Threads of the Soul

Landing back on the floor of the observation box, the wispy smoke retreated back until it was nothing more than a billowing cloak of shadows pouring from Corvus; shoulders. Seth was about to speak, but the words caught in his throat at a particular sight.

Straightening his back ever so slightly, Seth strolled over to his chair and slid into it, his back thumbing against the armrest. He drummed his fingers against the armrest for a few seconds before clenching the fist tight.

Tilting his head towards Bob he spoke in a somewhat cold and even tone,

"Go. Finish with your assignment."

Despite the sudden change in his attitude and the uncaring way he was speaking, Bob didn't take it to heart. And not just because he didn't actually have a heart. No, he might not have had a heart, but he did have eyes and could see what had caused the change in his Fathers attitude.

Bob bowed slightly, before his limbs and head simply turned independently so his body was now facing the other direction, then he shuffled off without another word.

Once Seth was sure that Bob had left the observers box and had gone off to finish his mission, Seth's eyes trailed back down to the flat stone. The ring of runes was still glowing brightly, as well as two of the stars within the constellation.

"I know you're here. There's no point in hiding any longer."

Seth spoke to the empty room while he sat there completely alone. It would have seemed like he was losing his mind, that is, until the empty room spoke back. A delicate, twinkling voice echoing throughout the room as the words carried a carefree and mischievous tone.

"Hiding? Well that's not very nice. I'm not hiding, don't you know that a good wife should be heard and not seen? Or maybe it's the other way around, I could never remember. I just didn't want to disturb my man while he was working, that's all."

Seth tilted his head slightly, moving his ears as he tried to pin point from where in the room that the voice was coming from, but it was a futile effort. Every word seemed to be coming from a completely different direction, the position would sometimes even change half way through a word.

It wasn't noticeable if he simply listened to the words passively, but as soon as he began to focus on finding her, it was as if his ears were intentionally misleading him.

Either she was constantly sprinting around the room as she spoke, which was incredibly unlikely, or her power was more than just some kind of invisibility, which was even more irritating to discover.

At least, however, it was ineffective against his little detection device. Perhaps because it was based on souls, or simply wasn't trying to find her and instead just acknowledged her presence. He had no idea of knowing, more tests would be needed.

At least his test subject was unlikely to run off any time soon, although considering that was why he needed the tests in the first place, it could hardly be called a good thing.

At this moment, however, a new test was not required to find his haunting spectre, as she revealed herself. Whatever spell she had been casting immediately shattered as she appeared in front of him like a true phantom, her petite frame perched right on his lap.

One delicate arm wrapped around his neck, while her other hand traced circles on the chest of his armour with a single slender finger. She pouted softly, looking up at him with puppy dog eyes and let out a disappointed sigh.

"You have a cheek to talk about hiding, you're always hiding beneath that hood. I wonder how these people would feel if they knew what you really were, that you're not even a real boy.

Sometimes you are, sometimes I can touch you and you know but... You can't feel this, can you? So where is the real you, hmm? Where are you hiding my love?"

***

In a dark room, lit exclusively by floating candlelight sized balls of blue flames, the air cracked and shimmered like fractured glass, before a man appeared out of thin air. The man in question had caramel skin and short, curly hair.

He whistled softly to himself, whistling a pop song from the before times, and was walking backwards as he pulled a sack truck that was stacked high with boxes through the shattered reality. Sitting on top of this stack of boxes, was a small leather pouch.

Once everything was through, he snapped his fingers without even breaking his whistling tune, as the air rapidly stitched itself back together. The glass fragments slotted themselves back into place, like a perfect jigsaw, before reality became solid once more, as if it had never been disturbed in the first place.

Without a care in the world, and still whistling the tune to himself, the man in question wheeled the sack truck over to the only door that existed in this entire room. It was a heavy, metallic door seemingly forged out of solid steel, and engraved with a variety of strange symbols that he simply did not understand, but which also glowed threateningly when he stepped close.

However despite that glowing threat, he paid the symbols no mind, simply slamming his fist against the door a few times and waited for the response.

Just like it did every time, the door began to creak open all by itself, which was assisted by the man pushing his foot against it as he wheeled the sack truck in behind him. Once he was inside the room, the door slammed closed behind him.

It was a room filled with a variety of metal tables, illuminated by those same azure fire lights, and had a few more doors leading off to additional rooms, although those doors weren't nearly as heavy.

On the different tables were a multitude of minerals and materials of the wooden and metallic variety. Knives, saws, hammers and other various tools were scattered haphazardly across the tables, thrown to the side after they had fulfilled their use.

The first thing that he saw within the room was a towering, ten foot tall being with long, spindly limbs. Eight of those limbs, to be exact, not including their legs. This being was chalk white, each arm almost as long as its entire body, and was currently looming over the small frame of a young man.

A young man that was being pinned to a chair beneath the spider-like beast by one of its many arms, while others wielded a variety of blades and specialist tools. As the spider-like beast brought a scalpel closer to the young man's chest, ready to start its work and about to start carving, the caramel skinned man cleared his throat.

The faceless spider-like being immediately whipped its head towards him, as if it didn't notice his presence until he announced himself despite the previous knocking, before the young man about to be worked on spoke up.

"Oh, sorry Lee, I got a little caught up in my work. Do I need to sign for this one?"

"Heya Seth. Yeah, this is a sign one. Got a special package alongside your usual supplies."

Seth nodded softly, staying seated exactly where he was as a charcoal pencil lifted itself from one of the metal tables, scattering scrap metal as it dug itself free from the tomb of rubbish that filled this disorganised workspace.

The pencil flew over to Lee and quickly scribbled Seth's name across the piece of paper that the delivery man was holding out for him.

"Alright, cheers man. Seriously, you're the only one who pays for this kind of delivery you know."

"What can I say? You give exceptional service, and put up with my eccentricities in the process. Speaking of, could you pass me over that pouch on top. I'll need it for this next part."

Lee shrugged, pulling his sack truck free from beneath the boxes of supplies this hermit required to survive, before taking the pouch from the top and carrying it over to Seth who was waiting with his arm held outwards.

Once the pouch was in his possession, Seth placed it in his lap and opened it once again, his face becoming illuminated by the gentle glow from the contents. His eyes sparkled as he gazed into it, before he reached in and pulled out a small, pure white crystalline sphere. It wasn't a perfect sphere, there were still some imperfections in it, but it sparkled like a freshly cut diamond.

He focused his mana, surging it through his arm, up his fingers and poured it into the crysal, which began to turn from a pure white to a deep azure light as its glow intensified until it radiated light like a miniature, azure sun.

"Woah... What is that?"

"This my friend? This right here, is the future of our society."