ran, each heaving breath of hers drew an unpleasantly thick scent of the close, musty air laying stagnant under the canopy of gnarled branches.

“I can't... believe you tore through those void worms like wet toilet paper... but you can barely carry Jack and Alicia with us.” Diana panted.

“Strength isn't the only factor... affecting melee power. Brawn isn't efficient... for me to focus on.” Syraviel said.

Diana shook her head, causing part of her ponytail to unravel. Her messy blue hair stuck to her sweaty, freckled face. Brushing her hair aside only bought her a brief second of relief before it stuck on a different part of her face.

“How much further in... before you can heal them?” Diana asked.

“Almost there... once we pass around the stream ahead and I can give them... a quick fix-up.”

Diana focused on the sounds around her- the labored breathing of the Goddesses, the haunting whispers of the Crucifix Pines, and creaking of the trees in the wind. She didn't hear any water. She wondered how Syraviel knew there was a stream. The purple Goddess noticed the girl's confusion.

“You should be able to feel it on your face... the slight increase in humidity and a small drop in temperature too. There's water ahead..”

“It is soundless water, dear,” Lisaseron said. “I do hope this rings some bells from our lessons.”

“A mirror river?” Diana asked. “Here?”

“More like a mirror stream but yes,” Syraviel said. “We'll skirt around it.”

The trio rushed through the forest, moving alongside the mirror river while keeping their distance. Syraviel continued to look in the direction of the stream, her eyes darting back and forth.

“Turn here,” Syraviel said.

Diana turned, following the lead of the Goddesses. In the darkness, Diana caught a glimpse of moonlight reflecting off a still stream of water flatter than a pressed bedsheet. Instantly, she felt her movements slow down, as if the air itself thickened into water. Each step required significant physical exertion to move while in view of the oppressive mirror river.

While Diana struggled adjusting to the sudden change, Lisaseron's gaze sharpened, taking in the abnormally still water and the surroundings before the mirror river moved out of view, freeing them from its restrictions.

“Curious,” Lisaseron said. “This isn't a naturally forming mirror river.”

“Is... that important?” Diana asked.

“To help Jack and Alicia? No. But it is a matter of significance.”

Despite crossing the mirror river at a measly two feet across, the restriction on them drained their stamina down even further than before. They slumped down next to a rock that was just big enough to cover them from being hit with the line of sight restrictions of the mirror river. Syraviel tossed a shadowy tarp over their heads and quickly healed Alicia's sutured wounds.

Syraviel took a short break before moving to heal Jack. With a few pulses to restore his stamina, the boy began to stir. A tired smile came over Syraviel's face until she suddenly felt Alicia's condition worsen. Her eyes popped open as she saw the extent of the internal damage done to Alicia.

**

Alicia had gotten more comfortable with redirecting the greatsword's aura against itself but she felt like she was trying to contain a wildfire with a shallow ditch and a box fan- she could almost stop the aura from progressing to the most damaged parts of her soul but it simply spread in other directions.

She could not protect her soul at all, no matter what she tried. So when she received a wave of healing from Syraviel, she decided to try out a new idea. Instead of trying to contain her aura within her soul, she decided to move the aura from her soul into her body and let the Goddesses heal her up, giving her soul room to heal. Unfortunately, when directing the aura to her own weak points, the aura moved dozens of times faster with far less effort.

The aura quickly left through the holes in her soul, tearing apart her body from the inside. Alicia cringed, while a new wave of healing healed the worst of the damage, her aura remained in the wounds, steadily undoing Syraviel's efforts. Alicia used a more delicate touch this time, but the aura still did plenty of damage to her innards, just at a slower pace.

In her soul, the swords replenished faster than she broke them and even a few minor tears in the room healed up but her face still remained grim. The healing from Syraviel slowed down, remaining steady enough to prevent Alicia's body from getting much worse but she wouldn't be able to transfer too much aura in her body. As she switched between anxiously diverting her aura between her body and soul, a familiar soothing sensation reached her.

The girl felt tendrils from his part of the bond coming into contact with her aura and flinching back. Her eyes lit up. Focusing for a brief moment, she formed and extended her own tendril guiding it towards Jack's floundering tendril, with her enhanced perception she had wherever her aura touched to guide them together. She noticed her own tendril constantly moving off track, moving in odd directions as it ran into different parts of her soul but she kept steering it back on track. As soon as their tendrils touched, they twisted and tangled around each other.

Alicia pumped her fist in her soul space.

“Yes! Finally we can-”

“Congratulations,” The Weaver's voice came through the bond. “A deep line has been successfully established into Alicia's soul. More work will be needed to develop it further, but this will be enough to allow rudimentary deep soul communications. This is one of many prerequisites necessary to reach the Soul-Sheathed level. Work hard, so you can experience the power of the Soul-Sheathed level and those beyond it.”

Alicia winced slightly, not as heavily affected by the Weaver's voice as before, but still finding the feedback unpleasant. She felt Jack recoil slightly, before urgency and guilt flooded through their bond with sudden clarity.

“Jack?” She thought.

“Sorry, I passed out. How bad are things?” Jack thought.

“It's bad, Jack... I don't know if... I'm going to make it.”

She noticed the boy's mood sink, silence dominating the bond for several moments.

“Well... Worst comes to worst, at least we're free of each other.”

She snorted.

“I never thought I'd find myself comforted by you of all people. “

“And I never thought I'd see you this scared.”

“I'm not-”

“Don't deny it. You're terrified, Alicia.”

Alicia breathed in deeply.

“The aura is just so strong. I've tried everything. I can't imagine beating it. Delaying it, sure. And even if I do pull through. What next? Jack, what are we even doing? We're so far out of our depth. Those Goddesses have to be on something, if they think we can do anything here. The void worms are one thing if it was just at that level I wouldn't mind. But when the Direwind hit the planet, I was able to feel some of the formations and other things lurking beneath the surface through it. Jack, we don't stand a chance in hell at trying to sabotage this planet. I mean- they're just- I don't know it was just so much-”

Jack sent a mental shush towards the girl while in the real world, he stroked her hair.

“Easy, girl. One step at a time. Let's get you better first, before we worry about their big, important plans and all the secrets they aren't telling us. I need you to keep fighting as hard as you can. Can you do that for me?”

Jack felt a pulse of reluctance fade into curiosity and confusion towards him.

“Are you going soft on me, Jack?”

She felt a twinge of annoyance and amusement from the boy.

“Sweetheart, I've never been soft a day in my life. Now get back in your Innate, and hold the fuck on so you don't kill both of us. If you can do that for awhile longer, you'll probably be alright. The Goddesses are working on... something. It looks complicated. Anyways, they all knew you had soul damage going into this. There's no way they didn't prepare something to help, especially with the Goddesses hiding all these tricks up their sleeves.”

**

Jack stared as the Goddesses finished their ritual in front of him. Half of their tunics fell off their bodies, reforming into a dome above their heads. Stars and galaxies twinkled and shifted against the thin, trembling black fabric. Jack pulled his hand away from stroking Alicia's hair to reach out and touch the dome but Syraviel slapped his hand away.

“I'm not healing you if you lose your hand.” Syraviel said.

Jack nodded slowly, looking at the smaller Goddess who was baring her midriff and thighs before looking back at the dome.

“There's no way you two have been wearing that the whole time.”

“Have you not heard the term 'fabric of reality'?” Lisaseron asked. “I thought it was quite clever, no?”

“Right... Haha.”

As Jack continued to stare at the unnervingly fathomless depths of the 'fabric', he felt a surge of dissatisfaction pass through his bond.

“Hey! Why did you stop?” Alicia thought at him.

“Stop what? I'm still giving you my aura.”

“Not the aura. You were stroking my hair!”

“You can feel what I'm doing?” He thought.

“Not everything, but I can feel that. It's helping me focus. Keep doing it. You don't want to die, right? ”

“Jeez. So needy.”

“Less chatting, more patting.”

Jack resumed stroking Alicia's hair, much to the girl's contentment. He watched as the rippling fabric stiffened, forming a more solid and perfect hemisphere around them. The background cosmos on the dome grew more and more distinct, to the point where Jack could even feel faint auras coming from the stars themselves.

“So what is this, really?” Jack asked. “Is this actually called the fabric of reality?

“No dear, that was just a pun,” Lisaseron said. “This dome is a modified super imposition of a conditional, psuedo-reality pocket... I see that I am starting to lose you... perhaps we can revisit the topic once you learn intermediate spacial theory.”

“Just think of it as something that allows us to do what we want without the Unceasing being able to discover us.” Syraviel said. “Things like accessing our personal storage dimensions.”

“It is quite nice being able to use them once again,” Lisaseron said. “I shall start dinner.”

Lisaseron took out a pot and ingredients, slicing what looked like a V-shaped potato with dizzying speed. Syraviel summoned a vial of full of green liquid in her hands. She passed the vial to Jack before conjuring a dropper and giving it to him.

“Here. Feed Alicia two drops every half hour, for three hours,” Syraviel said. “You can relax now, Jack. Alicia is going to be just fine.”

Jack sagged with relief.

TheAscendentQuill

Looks like we're in the clear! Lots of interesting things occurring. The blisteringly fast pace should slow down(just a little bit) and let us explore some of the more intriguing things I've brought up. Also, Jack's headpat game is something else.

Personal Update: Busiest part of things has finished for me, schedule should be going back to normal next week. After overcoming some almost damning technical issues and horrible scheduling, we somehow finished our event and passed our internal audit. I'll still be pretty busy with transitioning to my next assigned workplace and handling my affairs but, for the most part, I've weathered the storm!

As always, let me know if you see any errors or inconsistencies. If you have any ideas or adjustments you'd like to see, feel free to share and get my creative juices going! Thanks for your support!