Threads of the Soul

Flying over the growing town of Ravenkeep, Bob looked down at the progress they were making. The initial expansion, the foundation of the town had been established relatively quickly.

All they really needed to do for that was reconstruct damaged parts of the castle, set up residencies for the people they brought with them and set up a wall around that. Easy Peasy.

But 'Civilisation isn't just a few houses surrounding a castle' Father had said. Apparently, based on what Bob could see, civilisation is a lot of houses surrounding a castle, that made sense in his mind.

Construction wasn't what took the longest either, with people able to rearrange the earth or move objects with their mind, building basic houses was not too difficult, especially when they could be improved at a later date.

What took the longest was destruction. As they expanded, they had to demolish the existing structures so that they could re-purpose their materials. Most of the time in such cases was dedicated to thoroughly clearing the buildings, finding people and slaying monsters.

Most of the buildings were ruined, or just useless office buildings, so there was little use in keeping them standing when they could be used to build new houses.

There weren't just houses, however. Sure that was the main part of it, but they had also built some rudimentary fields, with the help of some earthen based powers, and were currently growing a variety of mutated plants.

Thankfully, not everything wanted to kill them. Some fruits and vegetables had mutated in a variety of ways, such as carrots that did actually improve your eyesight. If you blended them into a smoothie and drank it, your eyes would turn orange for the next hour and you'd be able to see in pitch blackness like it was daylight.

Although, it did have the side effect of actually tinting your vision orange. But natural night vision was helpful in a variety of situations. Not everything was mutated in such ways though, others simply grew in size or gave off more nutrition when eaten.

Despite their progress, they were still in the eves of discovery about all the ways their world had changed. But plants with interesting effects such as the carrots, along with Father's plantation of a particular golden grass with miraculous healing capabilities, had encouraged them to split their fields into utility and consumption.

Well, it was more accurate to say utility was a garden, which was kept within the castle walls until they could fully study and perfect their utilities, while consumption had multiple fields dedicated to keeping their people fed.

Aside from the fields, there was also the beginnings of a bustling market square, although the services provided weren't too plentiful yet, and of course there was also the Taming Field. Their destination.

Taming Field was actually a bit of a poor choice of name, in Bob's opinion, considering it wasn't actually in a field. It existed in a repurposed Football stadium. It wasn't a large one, like the type they used for proper league matches, but a smaller one for simple games against other towns teams. At least that was what he was told.

Bob didn't really know what football was. He had tried searching his Father's memories for any reference to it, but most of it was just vague images of people running on a TV screen that he glanced at.

However, judging from the Colosseum style design of the stadium and the activities they performed in there, he expected it was some kind of arena sport involving teams fighting against each other in bloody combat.

As they flew over the Taming Field, Bob didn't hesitate to slip off of Omelette's back and start to plummet through the air. Just before he hit the edge of the stadium wall, he turned into a dust cloud once more and began to swim through the air like an eel.

Curving through the air, he poured his dusty body into an observers box that had been built specifically for one person, and manifested his body once more. As he pulled his body back together, it formed already in a kneeling position, as he knelt behind the singular throne that overlooked the Taming Field.

"You're home early."

As Bob knelt, a voice spoke from the throne without the figure looking back. Rising to his feet, Bob made his way over to his Fathers side, glancing at him out the corner of his eye.

Of course, it wasn't his actual Father, but his persona. The great and oh so adored Lord Crow, otherwise known as Corvus.

He had changed slightly over the last few months. Gone was the raven feathered cloak that had gained him his name, yet despite that the name didn't go with it. That cloak had served its purpose and, after battling so many transcendent tier creatures, had simply become unsuitable.

The feathers could pierce his enemies flesh less and less and the defensive capabilities were faltering under his enemies strength. He had replaced it with a new Requital that he had gained from a transcendent wraith.

The hood covering the puppets face was like black silk, the face beneath veiled in wispy, cloud-like shadows that gently curled from beneath the hood. Those same shadows curled down from his shoulders, were the hood met the wicked black armour that he 'wore' and was in fact the body of the puppet.

It was those wispy shadows that made up the body of his cloak, pouring down his back like an onyx waterfall and dispersing when they hit the ground. It was a look that really didn't help the 'death god' opinions certain people had of him, but at this point Father had given up trying to disperse such ideas.

Something about them building a church in the Lord's name made him realise how serious they were, and he simply left them alone. Strangely, something about insisting you aren't a god just makes people think you are humble and more convinced of your divine nature. It was the one battle his Father simply couldn't win.

Although, despite his Father's annoyance at the worship, Bob and his brother Omelette couldn't help but feel proud of their Father. It felt only right that they would see his greatness and want to worship him, to be closer to him just like they were.

It was good that they saw just how wonderful their Father was, and that was an opinion that was absolutely without any bias whatsoever.

"Yes Father, Brother said that he was to retrieve me while on his hunt, that you requested to see me."

"Did he now? You should know how he gets with some orders. Too overzealous. What I told him was that if he saw you, to tell you to come to me. Not to bring you home early."

"It's alright Father, I was already on my way home. He never said what it was that you wanted, however. I assume this is about the-"

Before Bob could finish his sentence, the puppet held up its hand to quickly silence him. Bob immediately cut himself off, before he spilled any information, as the puppet took a flat stone from a pouch on the waist of its armour.

The stone itself was circular and perfectly flat, and slightly bigger than his palm. It would have been the perfect skimming stone, for someone who actually knew how to skim stones.

But instead of being tossed into a lake, this stone had been carved with an intricate design of runic symbols, all perfectly arranged in a circle surrounding one larger rune. This rune in question had the appearance akin to a constellation of stars, with large points scattered in a seemingly random placement and straight lines connecting those points which acted as junctions.

The puppet Corvus glided his thumb over the circle of runes, which lit up a dazzling gold wherever he touched. Once the entire circle was glowing, the constellation in the middle began to glow.

At first the entire thing illuminated, before a number of the star points dimmed until only two of them were glowing with a pale blue light. Those lights representing Bob, and his Fathers soul inhabiting the persona puppet.

With the enchantment on the stone still active, his Fathers puppet placed the stone down onto the arm of the chair, so that they could see any change in its appearance. Glancing at the stone, Bob's body churned in a mixture of annoyance and frustration.

"The spectre still haunts you?"

The question seemed to humour his Father, who chuckled as he turned his head slightly to look at Bob when he answered.

"Certainly an interesting way of putting it, but yes. That spectre still haunts me. Every night I wonder what she will do with the information that she has, or what she will do if she gains more.

I can feel her eyes on me when I sleep, even when I know she's not there. But enough about that, back to the topic at hand.

Yes, your assumption was right. This is about the test. I hope that it went well."

"Indeed it did. See for yourself Father."

Bob's body churned, this time with purpose, before his arm bulged outwards where it met the shoulder. It looked as if he had inflated his bicep, or simply spent countless nights performing a vigorous one armed activity, before the bulge began to move down his arm.

When it reached his hand, it too inflated, before opening up and, like a reverse sink hole, an object moved within the collection of dirt and rose to the surface. It rose until it was comfortably sitting in the palm of his hand.

The object in question was a small leather pouch, just bigger than a man's fist, with red silk drawstrings tying it closed. A pouch that was itself bulging from within, as multiple round objects pressed against the leather walls from within.

Bob dropped the pouch into his Father's waiting hand, who didn't hesitate to untie the drawstrings and pull open the mouth of the pouch, letting a glimmering light escape from within.