Kings Game

Chapter 112 - Fracturing

Roran very gently removed the pile of knowledge and sat down on the chair. Nul sidled up behind him and began straightening out the silken black robes that clung to him like a ghost.

"How long will it take you to design the changes?" Roran asked.

"I can implement them now."

"Oh."

Nul wasn't sure why that surprised Roran. Nul had been designing godspells for a couple years now. They knew Roran's etchings better than anyone else alive, better than anyone else ever could. The markings were Nul's play thing. Crafting designs was as easy to them as breathing.

Nul's own etchings shifted and changed, granting themself the ability to freely manipulate Roran's godpsell, and they slipped their hands into his back. Roran stiffened slightly before relaxing. He didn't know how Nul was changing his etchings and that was for the best. He wasn't squeamish, but Nul didn't think he would like the idea of Nul physically reaching into his body and soul.

Prodding around with delicate fingers, Nul felt out the intricate lacework of power lines that made up Roran's godspell. Where Nul's spell was flexible and easily twisted, Roran's was like a deathshroud, carefully tied together to hold otherworldly powers within a human host. At the center of that shroud was a pile of shattered glass.

Sarah's remains had changed since Nul put them into Roran's body. The carefully constructed spell was slowly pulling her back together in the same formation she had been when she shattered. It was a time consuming process that required Roran's own lifeforce, shaving years off his lifespan. Most of the fine dust had congealed into small shards and several pieces were now sticking together, attempting to form a base. The progress was good, better than Nul had expected. If they were able to refine the process they could finish faster than originally planned. Getting the duration down to as little as a decade would be within the realm of possibility. If that worked, Roran might still have a decade or two of life left in him when all was said and done.

Going back to the task at hand, Nul began to reweave the lacework, carefully separating some parts and folding others. Like a master seamstress, Nul reworked the shroud into a new configuration within minutes. When they had stitched down the last seams and tidied everything back into working order, they withdrew their hands from Roran's body.

"How does that feel?" Nul asked.

Roran closed his eyes and rolled his shoulders. "Good, I think. It's hard to tell that you did anything. Were you able to do everything I needed?"

"Yes and no. Making you relatively immune to the lyhlim wards was simple enough. You'll still feel ill around them but you should be able to function for several hours without blacking out. The robe was trickier. I added a design to hide them. You'll have to consciously activate it like any other etching, though they'll still appear whenever you draw on Sarah. The same goes for the aspect of death I'm afraid. There is nothing I can do to hide that. Her powers, her robes, her spectral form. The cost of being part lyhlim I'm afraid."

Roran shrugged. "I'll manage. Thank you."

Roran stood and stretched, readjusting the robes around his shoulders. Nul sat down on the bed next to the hallucination of Karyn. She immediately took up the comb and began trying to fix Nul's hair again.

"Roran," Nul asked. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Of course, anything."

Nul hesitated, feeling self conscious...feeling insane. "Are there any remnants in this house? Aside from the ones inside us, I mean."

Roran frowned then shook his head. "No, not that I'm aware of."

"Can you check?"

His frown deepened. "Is everything okay?"