The connections between souls can neither be proven nor denied. Too many events point to the phenomenon being genuine, but it is like so much else impossible to predict and measure. All we have to work from are anecdotes.


    <hr>


    Jair exhaled in relief. Any promise of cooperation was better than he’d expected after how the week had been going. "And you won’t try to murder yourself in a volcano? Or anywhere else?"


    Eythron’s eyes opened, drawn inexorably back to Maelstrom''s glowing form. "I don''t need Mercurios any more. The call will be answered, just not here and now. But please do keep watch and maintain the restraints. I may be capable of self control at the moment, but the call of death is insatiable and my mind is only so strong."


    "Would it help if I transported you far away? I can use Darkflame to teleport you wherever you want."


    Eythron shook his head, eyes drifting closed again, voice going distant. "The pull is stronger the farther I am. Right now it is gentle. A lure, not a demand, but if I were to go further..."


    Jair nodded, frowning as he considered the implications. Yet another proof that whatever this was it wasn''t any ordinary dungeon core.


    From his own experience bound to a dungeon, he knew that it was the initial departure that was the hardest. The influence of the dungeon''s demand to return was strongest around its entrance. Going further away wasn''t any harder than the perpetual drain against your soul. Which was fortunate for him, otherwise he''d have been completely debilitated in those dungeon timelines when he reverted to Veor.


    But whatever was going on with Eythron was something else entirely. Inverted from the ordinary.


    "That sounds like a good deal to me. I''ll gladly help you hunt the star hydra as soon as we return to the Oriad."


    "Your presumptions are strange and uncomfortable," Eythron said wearily. "I don''t know you."


    "I know. Hopefully we can get to know one another better during this coming campaign." Finally things were back on track. With no more urgent disasters to head off, he could get back to preparations for the inevitable confrontation with Sekir. "I don''t suppose you know why Mersine wanted you here?"


    "She only said that she would destroy the Oriad if I didn''t meet her friend at the platform. If I''d known what she planned, I''d never have gone. Let her burn it all, what do I care?"


    That threat of overwhelming destruction again. A side of Mersine Jair had never seen in all his lifetimes. When they next met he was going to have some serious questions for her.


    “You do choose to live there,” Jair pointed out. “I always assumed that you had at least a reasonable amount of attachment to your home."


    "Of course I do. I love it there. But that doesn''t mean I''m going to give in to a seer''s manipulation. I swore never to leave. Talking to some friend of hers is one thing." He eyed Jair with a glower. "But forcing me away from my home is too far. If I see her again, she''s dead, and she knows it."


    Jair shook his head, smiling. "You''re still you, in the end. Even with this dungeon-adjacent nonsense."


    "Dungeon adjacent? Mercurios'' demands are more than adjacent."


    "But you''re not a dungeon core."


    Eythron scoffed derisively. "Of course I''m not. You see me walking around? Talking, thinking? I''d never bind myself to one of those monsters. They corrupt even when they''re undermined and overpowered."


    "Then why?"


    "You won''t get my secrets so easily. I don''t like seers."


    "I know. You''ve mentioned it often enough."


    "See? This is why I hate seers."


    Jair sighed. "Alright, old man, I''ll leave you to your death and call of voids. If you ever think of a reason Mersine might have sent you to me, let me know. Until then I''ll be off trying to stop an arch-sorcerer from destroying the continent."


    "You think a sorcerer is going to destroy the continent? That''s not a sorcerer kind of thing to do."


    "Well, you know those futures you hate me knowing so much? I''ve looked down on Veor when all that remains is the dragon mountains and another Death Lake."


    Eythron went very still and very quiet.


    "You were there. The first Death Lake. You know something."


    "Where is this sorcerer?" he asked quietly, cold fury in his voice.


    "I don''t know yet. Should I let you know once I find him?"


    "Yes. I want him." Eythron''s hands gripped the chains around his wrists and he hauled himself upright. "Forget the star hydra. I want him."


    "One Sekir, coming up. But you should be warned, he can leave his body at will and return in a different one without warning."


    "That won''t be a problem." Eythron closed his eyes, then twisted and his sword flickered into his hands; one, then the other, then gone again, so fast you could almost not see it. The chains and shackles fell away, sliced clean through.


    Jair blinked. No wonder the man had been able to get past them so often. "I regularly forget just how terrifying you are, master."


    "I''m not your master." Eythron wiped his palms on his tunic, then strode out toward the central passage.


    "Master?" Uqiar asked, concerned.


    "No need to worry." Eythron waved him away. "I have a stronger call now. I''ll be in the valley."


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Jair let him go, once he saw that he wasn''t headed toward the volcano.


    But it only made him more curious.


    "What are you hiding, old man?" he wondered aloud, before turning back to head indoors.


    He, Lilin, and Raina had shopping to do. They''d already done the preliminary searching for most of the basics, but there was still plenty to occupy them while he went through the checklist.


    Solaria was going to be a spectacle, and it''d be one they planned to redo several times. The invitations he''d been handed so long ago, the different factions fighting over who would get to gloat over his accomplishments and imprint themselves into his future... finally he''d be able to see just what kind of commitments they''d be willing to give him in return for his patronage.


    His position was so different now than it had been. Even just the genius prodigy of a month ago was ancient history. His reputation as the Phoenix Healer eclipsed his prowess with the blade and Maelstrom''s grand introduction at Lord Veshin''s arena.


    Either way, he could think of plenty of people who''d be more than happy to gain his notice.


    "You good with this?" he asked Lilin as they loaded up on every possible outfit they could need for a dozen different social events across a half dozen factions. "I''m not going to drag you around through time over and over unless you want to."


    "Are you kidding?" Lilin grinned. "This is a chance to do whatever I want at parties where someone like me would be lucky to get a job as a cleaner afterwards. I wouldn''t miss it for anything."


    "I''m not sure if I should be excited to see what she comes up with, or terrified of what she''s going to do," Raina said in an aside to Jair, but loudly enough for Lilin to hear.


    She turned back to face them with her biggest, most mischievous grin. "Just wait and see."


    <hr>


    Without being tied to open lunar passages, it was harder to merchandize Solaria. It had, thus far, remained a rather sedate holiday rather than falling into the same umbrella of excited commerce and travel that Terlunia had been consumed by.


    However, having a holiday whose primary function was a celebration of intimate friendship and planning for the year to come, it was all but inevitable that it would quickly become a political hive of backstabbing and undercutting, with who went to whose party capable of breaking alliances and shifting the tides of whole factions.


    Jair knew from experience. He''d guided those tides enough times himself in the past—enough to know that he never wanted to do it again. Even his best preparations couldn''t do more than minor adjustments without throwing everything into full chaos.


    As the day itself approached and their preparations continued in a rapid frenzy, Jair didn’t even think about the one Solaria invitation among the vast list to choose from that he''d never been given before in all his lifetimes.


    Not until Raina cornered him in one of the smaller caverns where he’d been practicing quick mount and dismounts with Skyclaw.


    "So, before we start partying with all the others… I have something to ask you.” She looked unaccountably nervous, hands behind her back as though to hide something.


    “You don’t have to ask permission to ask a question.” Jair slid down from Skyclaw’s back.


    “Well, I know that after this we''ll be playing games of houses and political alliances, but I’d like for the first Solaria—true Solaria, we should celebrate properly. Just friends and family, like it''s supposed to be. I’ve already asked Lilin before I came to you, since I know you''re going to be the tricky one to convince."


    "Hard to convince? I''ll do anything for you," Jair answered. "All you need do is ask."


    Raina smiled and held out an envelope. "Then come to Solaria at the oasis. We can start testing the waters at the other political events after."


    Jair’s universe stuttered. For a moment, intense vertigo overwhelmed him.


    He''d found the invitation a long time ago, shortly after her death. So carefully written in her own hand, sealed and stored in an intimate drawer of her private desk. She''d filled out much more than was traditionally necessary, giving him a full rundown of the things to expect and what he should bring. She''d offered to help him find items from the previous year''s intentions if he didn''t have them—he did, the Institute hosted its own Solaria celebration for its students. They loved to pretend to be significantly more intimately involved in its students'' lives than they really were.


    Solaria was an incredibly intimate holiday, for all that the houses liked to use it for political maneuvering. For someone like Raina to take the time and effort of preparing an invitation for a nobody like Jair...


    It had broken his composure beyond repair.


    At the time, he''d been young enough to believe it was a sign. He''d never dared to speak, never been willing to risk breaking what they had in the hopes of something more.


    He''d been determined to save her before that, already vowed to himself never to rest until he found a way, however impossible and absurd that kind of an oath may be from someone who hadn''t even begun attuning his soulspell or integrating his class.


    But that was when he''d truly devoted himself to her, cemented and unshakeable.


    Even with the nagging doubts in the back of his mind, the question of how long ago she’d written that and if she ever intended to send it, it had been a single tangible symbol of their connection.


    And she just casually held it out to him, entirely unaware of the turmoil it caused within him. Anchorpoints buried so deep within him he never even thought about them any more shifted. Resolutions cracked.


    He mindlessly accepted the invitation, then stared down at it. His name, written in Raina''s familiar handwriting on heavy Serin letterhead. He ran a finger over the seal, Raina’s official personal crest as heiress of House Serin, everything within him shaken loose and spinning uncontrollably.


    “What? Why so silent? You have to have seen my crest before.”


    “It’s not something you’ve given me in person.” He ran a hand across the seal again. “If I—” He swallowed, mouth suddenly dry. “If I never upgraded Maelstrom, if I hadn’t become as powerful as I have, would you still have invited me?”


    “Of course. I’ve actually had this ready for months. I was just waiting for the right moment. But then with all the… being kidnapped and fighting dragons and everything…” She blushed faintly as he just smiled at her. “Shouldn’t you already know that?”


    “This is the first time you''ve actually been able to hand it to me," Jair said, voice carefully neutral. "I wasn''t ever sure..." He closed his eyes and took a long, laughing breath. "You''ll never know how much I agonized over that invitation, when I found it. You hadn''t mentioned it to me, I couldn''t guess if it had been a true intention or simply an exercise in creativity. You''ve never been shy about anything. Why would you have held back from inviting me already? Until less than a month before?"


    Raina blushed and looked away. "I... there were so many obstacles, so many considerations. I couldn''t just... do as I pleased. And I wasn''t..." She bit at her lip. "I didn''t want to drag you into anything out of a sense of obligation. When we were working on things together, it could feel like all the outside world didn''t matter."


    Jair laughed softly. "So you were afraid to talk to me, and I was too much of a coward to talk to you. Of course."


    "I—hey! I''m not—"


    Jair shrugged it away. "Ancient history."


    "It was only about a month ago."


    Jair turned to look at her, and she blinked and stared, expression gradually growing sad and distant. "Another lifetime," he said softly, and she nodded.


    "Yeah." She was so close, staring so deeply into his eyes, that all the forgotten—intentionally buried—emotions of his early years came flooding back into him. She''d been a symbol for so long, an anchor for his continued existence, he didn''t quite remember when he''d forgotten exactly the woman she was.


    He''d been trying so hard to protect her from being overwhelmed by his own forcefulness, to avoid pushing her into something she didn''t want, he didn''t stop to consider that perhaps this was what she''d always wanted from the start.


    He couldn''t help laughing. "Is this what we''re doing now?"


    She leaned up and wrapped her arms around his neck, her own laugh breathy and light. "I think it is."


    Jair chuckled as he leaned down to meet her. "Lilin is going to be absolutely insufferable."


    <hr>