It had been a surprise when Mandy had chosen you to accompany her on this first, deliberate attempt by her to reach the place where humanity had made their first contact with an Uninvolved. Though perhaps it shouldn't have been. Your Focus had always excelled at finding the still points in chaos, the moments of peace in a world long lost to madness.
Project Insight, she'd had little doubt, would have already made the connections months ago. But here there was none of that support. No dizzyingly complex creations of science and Practice to support your minds, or to shield them in the event of some unforeseen backlash. The thought should have troubled you more than it did, but that was okay. You'd walked into fire beside the leader of your Heartcircle enough times to know her character, and that she'd rather die than leave any she cared for unprotected.
Yet this…
The beginnings had been simple, sinking deep into yourself before reaching out to find your guide. The familiar resonance of Mandy's soul had called to your own, Peace and Mending interweaving as they had many times before. Mary and Vega had looked on with careful eyes, monitoring everything. A feeling of reaching, soaring, steps that leapt between the light of different stars. It was all so much and you lost track of it all, carried along in her wake.
Vision and perception faded, twisting away from your grasp. The world flickered through endless colour, shadows and starlight that shone through all you were to leave you in darkness. None of it angry, nor was there malice. But your soul was still so fragile, and to reach this far, it was almost beyond you. Would have been, for you alone. Thankfully, you weren't.
A hand that wasn't reached down and back and through, its touch filled with a gentle strength. A welcoming grasp that drew you back towards reality, yet not the one you'd known. A vast pressure awaited you, dragging at your thoughts and forcing you to fight for simple consciousness.
It was a struggle to even recognise that you had eyes again, let alone to open them. But the first thing that you felt was the warm grasp of humanity's greatest Mender, fingers of her brilliant soul resting on your shoulder and casting back the weight of the place around you. Here, beyond the physical world, those sensations felt crystalline in their clarity. You didn't just sense her presence - you recognized it as an essential part of the world she'd helped carry you to.
"Mir?" Her voice was subtly distorted, as if heard through a medium other than air. The sensation reminded you of deep water, but without the crushing pressure that would normally accompany such depths. Instead, there was only that strange resistance, as if reality was somehow thicker here. But you managed to nod, the power of her soul gently coaxing your own into full awareness of the space that now surrounded you.
Your breath caught as your eyes finally focused. Descriptions, even the image gestalts that had been shared with you before this attempt, couldn't compare with the reality. Gently glowing walls rose to a vaulting ceiling of woven starlight, brighter threads forming patterns that anchored themselves to a floor of brilliant blue. It all seemed both solid and ephemeral at once, opening out into a grand viewpoint that simply defied geometry. The galaxy stretched out below that threshold, its spiral arms wrapped in curtains of stellar fire.
It seemed all so small, from here. Not diminished, but... simplified. As if seeing it from this remove let you finally see it all properly. You felt your soul tremble at the edge of revelation as your Focus grasped the edge of patterns in the cosmic dance that you'd never been able to see before. The ancient wars of the galaxy's founding, the cycles of violence that had followed them – from here they felt like ripples across a great pond.
But if never allowed to fade, ripples grew. Hundreds of thousands of years of them now gathered across an already tempestuous galaxy, gathering in strength. They would soon be waves, and those would become a tsunami, to wash over all that was. Yet for now? Only ripples. Disruptions that could, perhaps, yet be stilled.
Your soul flexed and familiar flesh and sinew sprang into reality, carried along in its wake. The sensation was utterly foreign - you'd wielded Practice for years, felt it shape and reshape the world around you, but this was different. This wasn't Practice reaching out to affect reality; this was your soul crafting reality from itself.
Each heartbeat felt both perfectly natural and deeply strange. Your breath came easily, yet you could sense how your soul pulled the very air you were breathing. Skin and bone and the structure you knew best emerged from pure will, the body that was yours, its seeming real and true - but you could feel the difference. Every movement carried echoes of your soul's energy, like ripples in a pond that shouldn't exist here in this place of perfect stillness.
You glanced at Amanda, watching how she held herself with practiced ease. This was familiar territory for her, you realized. How many times had she stepped beyond the physical during her life? How many hours had she spent learning to exist in this twilight state between flesh and soul? Her presence steadied you, a reminder that while this experience might be new to you, it wasn't unknown.
"Strange, isn't it?" she asked softly, noting your gaze. "The way everything feels both right and wrong at once?"
You nodded, still marveling at how such a simple motion could feel so complex. "It's like... learning to walk again, but with legs made of thought."
A slight smile touched her lips at that, though her attention never wavered from the task of supporting you. "It gets easier. Focus on what feels natural - your soul remembers your shape, even here."
You would have asked what she meant, but the question answered itself. Her words led you to the memory of the flesh you'd been born to, the ephemeral vessel that had been humanity's only home for the vast plurality of its existence. The feeling of being present in a world not your own faded, as you remembered how it was meant to feel.
With that remembering came awareness of the space beyond your immediate surroundings. You looked out at the world with eyes that still saw in the light of souls, yet also that of suns. For a moment the lines of the gallery around you sang the echo of a flickering melody. But only for a moment – then it was gone. And you realised that there were others here with you, their presences as distinct as stars against the void.
The first bore down upon your awareness like an ocean of gathered souls, countless voices deliberately and willingly merged into a singular whole that gathered around it a presence with the weight of epochs. A crimson cloak enfolded the Uninvolved, seeming to drink in the starlight around it. There was a deep serenity there, but it was somehow incomplete, as if peace had been accepted rather than sought.
The second presence was far easier to comprehend, yet all the more shocking to find here. A third, singular soul, bright with familiar power… And known to you. The recognition hit like a physical blow as you recognised Savino Lindholm standing beside the Uninvolved.
Your lips parted, questions crowding against your tongue, but for a moment you could only stare. How could he be here? What did it mean that he was?
"Come on." Your questions were swept to the side by the total authority in Amanda's voice as she stepped towards your comrade, skin shimmering as it failed to properly contain her soul. The tears on Sav's cheeks, the lines on his face, told you everything you needed to know right now. And now that she'd ensured your formation and stability, well. Mandy was Mandy.
The world warped and you felt the power of your soul flaring out in sputtering defiance against the place's pressure, pulling you along in the wake of your friend. Green and gold parted the gentle light of the gallery around her, altering the organisation of this reality until a single step brought you both to Savino's side.
The months of separation and Shiplord custody had left marks on the man, lines of pain and fatigue worn deep into his youthful face. But he still stood, even as tears traced silently down his cheeks. He stood, and stared at you both, in his eyes the desperate hope of one cast adrift at sea who has long since forgotten what it is to know dry land. You could sense, barely, a more subtle power at work allowing him to endure in this place. An echo of the ancient power of the Uninvolved who had brought Amanda here, to set this journey in motion.
But it was just an echo, the barest hint of that entity's power, and entirely different to the presence of a human soul. And that, you knew, was what was needed.
Savino's legs buckled as the strain of the space around him was abruptly removed, but Mandy was already there, still a step ahead of you. And her soul surged, drawing on the deepest expression of her Focus. Mending at its most human, or perhaps its most Amanda. Healing.
The power of her soul washed across him, twining across scars of failure and isolation, and the tears on his face simply vanished. Gone in an instant. A moment later, your hand found his shoulder, your own Focus unfolding into the space cleared by Amanda's outburst. The weight around you was just as oppressive as it had been, but you were anchored now. You had the ability to think it through and recognise the sensation for what it was.
It was almost familiar. Not the same as the energy you'd gathered and drained away in grounding the expressions of Practice from Amanda and Vega. But the core process, using your Focus to cancel out the presence of disruptions? You'd wondered if it might be able to do more than what you'd only so recently realised you could do in practice. Now, it seemed, was time to test a little more of how far that theory truly went.
You took a breath and forced yourself to focus, reaching past the reality of the situation, chasing that feeling of familiarity. Feeling the energy pressing in, the weight and presence of this ancient construct bearing down upon your soul. It wasn't anything deliberate, you knew that with the easy instinct of your Focus. But it was still a pressure, constantly wearing at the integrity of your souls. Amanda's seemed strong enough to endure without aid, but for you and Savino?
You could both do with a little bit of Peace.
Pure, gentle radiance gathered around you as that intent solidified in your mind, collecting around your left hand. You brought that hand up to eye level, watching in wonder as the light shifted, coiling against the intrusive pressure all around you. Shifting through changes so subtle that you knew you couldn't track them all, but with each one, blue light bled from the world around you. A bubble of warmer tones replaced it, the sort that tapped ancient memories of your species.
It didn't stretch far, and you could feel the steady strain on your Focus from maintaining the creation. But you could also feel how much weight vanished from your shoulders as the field stabilised, grounding out any pressure upon your souls. The tension in Savino's shoulders faded to nothing, and you could almost see the pressure of months of imprisonment sloughing off of his soul.
"You came," he said. His voice was rough from misuse, dry and cracked and you had no water to offer him. But there was no mistaking the shocked catharsis in his voice, an entirely emotional response to what must have seemed nigh-impossible coming true. "You actually came."
"Yes," Mandy murmured. She pulled back a moment, holding him at arm's length as her eyes and Focus took in everything. The energy around him shifted in response, weaves of a Mender's power forming bandages and even a few metaphysical sticky plasters.
"I'm so sorry that it took so long," Amanda said, shaking her head. "I didn't know. If I had-"
"I never thought this would really work," Savino told her firmly, the corners of his eyes crinkling warmly despite his situation. His breathing had steadied out, and there were even hints of colour growing on his pale cheeks. "But you're here now. And I have a lot to tell you."
The details of the Fourth Battle of Sol were sketched out swiftly. The War Fleet, the Shiplord deployment of a Lumen class against your home. And the trap, laid to capture one of humanity's most powerful combat assets. More than one had died, too, but Savino was the only one to have been taken, it seemed. Through the quick sentences, you could feel Amanda wanting to jump in, to apologise. But the clipped speed of the explanation defeated her, until you reached the inevitable continuation.
Savino's captivity.
"I can't say that it's been pleasant," he admitted, tugging absently at his wrist. "But I do have a few positive things to report."
"Oh?" You'd taken over the talking for a moment, as Amanda conferred with your host. There was no exchange of words, but words rippled between the two figures on currents of power. It could have been terrifying, but none of it felt inimical to your Focus. They were just…talking. In a way that neither of you could even begin to understand. Let alone follow.
You did your best to push those thoughts to one side, at least for now. Focusing on Sav as he continued.
"They've kept me suppressed since my capture, not that that's a surprise after what they've seen Unisonbound do." Not a surprise at all. Only a small portion of the Two Twenty Three could invest their words with power, but the Shiplords didn't know that. And even those who couldn't were lethal combatants on the scale of void warfare.
Though it did raise a question. "They didn't just remove the links?"
"That's one of those positive things," he said, a bitter smile pulling at his mouth. Bitter for the cost, but still there. "They tried. I'm pretty sure they could've done it with the right tools, but they seemed unwilling to try and rip limbs off of me. Tried to get me to take them off myself, but that didn't exactly work out either."
"You mean…" you let the question trail off as the smile on Sav's face morphed into a wolfish grin.
"None of their nanoviruses took." Five words, with some truly significant meaning to them. "The way that Practice changes our bodies when we Awaken protected me. Even from the Shiplords."
"That's… That's good, Sav. Really good." And it was. To the knowledge of humanity when you'd left it, the knowledge Savino had, they would be the only race who might have known how to bypass the protections of a Potential.
After what you'd found at the Third Sorrow, you weren't sure it was quite that simple. But the fact that the Shiplords hadn't been willing to use whatever knowledge they'd surely gleaned from the tombs of the Hjivin was still good news. And they hadn't. His soul, at least, was still entirely his own.
"What have they been doing to you, then?" you asked. It didn't look like the man had been tortured, but the only way to be sure was to ask. The dark flicker across your comrade's face said much without a single word.
His lips worked for a moment, before he sighed. "They…asked questions. Endlessly. The same questions, over and over. They provided sustenance when their systems suggested it, though only just enough. Kept me restrained and suppressed. And just kept asking."
"About what?"
"They started with little things. Personal details, like my name. Who I was. It wasn't so bad at first, but that sort of steady repetition breaks you down." He shook his head. "More than you'd think. And with everything suppressed, I could barely communicate with Ihlan. What we did manage to do kept me sane, but barely.
"They weren't even particularly demanding," Sav murmured. "That was one of the worst things. Never tried to force me to answer or torture me. They were just there, constantly."
"You said they were there," Amanda said, with a subtle emphasis on the second-last word. Tahkel was stood back, the Uninvolved seemingly satisfied for now. Mandy, meanwhile, seemed focused. "What changed, Sav?"
"I…I don't know." He shrugged helplessly. "It was, um. I'm sorry, keeping track of time has been difficult." He paused, examining his memories intently. "Two weeks ago, maybe? They moved me. Gave me something that isn't just a cell. Access to food without it being controlled. Everything's still suppressed, but when I was moved, they stopped with the questions, too.
"I was so certain that it was a trap of some sort, another way to break me down. And hell, maybe it is," he sighed heavily. "It's not like there's much I can do about it, if so. But they had me closer than I'd like to admit to starting to answer questions. Sure, only the little ones, but that's how it starts, no?"
"That's what we were taught," you agreed, even as Amanda breathed a sigh of relief. The tension around her wasn't gone, not nearly. But the strain around her eyes, shining through the fabric of her soul, seemed reduced.
Sav chuckled.
"What?" Amanda asked.
He shook his head, smiling a bit more naturally. "You, ma'am. Just…you. Now that I can think, I can see it all so clearly. If I was being tortured, you'd already have offered to try and get me out. Consequences for your own mission be damned."
"I'm still tempted," she muttered, gnawing idly on her lip as if truly considering the idea. It was a little worrying, how long that lasted. But finally, she sighed. "I don't like you being in their hands, Sav. Not at all. But what we're doing here, what we've found."
"You shouldn't tell me," he cautioned gently. "We can't know for sure that whatever clemency I'm currently being granted will last. And you know as well as I that every mind has a limit. Grinding away my resistance might take decades, but they've got that time. And even if they don't," he raised a hand before either of you could speak. "I still don't need to know."
"You've that much confidence in us?"
"After everything you've done?" The look he levelled at you was incredulous. Though you were a little surprised that it wasn't wholly focused on Mandy. "I'd be a fool to bet against it. I'll be fine where I am. You go win this thing."
Pain flickered through Amanda's eyes at the total belief in the man's voice, born of a familiar uncertainty. She brushed it aside far faster than you could, enough that you weren't sure Savino had noticed. Courtesy of the links between a Heartcircle, however, you did.
Still, she didn't let it colour her reply. "We'll try," she said. "But before we do, I think you should both meet our host. Just leaving me to do all the talking with them seems a little rude."
"That's a good point," you said. Perhaps if two of those present hadn't been of the Second Awakening, one might have made a joke about parents teaching them manners. As it was, that humour was left unspoken.
Savino grimaced. "I hope I haven't caused any offence?"
"None at all," Amanda reassured you both, waving the concern away. "They're interested, but I was able to explain why our focus went elsewhere on arrival. And for you, Sav, well it might be better for Tahkel to explain that. Putting it simply, however? Connecting you to this place safely wasn't easy.
"And yes," she added quickly. "I'm aware that your experience here wasn't exactly child-friendly. But please believe me when I say that it was better than an alternative that would've seen your soul laminated into the floor by accident."
There wasn't a shred of harshness in the woman's explanation, but the image the words conjured was certainly compelling. And just a little disturbing.
"That's not going to happen if we go talk to them now, though, right?" Savino asked, a touch of more personal concern entering his voice. "I rather like not being part of some…enormous soulspace construct?"
"Close enough," said a voice of a thousand possibilities. Amanda had tried to explain, of course she had. But you weren't sure anyone could have explained this. Every voice that the Uninvolved could have taken, they all spoke together.
Amanda turned slightly, opening a space in your group to the fourth being present. Given what little you knew about the Uninvolved, the term individual seemed insufficient. Points of piercing blue light fixed on you beneath a hood of crimson, and the very world about you seemed to bend in on itself. As if the entire gallery was peering down on you, the walls suddenly filled with countless balconies that gathered across them the judgement of a nation.
"Tahkel?" Amanda asked slowly, embers of protective concern gathering in her voice. Faint rays of emerald light twisted between her hands, ready to grasp far more if needed.
Tahkel's focus upon you didn't flicker, but the pressure of it slipped away so quickly that you wondered for a moment if it had been there at all. Then it raised a hand of cracked grey-green skin, a single long finger extended.
"You see it clearly." Something in the words made your soul resonate. They sounded almost proud. And deeply curious.
You took a breath, licking suddenly dry lips. "I saw something," you answered. It was the truth, after all. "Perhaps a fragment of a truth. This place – did you make it this way deliberately?"
The Uninvolved's cloak rippled, something like amusement coloring their presence. "The nature of this space reflects what we became, when we chose to leave the physical world behind. But that is not all that it is. For you to see so clearly is…interesting."
There was a deep curiosity in Tahkel's words, one that felt familiar. It was, you realised, the same sort of interest that drove so many of humanity's Potentials to push the boundaries of what Practice could achieve. Then they flicked their hand down, odd skin vanishing beneath folds of red fabric.
"Not this place to judge. For that, we would apologise for any tension." You glanced to each side as it spoke, watching the tense set of Amanda's shoulders only now relax. Takhel turned to her, inclining their head a fraction.
"You wished for us to meet," that voice of hundreds said.
"I did," Amanda agreed. She smiled faintly at the two of you. "We've already had our conversation. Unisonbound gestalt conversation is similar enough to how Uninvolved speak to function. It helped me the first time Tahkel brought me here, and is much faster."
"That was what I felt, then?" you asked. "I knew you were doing something, that it was communication, but making sense of it was more than I could do at the time.
She nodded, though her eyes remained serious. "It's not as simple as our gestalts, though, so I'd recommend keeping it verbal for now. Though don't think I haven't noticed you getting used to the place, Mir." She cast an approving glance your way, and you felt your field pulse slightly in response to the praise.
"You can let go of your field if you wish," she told you gently. "It's very impressive, but I imagine maintaining it is taking considerable effort."
You nodded, trying not to think about how much of your soul was currently dedicated to holding back the pressure of this place. The strain wasn't unbearable, but it definitely wasn't something you'd want to maintain indefinitely. Still, there was something deeply satisfying about how perfectly the technique worked here, in a space so far beyond normal reality.
"I'd prefer if he didn't, actually." Savino's voice was quiet, but carried a note of genuine concern. "No offense to your abilities, Mandy, but... I can feel how much easier it is to exist here with what he's doing." He gestured vaguely at the warmer-toned bubble of space around you. "It's like having solid ground under my feet again, after weeks of trying not to drown."
You shared a quick look with Amanda, seeing understanding dawn in her eyes. Of course - after months of suppression and isolation, having his soul suddenly exposed to the raw presence of an Uninvolved must have been terribly overwhelming for him. Your field wasn't just making things comfortable; it was providing a desperately needed buffer between Savino and the vast forces surrounding you all.
"I can maintain it," you assured them both. "At least until we're done here." The strain was considerable, yes, but nothing compared to what you'd endured in actual combat. And if it helped your fellow Unisonbound feel secure enough to face what was coming, then it was worth every ounce of effort.
"How much risk was involved in bringing him here?" you asked. "For both of them, I mean."
Amanda's expression turned thoughtful. "Less than you might think, at least initially. Tahkel was able to locate and reach out to Sav's soul with relative ease - the Shiplords can suppress Practice, but they can't hide a soul from an Uninvolved." She paused, considering her next words. "The real challenge came after."
"The suppression made it harder," Savino added, his voice steadier now. "But I was... looking for something. Anything. When I felt that first touch..." He shook his head, an almost frightful yearning stealing across his face. "It was like finding a door in a solid wall."
"The difficulty," Amanda continued, "was in maintaining his presence here without damaging his soul. Unisonbound or not, he's not an Uninvolved, and that creates certain... complications when dealing with spaces like this. Tahkel had to constantly adjust their influence on the space to keep him stable, until we could arrive.
"Which is part of why what you're doing now is so helpful, Mir. It's giving his soul a chance to properly settle."
"It was surprisingly challenging," Tahkel's voice rippled through the space, somehow both vast and carefully restrained. "To use so little of what we are. Even then, we failed to properly shield you from our presence." The Uninvolved's form shifted, cloak rippling as if in an unfelt breeze. "We apologize for that discomfort, Savino Lindholm."
"You helped," Savino replied simply. "That's what matters."
"Perhaps." There was something almost like warmth in Tahkel's tone. "But your companions have provided an elegant solution. The interaction of their own protections will help us better calibrate this space for future meetings."
The ancient being paused, considering. "And the question does you credit, Mir, but the risk to us was minimal. The Shiplords seek signs of our kind affecting physical reality. This was something else entirely."
Amanda nodded, clearly understanding something in those words that eluded you. But before you could ask, you felt a subtle shift in the space around you. Not threatening, but definitive - a gentle suggestion that your time here was drawing to a close.
"We should go," Amanda said softly, confirming your sense of things. She reached out to grip Savino's shoulder one last time. "We'll find a way to end this, I promise."
Savino managed a small smile. "I know you will. Just... be careful? All of you."
"We will," you said, the words an oath. Then you reached out, grasping his shoulder, and energy twisted and surged across the lesser connection between you both.
All you knew of your own technique, to try and aid him in creating his own surged across that link. You weren't sure how an Insight Focused would adjust it, but you could at least give him a foundation. "Take care of yourself, Sav."
The starlight began to fade around you, but you maintained your protective field until the very last moment. As reality started to blur, you caught one final glimpse of your fellow Unisonbound standing beside the crimson-cloaked figure. Sav's face was set with new determination, and you could feel the subtle resonance of his own Practice as he began testing what you'd given him. Then Amanda's soul brushed against your own, and together you began the journey home.
The transition was gentler this time, helped perhaps by your greater understanding of what it meant to exist beyond physical form. Colours swirled and reality twisted, but your Focus remained steady, finding the still points in that cosmic dance. You felt Amanda's presence like an anchor beside you, her own power weaving through the space between spaces to guide you both back to where you'd begun.
When awareness returned, you found yourself exactly where you'd started, seated across from your friend in the comfortable surroundings of the Magi. Mary and Vega were there, watchful as ever, but their tension eased as they saw you both blink and take more controlled breaths. There would be a great deal of time spent on explanations later, for sharing what you'd learned and seen. But for now, you simply breathed, feeling the familiar weight of physical existence settle back around you. And if your soul ached a little at leaving one of your own behind, well… That too was familiar. You'd all carried such weights before.
What mattered was that you'd found him. And more than that - you'd found a way forward, not just for Savino, but perhaps for all of you. In that place of perfect stillness, you'd glimpsed something of what true peace might mean. It was a lesson you wouldn't soon forget.
