Wraithwood Botanist

B2 | Chapter 68 - Ethical Dilemmas

Kyro woke as the light was dimming. Mira’s repellent spell was limited, so he couldn’t even see the statues anymore. It was as cold and eerie and disturbing as the time he first saw the crypt.

Kyro activated his spell and cloaked the entire area, clearing the fog in a dome around him—and exposing Mira.

She was... shaken.

The poor girl was sitting with her back against the statue, staring into dead space. Her eyes weren’t hollow with trauma. It was just the look of helplessness that seemed to befit all manner of creatures except Mira Hill and her tiny feline companion.

"I told you it’d be hard," he said.

Mira turned to him blankly.

"But it’s not impossible... The trick’s—"

"I know," she said.

"You know?"

"I know..." She sighed. "Just as you can collect a ball of remnants, you can break a soul into a million loose remnants. The trick’s to collect a soul or remnants, insert it, and then obliterate it, allowing the remnants to fill the space before binding it together... right?"

Kyro’s eyes widened. "Your Guide tell you that?"

"No need. Just kinda figured it out."

"So what’s the problem?"

"What’s the problem?" Mira laughed and pulled her knees in. Kline huffed and jumped out of her lap, allowing her to hug her knees. "It’s just the concept... The thought of breaking a soul into a million pieces... separating its memories and emotions and blueprint... It’s disturbing. I mean... It’s cool. But..." She hugged her knees. "I mean... I’m not sure why, but I keep thinking about my brother. His name’s Tyler. He’s an idiot, but he’s a good egg and I love his guts and..." Her eyes welled with tears. "I keep thinking, wouldn’t it be cool if I could just... remove the trauma he got when his ex died in a lead climbing accident? I mean, the kid’s never been the same. Sure, he’s normal... but he hasn’t had a girlfriend since. And if he doesn’t... God, I sound like my fucking mother."

Kyro swallowed hard and kept silent. Mira had discovered the horrors of soulmancy far faster than he imagined, and he couldn’t refute it, so he just unscrewed his flask and held back, waiting for her to speak.

"But yeah," she said. "It’d be pretty fucking cool, right? But..." She paused, struggling for words. "It’s not so much that deleting something bad’s the problem. I’d bet your mother’s children that people would be better off if they could delete certain memories. But... It’s the good memories. You know? The thought that someone could just... erase his love for video games and pizza. Just edit it away to make him... whatever they want..." Her eyes welled with tears, and she looked up aggressively. "’Cause that’s what I do! That was my fucking job. I took... plants and made them practical. Tomatoes can’t survive in the cold? Fine. Let’s just splice it with the genes from a flounder... a fucking flounder... a fucking fish—and make it so that it can survive the voyage. And I mean, it’s... incredible, Kyro. Incredible. I’m not sure how many people’re on this planet, but mine supported billions because bread didn’t mold every three days and tomatoes didn’t rot after four. I mean, it’s awesome but... the thought you’d do that to people... people. People... people love and care about. You. Me. Tyler. My family... it’s so fucked up and..."

Kyro wasn’t one for emotion, but he balled his fists because he knew what was coming.

"The thought that someone can just... edit in feelings and thoughts and memories..." Mira laughed. "No wonder there’s groups devoted to killing soulmancers. This shit... is fucked up, Kyro. Fucked. Up. Fuck."

Mira let her head crash into the stone podium she was leaning against. She winced and held her head but just leaned back after—and finally broke. Tears burst from her eyes, and she sobbed and held her wrists, and when Kline pawed at her, she shooed him away aggressively and sobbed harder.

Kyro believed that he understood the depth of emotions a being could experience, but the truth was he had long since forgotten the impact of raw emotion after living so long. People come and go, children come into the world and die, wars kill, and civilizations fall. It had all become so numbing, but when he heard her sob, he remembered what it was like to come to that conclusion—the uncertainty and doubt and ethical dillemas. It really hit him, too, so he could empathize.

So he just sat in silence until her haunting sobs overtook the sounds of souls crying in the fog. Then he waited longer until she calmed down and hit the turning point where hot emotions flipped to numb depression and finally spoke.

"Soulmancy’s a tool... just like a sword."

Mira looked up. "Like a sword? You’re really going to say that this... is a sword?"

Kyro picked up a rock and threw it into the mist. He was furious. Brindle did more for the forest than anyone. Anyone! Hell, the Drokai existed because Brindle sent Kyro to train them and build them up again. And while Kyro didn’t feel worthy of praise for it, Brindle sure as fuck did.

Mira suddenly stood and put her hands on the ball. It pulled soul remnants directly from the mist in a vortex, creating a ball that she squished in wonder. She compressed it with her hands, and her nose scrunched in, and she dug her foot in the dirt and let a grunt and sat down, whispering:

"Is it cool to mix and match?" she asked to her invisible friend. "I could really use a compression spell right now. And that’s part of the Soul Manipulation skill, right? Huh? Yeah there is, but... it’s the same spell. I think you’re supposed to figure out how to improve the compression spell on your own. Huh? Fuck off with that. If I wanted to ’figure it out on my own’ I’d kick your ass to the curb... Okay, I’d try to... Know what, fuck you. God, you’re unbearable... Fuck him, too. Just... okay."

Then she sat down for a full hour, and when she got up, she summoned souls without the help of the ball and compressed them down to the size of a rock with a wide grin on her face.

This’s crazy to watch, Kyro thought sleepily, but he kept focused because he was fascinated. The next moment, she put the soul directly into the stick and closed her eyes. And on her first try, the souls broke apart and filled up the stick without a soul shock explosion. The ball lit up, and the next statue lit up, enticing her to move on.

But she didn’t.

She turned to Kyro without the slightest smirk and asked, "Is it okay to learn the spell on the second without the Bramble opening?"

He nodded. "It’s cool."

"What is it?"

He smiled strangely. "It’s actually got nothing to do with stretching souls. You were supposed to learn that from the first on. No... that one’s about collecting real souls and keeping them together."

"Then what does that have to do with a blank statue?"

"’Cause if you just do what you just did, it’ll be impossible for all the pieces to attach back together. That’s what the shape is—it makes it difficult for the remnants to rearrange themselves. It’s also too big for a soul and... you’ll see."

"Huh..."

Mira walked to the next statue and sat down. Kyro wanted to watch, but he was getting really sleepy, and even the thought of alcohol sounded bad. So he leaned back and groaned and thought. She’ll be able to do it, I’m sure. He fell asleep.

2.

I sat in front of the second statue with an overconfident expression, first opening my Guide. I still hadn’t examined my levels, but I got something huge after completing the trial—a landslide of new legacy skills.

Soul Sight (Second Tier)

Soul Channel Visualization (First Tier)

Soul Stretching (First Tier)

Soul Stitching (First Tier)

Soul Gathering (Second Tier)

And so the list went. There were skills, big and small, tutorials that reinforced what I had only learned—others that gave me new skills entirely.

I smiled in satisfaction, thinking how simple it would be to complete the next assignment.

I was wrong. I had no clue just how difficult and deceptive the second trial would be.