Depth against breadth.
It all came down to connections, in the end. Every moment of your life since the Shiplords had destroyed the old world. Connections had been the founding of the Circles. They'd helped you rebuild humanity, and find paths to futures you'd never believed possible.
When asked where one should go, what path one should take, it was always the answer at the tip of your tongue. Not right for all, of course, you knew that. But never wrong for you. And you knew Mary better than anyone, knew how much her soul was kindred to your own. Looking at it that way, in that context? What other answer could there be?
Except there was another option. And one that, here and now, struck you as all the better.
"Neither." The word came easily, naturally, as did those that followed. Drawn from the truth that had so defined you both. "If you want to use this, and I know you do, you'll need to understand it. But understanding can't be forced, Mary. Let this come to you, in time, growing into whatever it's meant to be."
"Couldn't that hurt me?" Mary asked. It both was and wasn't a real question. She knew you'd never suggest anything that would deliberately harm her. But it was still one worth asking, just in case. She'd have done it regardless of who the source of advice was.
"I doubt that after everything we did to it just now," you said. "We didn't just repair your links, Mary. We made them stronger. And we're all aware of them now. If something does go wrong, one of us will notice. And we'll catch you before it can hurt you.
Your friend smiled at you, and nodded. "Of course you will," she said warmly, green eyes gleaming. "And you're right, of course. I want to understand, but everything we know of Practice tells us that there's danger in reaching too far, too fast. Maybe choosing a path could give me faster answers, but would they be the ones I want? The ones we need? None of us can say."
And who said you had to be able to do so. Though you'd chosen connections and depth so many times, you'd also let your greatest creation grow in its own time. That was part of what made the Circles so powerful.
"So," Mary said, stretching out the word. "Any suggestions on how I actually do that?"
You laughed, all of you, enjoying the moment for just a little while. Then you brushed off your hands, and looked over at Vega.
"Feel up to helping?" you asked the Harmonial.
She nodded, still smiling from the laughter, pale eyes bright. "It feels my field," she agreed. "Why wouldn't I help?"
It was only a start, what you did in the hours that followed. A primer, really, on the more practical aspects of your understandings of what it was to wield power through your soul. And even that didn't feel quite right to any of you, at least not yet. But it was a start. And from that, many things could grow. In their own time.
Then it was on to other matters, turning your attention to the visions you'd glimpsed when searching for what lay in Mary's soul. The ones you'd seen in a handful of jumps, and that took you all the way back to the night this mission had truly begun.
All told, it was surprisingly easy to find your way back. Though what was waiting for you there? That, you hadn't been expecting.
It had been many months since you'd last seen this place.
Your soul took shape within that gallery of woven starlight, the light of countless stars intertwined into a vaulting cathedral that looked out across the galaxy entire. You could, you thought, almost tell where your body was. Where on that first occasion there'd been no sign, or no awareness, this time you knew at least a little of what you were doing.
Sparks of shimmering light flickered in the void below, stretching down towards the ageless spiral that held everything you'd ever known. Greengold and silver they were, each the smallest fraction of your soul. Like fragments of feathers, unseated by unskilled wingbeats.
So little of the setting had changed, but was that a surprise, given who'd made it? Perhaps the real surprise was the changes that had been wrought upon yourself.
Tahkel's red-cloaked figure stood almost exactly as they'd been before, their posture almost human, but only that. You could feel the strength radiating from the Uninvolved, pouring out from their presence in the space like light from a star. It was everywhere, and entirely irresistible, which was a novel feeling for you. There were relatively few who could match the strength of your soul, though Tahkel was so far beyond your own strength that any comparison seemed laughable.
Yet they seemed welcoming and… Open, even, in a way that their first, tentative contact hadn't been. Had Adriana already followed through on the promise you'd made to preserve the memories of their kind? That and many more questions raced through your mind, all cast aside in moments.
For next to Tahkel stood another figure, the singular change that your senses could feel in this place. You didn't need to look at them to know that they were human; you could feel the streamers of gentle power that bound you together. The gentle links of the web you'd spun across humanity first, then a stronger bond from a place among the Unisonbound.
Savino Lindholm's eyes were wet with tears as he stared back at you across a vista of silvery-blue starlight, the man's dark hair almost shocking in contrast. The crystalline lines of his Unison Platform glittered on his skin, though like Sidra, the mind within them was oddly silent. You'd never dared to believe that you might see him again, not after what Kicha had told you. But something told you that there was no hiding the nature of one's soul, not in this place. And certainly not before an Uninvolved.
For all weapons the Shiplords had made, they couldn't take away that mastery. This place beyond the grip of conventional reality was the domain of Tahkel, and all those like them.
How long had he been waiting here, you wondered. Ever since the first time you sensed this place, in the moments of a jump? Longer? A cursory glance across his soul showed no signs of immediate damage beyond simple exhaustion, and even that seemed faded. Capture and captivity had cut deep into your comrade's reserves, but it hadn't gone deep enough to break him. Not before something changed.
"Amanda?" His voice was whisper-quiet, that of a man struggling to draw breath enough to speak. That could make things complicated. You were able to speak freely here, but the Third Battle of Sol had changed you. That, it seemed, was why you could speak here easily. Tahkel had suggested that Project Insight would be able to talk to them, but that was a working group of dozens of Potentials, all working in tandem.
One Potential, alone, even a Unisonbound? The presence of the place must be choking. You took a step forward, reaching out to help, but then forced yourself to pause. Because you hadn't come alone this time, and that meant you'd need to help your guest along. You really hoped it would be enough.
"It's me," you called gently to Sav. "Just give me a minute, okay?"
Then you reached back and grasped the soul that you'd brought with you to this place, easing them gently into existence. Tahkel started in surprise at that, their gently glowing eyes reflecting the feeling of a raised eyebrow and just a touch of pride in your growing abilities.
They'd help if you needed it, you thought. But you didn't. Not today. Next to you, the soul took shape. And the third human to ever see a place like this, at least as far as you knew, opened their eyes.
Maybe they could help you with Sav?
But who did you bring into this place of woven stars and shuddering souls?
[] Write-in
