I''d been looking at that non-euclidean gulf between my Dumines for so long that I was going to be dizzy when I opened my eyes and tried to see the real world. That feeling like a distant voice at the end of a long passage was almost forming words as it argued with me, and the lines flickering between the fixed points of my gifts had started to make sense and then come full circle to being incomprehensible again.


    Could I gain the ability to make fate threads? Yes. Could I also make threads that tethered spirits to things? Sure. Could I make threads that tethered spirits, but using the fate layer? Absolutely not, also here''s how you would do it if you want. I took that as a yes; it was the basic Dumine functions trying to say no and the "voice" showing me how - I''d already done things that fell into that category. So the next question would be, can I unlock one ability that lets me do both of those things?


    Begrudgingly, it seemed to acknowledge I could.


    Okay, but there was also that spell on me that bound me to human Calliope. Could I do that? No (yes, here''s how). But no, that was totally different and what I wanted was that, and the spirit stuff in general, and the fate stuff, and... whatever else could be done. Just all of it. It kept trying to give me as little as possible, some tightly-defined ability rather than "do magic but with thread thingies". I tried to force it, in a way that I hadn''t since the initial struggle to unlock anything at all. "Come on you motherfucker, give me what I want! The Clockmaker could do it, which means it''s possible."


    And it answered me.


    It still wasn''t actual words, quite, but it was far closer than it had been. It felt... a little exasperated, maybe?


    This build is missing a key Perception component due to biological incompatibility. You would have no way of clearly understanding what you were doing, and would lack any of the guardrails that come with other magic granted via Dumines.


    Oh. Huh. I''d gotten a pretty clear "you can''t do that", or "you don''t have enough potential for that", and those hadn''t really been words either. But those had come from the Dumines, and this was from that other thing. I''d felt like we were having a conversation once or twice, but this was... something else. Also, it still wasn''t stopping me - maybe it couldn''t. There was a pattern there, and if I pushed I could imprint it. It was mostly Fate and Comprehension, with the usual offshoots towards other gifts. This thing, this intelligence that seemed to be in charge of designing the abilities people unlocked, was trying to tell me I''d regret this choice. Should I listen?


    I''d gotten as far as I had by taking some outrageous swings and doing things I wasn''t supposed to be able to do. This could be another step towards that, something that would give me power to get away from the people that would control me. But also, one of these days I was going to seriously fuck up and get myself killed. I so wanted to be the super special protagonist - it was why I had started practicing throwing knives in the alley by the Long Haul Hotel and tried to learn parkour until it nearly got me killed falling off a roof. It was why I''d written that embarrassing fan fiction of the Jake Ross books. Ugh. And now here I was, looking pretty damn special and having abilities nobody else had and I wanted more. I wanted all of it, and was going to overreach and ruin things.


    I tried to focus my thoughts and transmit them to whatever was at the other end of the connection. "I want to do this eventually. I''ll find a way. What can I do now, that will still lay the groundwork for it? I want all my abilities to work together as much as possible so they''re efficient and stuff."


    The lines squirmed around in their impossible way, and several patterns repeated in a cycle. The same... shape... was underlying all of them. After a moment, the lines reset and only that unifying pattern remained. The message seemed clear enough, and it was connected to the right gifts so... fuck it. I snagged it. I opened my eyes and turned on the threadsight, and tried to do something. I wasn''t sure what. After a moment a thread appeared in my hand, devoid of all color. Not clear, and not white or black, just... no color at all. Yet another reminder that this perception of color didn''t have anything to do with light or my eyes.


    I could stretch it, but I couldn''t figure out how to attach it to anything. It would just slide off and float there, nearly weightless but still drifting slightly downwards in an almost imperceptible way. If I dropped it completely, it evaporated away. Hmm. I made another, and tried to force some color into it. This would be for spirit stuff, and spirit was yellow. And... nothing. I could focus on the color, or focus on the intent, or both. There was no response. I let it go and made another, concentrating on spirt stuff the whole time. Nope, colorless shitty noodle.


    I didn''t get frustrated; this was kinda expected, as I''d asked for some power that could be adapted into the others. It made sense it might have limited use on its own, and it hadn''t used as much of my potential as I was expecting. The only part that worried me was that I couldn''t see that opalescent shimmer that would indicate it was working the way fate did. That was a pretty important part. I looked at the fate threads as I worked, just in case keeping them in mind could help somehow, and tried to spin up another new one.


    My mana plummeted.


    It didn''t quite bottom out, but it was close. I''d been basically at full, and just making one little thread had nearly drained my entire reserve. It was hard to put a number on, but it felt like... maybe 75% of my maximum? But there it was, a colorless fate thread that I couldn''t do anything with. Was it worth it? Kinda! It was a great proof of concept at the very least, and it was possible I could make it do something if I kept playing.


    Except then I kept playing, and it didn''t do jack shit.


    I did manage to make a sort of cat''s cradle thing with it, although I still couldn''t seem to touch any of the other threads. I couldn''t get it to adhere to anything, even myself, and eventually dropped it while messing around - it wasn''t easy to drop by accident since it floated with my hand like some sort of static electricity effect, but I''d been trying to tie it around the other threads and just sort of let go of both ends at once by mistake. When I finally had enough mana to make another, I created it with the firm intent for it to connect me and Hugh. I held Hugh''s image in my mind, his name, his whole vibe. This line would tie us together. It would go from me to him. It would.


    The line formed, and drifted quickly towards Hugh as it attached firmly to my core. I watched, fascinated, as it got all the way over to him and pulled taut as it gained purchase... and then fell apart into nothingness. Huh. I had to admit it was possible that there was a need for a purpose or a duration or something - I''d told it that it needed to be attached to me at one end and Hugh at the other, so it did that. But then? Well, its goal in life was achieved and it had nothing else to do. Hmm.


    I only had time for one more attempt before we''d be done in the practice room for the day, and at that point my mana regeneration would be practically nothing. I meditated on my Dumines again, and prepared to add something. Fate was tempting, but I was still thinking through what I would do with it that wouldn''t turn into some ridiculous monkey''s paw situation. Meanwhile the spirit thing would be useful, was pretty cheap in terms of potential, and I could experiment with it on the little doughboy guys that sometimes showed up in the practice room.


    I could also try to see if I could make something like the link between human Calliope and myself, but I didn''t want that exactly anyway. A quick query of my Dumines turned into a longer back and forth, and I managed to define what I wanted. A multi-purpose thread that could connect two people or spirits, and would facilitate the transfer of information in whatever directions I chose - I wanted the option of making it one-way or letting it go back and forth. Eventually I felt pretty sure we were on the same page and this thing would let me get all the good parts of the link the Sargher had made, but it was going to tap me out of potential for now. That... was probably fine.


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    I wanted the actual fate stuff, sure, and I wanted a way to sever or destroy threads but that part hadn''t been on offer regardless. In the meantime, making my own would give me a better idea of what I needed to do. And the fate stuff... it could wait. I opened my eyes and looked around, finding a little doughboy spirit nearby. First I wanted to see if I could do the cheap version, the non-fate type of thread. I concentrated, and watched it spool out of nowhere and bind the two of us together. And then... I felt my mana draining. Fast. I cut it off, and watched the thread dissolve. Well, shit.


    Meanwhile, the little spirit was looking... less little. I watched, fascinated, as the other doughboys swarmed it and tried to eat it - the battle was fierce, but the little guy I''d connected to eventually came out on top and devoured his cousins. He then tried to gnaw on me, and I could almost feel it. It was like I was being gently gummed by a baby ghost. I flicked at it, and that seemed to annoy but not really hurt it - there seemed to be a strange threshold where ephemeral matter was just barely solid enough to touch, but not yet solid enough to destroy. The interesting thing was that a little past that threshold a gentle tap would likely obliterate it, since I was so much more real than it.


    A few more flicks sent it running off to look for something less feisty to attack, and I tried to think about what had gone wrong. It had been dirt cheap to make the thread, but then cost a fortune to keep it going - the opposite of when I made one on the fate layer. Well, I''d always known that one of the advantages to the fate stuff was that it just lasted forever for free. But then... the link between my body and my mind wasn''t a fate thing, and it didn''t cost me anything - right? Probably there were books in the library at Sentortzi about this. It could partly be that the connection was way simpler than what I was trying to do - I''d made this thing custom with all sorts of bells and whistles. Maybe it was also being paid all the time, so we just didn''t notice? But then in an area with basically no mana surely we''d feel it.


    It could be taking from the connection between planes, but... no, because there were times that your mind and soul were on the same plane as your body. Hmm. Could that be it? I''d been told your mana regeneration was lower if your mind and soul were on the same plane as you because you weren''t benefitting from the cross-planar stuff. But what if the actual mechanism for that difference was that your regen was largely going towards paying for the link when it would otherwise be counteracted by that planar mana? I knew from experience that when you used more than you had you''d burn through some of the life mana that your body held, and if you used it all it would potentially kill you.


    I did a few exercises while I tried to think about what to do next, and waited for my mana to replenish. When I had finally gained back the amount that had gushed out during my brief experiment, I pulled my mind back to my body but didn''t let it overlap - I wanted to see the thread. Could I re-make it, if something ever severed it? Would it be a problem if I used my special type, instead of whatever this natural one was? It did a lot of the same stuff, so the connection would be basically the same, right? I concentrated on it, trying to see more of what it was doing, but other than the colors I wasn''t getting anything. If I made one of my fancy threads right next to it would I see the difference better?


    I started to spin up one of my fancy threads, using the extra mana to make it on the fate layer. I wanted it to connect me to my mind, so I could feel both connections at once and try to figure out if I was missing something, but as it formed something abruptly went wrong. They merged. The existing thread was pulled in, and I could see it bend as it was pulled in an impossible direction. I frantically tried to cut off the magic, but the mana was already spent and the thread was forming whether I wanted it to or not. It happened in an instant, just barely long enough for my panic to trigger.


    And... I felt fine. I shifted to my mind and back. I hopped into my memory palace. It was... normal. Well, close to normal - I felt like I had that extra level of control I''d built in, like I could toggle whether or not information passed between my body and mind. I''d done some of that manually in the past with the old connection, trying to shut out pain or immerse myself deeper into my memory palace, but this was like having a physical dial I could turn. All my senses, my memories, anything that might pass through the link could be turned on or off with a thought. Nice.


    Before I could celebrate, Klinec barged in. He had a title, probably one I was supposed to be using, but I hadn''t been paying any attention when he was first introduced and couldn''t be bothered to ask since then. Commander, probably, or Base Commander, or Head Lackey. This was twice in one week that he''d showed up, when we had sometimes gone for a well over a week without a single one of his little visits. His assistant, or second in command or whatever was with him, and as always she looked so familiar.


    I wasn''t in my body, but was watching the room via divination - I''d wanted to practice piloting myself around remotely in case that felt different with the new thread - so I was able to get up nice and close to examine her. Her skin was a darker brown than I''d seen on most people here, and her hair was not only copper colored but had a metallic sheen. A very steep, flat nose that looked like something you''d see on a caricature but wasn''t actually ugly or anything, just... surprisingly geometric. I''d for sure remember a face like that. She wore a uniform like the others, but never full armor and no visible weapons. Not a soldier, though presumably everyone here knew how to fight.


    I had my body up and watching them too, so they wouldn''t suspect I was also using divination - I wasn''t sure what they did or didn''t know about my abilities. I piloted my body a little closer to them, and gave the minimal bow, almost just a head nod. The corners of his mouth tightened for a moment, but then he smiled.


    "Calliope, I hope your training is going well?"


    He had something in a bag, tucked into his belt behind him. What was that? "Yeah, same as the other day. Does Hammersmith need me for something?"


    I was dropping her name on purpose - I suspected she had told him to leave us alone, and he didn''t like someone else swooping in to his facility and giving orders. He clearly also hated my special arrangement. He wasn''t great at hiding his emotions, not if you were paying attention, and subtly reminding him that I only had to give a shit about what Hammersmith said always caused him to tense for a second.


    "No, Lord Protector Hammersmith isn''t the reason I''m here. I wanted to volunteer to spend some time with you, possibly give you some guidance to prepare you for the upcoming operation."


    "I assumed someone would do that closer to time and it would be mandatory," I said, "is this... mandatory?"


    Another little mini-frown before the smile took over again. "No, of course not. But it may be good for you to have a little extra attention, when the day arrives I think things are likely to be quite busy."


    I was still pacing around him invisibly. He wore armor but no helmet, and his armor was embellished. It wasn''t a lot, just these little touches you''d see if you looked close. It was also shiny as hell, in a way that told me he either had it shined for hours every morning or there was some special work done on it. I was betting on the latter. I managed to pull the mystery bag from his belt - in the divination view, not in reality - and was only slightly surprised to find myself looking at some iron manacles. Cool.


    "Yeah. Yeah it''ll probably be really busy, for sure. I''ll think about it, we''re about done for today regardless."


    Was he planning on binding me in iron? He couldn''t. Not against Hammersmith''s orders, and she was... mostly... forced to play nice by the oath. There were loopholes of course, and he could always take matters into his own hands, but... no. No, more likely he just liked having them as a contingency, or at worst thought he could use them on me when the job was done. The oath for sure forbade that, but... loopholes.


    Hugh took the hint and grabbed his things, and we walked out with Klinec and his assistant. I was still watching him closely, keeping an eye on him from behind so that he couldn''t try to pull anything while I...


    Wait.


    What the fuck.


    My body stumbled, and I quickly righted it. "Sorry, it''s been a long day of practice. Must be getting clumsy."


    I hurried up, and headed to my room and inside. I was still watching from outside my body. My mind was still in my memory palace. The wards should have yanked my mind back as soon as we left the room - I quickly confirmed that they had, for my soul. Hugh was looking at me funny, he knew something was up. He probably wouldn''t ask though, he liked to try and figure out what I was up to. I wasn''t sure how to pull my soul out of my body, and I couldn''t see the thread while it was in there, but I''d have to give it the same treatment as soon as possible. It didn''t matter right away, I was out of mana regardless. Oh. Mana. What would this do to my rate of regeneration? It should at least count as my mind being in Ematse - since it was - but would it be even more since the thread connecting it to my body was on the Fate layer, or was that going to fuck things up somehow and make me not get any mana at all from there?


    I told Hugh I was going to go to bed early. It was going to be a long night of experimenting.