Echoes of Ceotir

The following few days repeated with similar results but with each new day, he found himself getting better at maintaining the spiritual form. Keira had continued to sleep in his room and each night she woke him with a flaming aura that filled it. But with every passing night, it got easier, her spirit stopped fighting his when it tried to help and she calmed the instant he touched her. Whatever it was doing to soothe her nightmares had a lasting effect and he was sure she would soon sleep sound again.

Every night she apologised and berated herself but it never stopped her wanting to stay over at the end of their long days. William was always in good spirits first thing in the morning. He was enjoying the sparring sessions and he had been getting better at communicating with his spirit. He was able to call out his axe consistently and every morning he wanted to show it off.

The rest of their section were all making progress in their own unique paths and it had become clear that Faye was not only brilliant herself but a great teacher. It all felt very positive but there was one thing that was still causing him concern—Keira could feel herself changing. It wasn’t anything tremendous, they were small shifts that both of them had picked up on. But it was those small changes that scared her.

It was after that first day when she mentioned her fear that they spoke in length about all the changes. She told him it was subtle, small things such as craving meat instead of her old passion for sugary treats. He didn’t think that was necessarily a bad thing but he understood that it was a sudden change that coincided too close to the contract formation. He had noticed her change in diet but there were more he hadn't seen.

She explained that when he started running around the room, she couldn’t help but follow him; like the movement was catching her attention and she was struggling to focus on anything else. When she was sparring, she became hyper-fixated on the tiny adjustments the person she was up against made. It had helped her win her fights but it felt unnatural, it wasn’t something she’d ever even noticed in the past.

“You’re just becoming the cat you were always meant to be,” he joked after she told him.

“Ha-ha,” she said in her most sarcastic tone. “But seriously, it’s not far off, I feel like I’m turning into some weird predator and that’s kind of scary.”

“It’s probably the same thing we talked about, the spirit’s urges and emotions affecting you, it’ll pass and if not we can talk to Faye again.”

They hadn’t passed and after a few days they decided to talk to Faye but her answers for once didn’t provide much comfort to Keira. She had explained that though she’ll adapt to the spirit and get used to pushing back against those thoughts, it would still have a natural influence on her that might change her to some extent. Though she had reassured Keira that any changes weren’t likely to turn her into anything so different from who she was. These experiences would be small and if she hated them she could work on changing them back as one might do with bad habits.

Now as the week had gone by, there weren’t any new differences to her but she still felt those same sensations as strong as she ever had and didn’t feel they were going to fade. The topic had come back up as they were leaving to meet William and have breakfast before another day at the guild.

“Ultimately it’s not a bad thing, it seems to be helping you in combat lessons so that’s positive.”

“It is, honestly, if this is all that changes I’d be happy. I’m just scared that something worse will come, I told you before, the spirit wants to fight everything all the time. What if I become like that?”

“You’ve made good progress with it, you’re understanding each other better, and Faye said you’re not going to turn into someone you’re not. What’s the worst that could really happen?”

“I become a demon.”

He stopped in the hallway and looked at her. “You’re not seriously thinking that are you?”

She turned to face him. “I don’t know, it’s not like we understand everything about them, maybe demons with physical forms start off as animals or even people.”

“That’s not how it works, we’d know if people turned into demons,” he frowned as he looked at her. “What brought this on, wait—don’t tell me you spoke to your family about this, your mother?”

“No,” she turned away from his gaze. “Well sort of, I didn’t tell them everything but we spoke on the phone a bit and I guess she said some things.”

“Hell, Keira, that’s ridiculous,” he grabbed her by her shoulders. “Nothing is going to happen to you, don’t let yourself get caught up in the order’s madness.”

“I’m not, well maybe a little. I don’t know, it’s just confusing. This all feels a lot like the things they warn us about and now, when I feel like this it’s hard not to be scared that maybe they’re right.”

“They don’t know what they’re talking about. Keira, you’re still you, that hasn’t changed—the only thing different is you’ve finally grown out of your sweet tooth.”

“What if something else changes, or gets worse? What if I become something that isn’t human anymore?”

“That won’t happen—and even if it did, I'd be right there to pull you back, to help you. Your nightmares are getting better right? Don’t underestimate the power of my spirit to protect you, even from yourself.”

She smiled and looked at the amulet around his chest. “You’re right, I should at least trust in the little spirit that’s helping me sleep.”

“And me.”

“Maybe. Come on, William might start chopping up benches or something if we leave him alone too long.”

They met him outside and continued to their now usual spot for breakfast. He was as excited as ever and Finlay couldn’t help feeling jealous of his unending supply of energy. Keira had brightened up after their conversation but it was still hanging over him. He was certain the idea of her turning into a demon was ridiculous, the spirit in the sanctuary even confirmed that was because of the corruption. But it was also hard to judge how unusual the level of influence her spirit was having on her was. He wasn’t close enough with anyone else and he hadn’t felt any real changes from the amulet. William had struggled a bit with feelings but nothing like what Keira was experiencing.

After breakfast, they moved on to the same guild hall they trained in. There was excitement in the air as they entered the room—today was the day they’d get to use their artefacts for combat training. The room had a series of dummies set up in varying sizes and shapes that didn’t just match up to humans. While he expected there to be several larger ones, he hadn’t considered there to be some that were much smaller. He wasn’t quite as excited as everyone else as he had no weapon to use and he was quite sure he’d be continuing with his running regime.

But that lack of excitement changed when Faye entered the room as Ronan accompanied her. He was as his usual self; well dressed with the golden-rimmed glasses and laughing at something which was clearly far less amusing to Faye.

“Finlay my boy, I’ve come to steal you away,” he said as soon as he saw him.

Everyone spun and once again he could feel their eyes glued to him. He wanted to hide but there weren’t many options for that so he tried to embrace the discomfort and smiled back at them.

“You weren’t supposed to announce that in front of everyone, I told you, he’s sensitive,” Faye was very deliberate in her unhelpfulness.

“Nonsense, I’ll happily take anyone else who thinks they’re ready to learn invocations.”

The room grew tense as everyone muttered in hushed words to one another. On one hand, they’d get to learn something new, invocations with Ronan, who as he had already worked out was someone quite special in the guild. But on the other, they’d get to summon and use their spiritual weapons with Faye which they’d all been waiting for.

“I have other plans for them, realistically it’s too early for any of them to learn invocations but Finlay doesn’t have a choice given he has no weapon.”

He had gotten so used to Faye calling him anything other than his full name so it felt strange to hear her use it now. He decided that was a reasonable opportunity to join them in the hope they'd move on with their lessons so he wasn't the centre of attention any more.

“I didn’t realise you’d be the one teaching me, It’s good to see you again, Ronan.”

That was a mistake; by now most of the section was comfortable enough with Faye, though he still somehow managed to retain a certain familiarity that the others hadn’t crossed. But now he had done the same with Ronan and he was receiving as many death glares as he had the first day.

“I certainly wasn’t going to let anyone else do it.”

“Well, then I’ll be in your care.”

“So formal, I don’t remember you being that way, has Faye been teaching you bad habits?”

Faye gave him a quizzical look and there were a few chuckles in the room, she was about as far from formal as you could get. He looked back to Keira and William; Keira was smiling at him and mouthed good luck but William seemed to be in shock again and he knew that was going to require further explanation.

“Are we doing it here?”

“No no, your friends will be busy swinging their sticks around, far too distracting for your first lesson.”

“Right—you two get out before I start swinging sticks at both of you,” Faye declared as she pushed them towards the door.

Ronan decided they would walk and talk rather than find a specific place to practise. He wasn’t sure what any of this was going to involve beyond what he had seen of the man on the boat and the few things Sara had said.

“What do you know of Invocation?”

“Not a lot, honestly. I saw someone cast a spell on the boat when I was young, I know that was an invocation. So I know it can at least involve symbols which I gather are derived from the ancients but that’s where it sort of ends.”

“A spell, symbols, you describe it like most of the other brutes in the guild.”

“I’m guessing you favour invocation over other weapons?”

“Yes, of course, I have contracted with a spirit but there is a whole world of potential out there that we in the guild haven’t come close to discovering. Invocation is the beginning of discovering that.”

“So it offers more utility than just fighting demons?”

“So much more, from my research; I believe the Seann, that’s the name of the ancients who built the shrine, used invocation for most of their work and only created the artefacts later to combat the demons and miasma.”

“So if it’s not a spell exactly, what are they?”

“First, it’s important that you understand that there are many spirits out there, some are incredibly old and powerful. The demons are spirits that radiate the miasma and are extremely hostile. But most spirits are not demons, most spirits are not old or powerful and they are everywhere.”

“Why don’t we see them more often then?”

“Because they don’t live in the physical world, but their world influences ours. So they appear to us as they and their world influence the physical unless they're particularly powerful and manifest a physical form.”

“So you’re saying there’s spirits all around us all the time, we just don’t see them?”

“Yes, sort of, remember, spirits are almost pure Anam, they’re the closest thing to the beginning of existence that there is but because of that, they tend to change rapidly, constantly. They exist in a very different way from us.”

“I know this part, it’s why they seek us because we’re physical and with that have stability so they can continue to exist for longer through the contracts by their connection with us.”

“Yes, but that’s only one way. They can also continue to hold onto their existence if they are powerful enough. In other words, if they can accumulate enough anam that they can withstand the natural flow.”

“And that’s why they seek to devour one another?”

“Yes, and why when they become powerful enough, they often manifest physical forms. Even if they sometimes do this in different ways.”

“Okay, that all makes sense," Finlay said, though still feeling confused.

“But it doesn’t answer your question. Well, an invocation is a call to one of those very powerful, very old spirits to ask it to do something for you.”

“So the man on the boat was contacting a spirit with that circle, with those symbols to ask it to create the barrier and ward off the wraiths?”

“Yes, and so you can see they have room to be incredibly powerful and flexible.”

“But why would they help us?”

“Why do the spirits in the artefacts want to contract with us?”

“We offer them stability and a chance to increase their anam.”

“Sort of, but they already have decent stability as they are tied to the artefact. We do offer them the ability to grow, but a big part of it comes from our eventual death.”

“They want us to die?”

“Not immediately, the stronger we get the better. But when we die, they will have the chance to gain a tremendous amount of anam from us. They’re essentially playing the long game.”

“I guess that makes sense, though it’s not a perspective I’ve really considered and I’m not sure how it makes me feel about my contract.”

“Don’t worry about it, they won’t devour your soul or anything; but throughout our lives, we build a lot of anam and when we eventually die, it has to go somewhere.

“Okay so they contract with us to get that potential anam, but sometimes they get greedy and try and devour us before we die naturally?”

“Well yes, but they tend to be less inclined to try than say, the spirit you met at the mining station because they know they’ll have a greater reward in the long run. But we all get tempted sometimes, spirits are no different.”

“So how does that tie into the spirits we call upon through invocation?”

“They’re already very powerful, very stable but spirits are always seeking more anam. But once you reach that level of power it doesn’t make a lot of sense to tie yourself into long contracts with physical beings. Instead, they offer gifts, services, whatever and in turn we provide them a certain amount of our anam.”

“So a temporary contract, more like an exchange, or trade.”

“Exactly! And that’s what the symbols are, you have a mark on your body that’s permanent. Well, the symbols we draw in an invocation are similar, but it’s a temporary binding instead.”

“All this makes sense but I feel like it’s just opened up a whole load of new questions for me.”

“There is a lot to learn, more than you likely realise. But I don’t want you to get overwhelmed with everything at once. Instead, I’m going to teach you a simple invocation so that you can get the feel for how it works before we delve into the depths of it all.”

“You mean I’m going to summon a spirit today?”

He laughed. “No, even with your rather excellent ability to communicate with spirits, it’ll likely take you some time to master the process before anything will actually answer.”

“I guess it’s more complicated than just drawing the right symbols and calling out the name of the spirit?”

“Technically you’re not far off the process, but yes, there’s more to it than that.”

“You said a simple invocation, does that mean you call different spirits to do different things?”

“Hadn’t I mentioned that part? Perhaps not. Spirits tend to specialise, it helps them retain their stability as they become more efficient in one area and that shapes their identity. We have a list of spirits we’ve discovered, primarily from the writings of the ancients we’ve found and managed to loosely translate.”

“So you need to know the right spirit for the right task?”

“Yes, it’s another part of exploring the realms, finding new spirits who could potentially do even more amazing things for us.”

“So what spirit will we try and summon first?”

“Nochd, it’s a minor spirit so doesn’t require as much anam and is generally more willing to respond. It’s a spirit of unveiling, to discover what is hidden. It is very good at finding out what is true—so both useful and quite safe.”

He was getting ever more excited at the idea of summoning the different spirits and his first would be a spirit that could unveil hidden things, could uncover the truth. That felt amazing, but then another thought crossed his mind.

“When you questioned me after the incident at the station, did you use Nochd to tell if I was telling the truth?”

He grinned. “Now you’re starting to get it.”