The Fractured Tower

Book 2, Chapter 13

Sorin spent the rest of the night considering what the unexpected changes in the soulprint did and what it meant that there was any variation at all. His biggest concern was that it was different, which, as far as he knew, was impossible. But the more he thought about it, the more a disturbing idea took root in his mind.

Samael had also been a rank 100 climber and from a completely different tower. It was entirely possible, even likely, that he knew how to do things Sorin had never heard of. In theory, that could include modifying the soulprint inside its original vessel.

There were some holes in that theory, of course. It presumed that Samael somehow knew who the soulprint was for or that he routinely modified batches of soulprints before releasing them into the market to be picked up. Once Sorin figured out what the change actually did, he might be able to say one way or another.

He’d gotten Radiant Purge from the dead drop he’d set up with Bradford, which could mean that the old retiree himself had betrayed Sorin’s trust. It might also be that the dead drop location was compromised or that Samael had tinkered with the soulprint prior to Bradford acquiring it.

That was all supposition though, because Sorin still didn’t have any actual proof that Samael was behind it. He barely even had proof that there was anything wrong, and despite it being the only example of a soulprint not structured properly that he’d seen, there was enough unprecedented shit happening in his life right now that he couldn’t completely rule out the possibility that it was just a big coincidence.

Ignoring all of that for the moment, he took the next hour or so to review the enormous catalog of soulprint patterns he’d memorized for free casting purposes, trying to find something, anything, that matched the weird section. There were a few that had similar pieces, but nothing that fully lined up. The closest he found was a sort of blood scent tracking soulprint, but even that was only a partial match.

It looks like it might be some sort of tracking element. A few other soulprints with similar purposes kind of look similar if you squint, but there’s definitely something else in there.

The clue he needed to finally crack it was to start comparing Radiant Purge to other light-based soulprints. Even then, there was a lot of supposition and guess-work in his theory, but it was the best he could come up with. It made a twisted kind of sense, once he thought about it.

Radiant Purge released a burst of light under normal circumstances. His version seemed to use just the tiniest amount of anima to leave behind an impression of that light, invisible to the naked eye. For someone with the appropriate tracking soulprint, they’d be able to see that remnant light, possibly follow the trail of it if they were quick enough.

Every time Sorin used the ability, he was leaving behind a beacon announcing his location to anyone who was capable of seeing it. And light traveled far. It was easy enough to notice a distant campfire at night; his soulprint would be the same.

Obviously, he couldn’t use Radiant Purge again. The real question was whether he wanted to rip it out now or wait. Damaging his soulspace would slow him down and weaken him at a time he couldn’t afford either. It would probably take a month, maybe six weeks, before he fully healed up, and in the meantime, he’d be in constant pain that grew even worse every time he used even a shred of anima.

Now that he was confident he knew what it did, he could just ignore it. As long as he never used the soulprint, it was fine. That was a problem deferred, and once the current situation with the Black Hellions was resolved, he could address it then. Alternatively, he could simply find something else to merge Radiant Purge with and cut out that part of the soulprint in the process. That was probably the best solution, at least in the short-term.

The final option was to study it. If it had been altered somehow, that meant he could replicate the feat. He just needed to figure out how. With something like that in his arsenal, he could theoretically take soulprints that were similar to what he wanted, twist them to match his desires, and then absorb them, thereby eliminating one of the biggest problems climbers had: finding the abilities that suited their builds.

All he had to do was figure out something everybody in his tower knew was impossible. From what he could tell, it wasn’t done here in the red tower either. Maybe it was commonplace in Samael’s home tower, but that didn’t help him figure out how to replicate it.

Then again, maybe it’s not possible for normal climbers. Liminal Gateway is a unique soulprint that only those of us who’ve been moved to this tower can use. What if there are more abilities, and soulprint modification is one of them? All I’d need to do is keep climbing until the tower gave it to me.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

He had new designs on his mosaic now, six of them. Each rank up was revealing less and less of the pattern though, or maybe it was the same amount, but as the circle got bigger, the diameter shrunk to account for the extra square footage. Either way, what he knew for certain was that he wasn’t going to see the center of any of those six new images any time soon, not unless he could pick a direction to focus his efforts.

Can I do that? A soulspace is always circular. They just grow that way naturally. Is it possible to curate that so that I can focus on one image at a time?

Sorin had never had any cause to even consider it before. There hadn’t been a reason prior to the last few weeks of his new life. He’d have to spend some time thinking about it while he grew to rank 7. Hopefully, the theory was sound, and he could claim new abilities one at a time rather than waiting for all six to come in at once at rank 50 or whatever.

In the meantime, he wanted something to merge Radiant Purge with. That was the only way he knew to modify a soulprint, and even then, it followed very specific guidelines. The two donor soulprints had to both be in his soulspace, and he could discard parts to forge the proper connections between them, but he couldn’t change or modify them in any way.

Rue had gone to sleep hours ago, leaving Odric to take her place. He’d eventually concluded his watch without saying anything to Sorin—possibly not even realizing Sorin was awake—and traded places with Nemari. Maybe it was just the faint predawn light giving her the advantage, but she noticed Sorin upright fairly quickly.

“Why are you awake?” she asked softly.

“Found something wrong in one of my soulprints,” he said. “It… I don’t know. It should be impossible, and I’m trying to figure out how it happened. Somehow, someone modified my Radiant Purge to leave a trackable light imprint behind whenever I used it. They had to have done it before I even absorbed it, but I can’t explain how that was accomplished.”

“You think the Black Hellion was behind it?” she asked immediately, the question sharp with fear.

“It’s possible. If anyone could do it, it would be him.”

“You know he’s not the most powerful climber in the tower, right? It’s been a while since any of the true royalty have come down to Floor 0, but they exist. People who could squash Samael like a bug are way up there, ignoring our petty problems while the high families hope and pray their overlords come back down before Samael’s organization swallows them like he did to the middle families.”

“He might not have the highest rank or the most raw power, but I wouldn’t underestimate him. I doubt anyone below rank 30 could take him in a straight fight, and I’d expect him to punch up to rank 40 or 45 if he had the time to set the stage.”

“Because he’s like you?” she asked.

Sorin blinked in surprise, but nodded. “Not exactly the same, but… yes, I think so. I’d bet he understands so much more of what happened to me than I do. Too bad I’ll never get the answers from him.”

“If he was a high rank who got busted back down, I think we’d know who he was,” Nemari argued. “They’re all famous. But you did say you’re a lot older than you look, so if the same thing happened to him, he could have assumed a new identity, I suppose. Speaking of that, though, who were you, back before all of this?”

“No one any of you would recognize,” Sorin said with a chuckle. The irony that he’d been the most famous person alive in the blue tower and not a single soul here knew his name was not lost on him. “It doesn’t matter. I never climbed for recognition.”

“Maybe not, but I’m sure you were ridiculously wealthy and had contact with other powerful climbers. Favors owed, perhaps?”

“I did, but I don’t have any way to access it now. We’re on our own.”

Their conversation was interrupted by movement at the edge of Blind Sense. Sorin stood up and walked over to get line of sight around a small dune partially blocking his view. He couldn’t even see the monster with his eyes, but that didn’t stop him from tossing an ice blade into it.

It wasn’t quite warm enough for the ice to melt like he needed it to, though, and rather than mixing with the little sand elemental’s body, it just lodged itself there. Annoyed, Sorin tossed out four more ice blades, and then Nemari took control of the slight melt to concentrate it with Water Bond.

The elemental fell into a pile, the animating spirit dissipated and no longer able to keep it upright. The two climbers watched it silently for a moment, then Nemari said, “I’d appreciate some ice once the sun comes up so I can refill my water stock. Those things are so much easier to kill with Water Bond than with Fire Bolt.”

“Sure, not a problem. I’m going to come with you to the next hunting ground, then leave you to finish gathering anima while I scout out the portal guardian. If the Hellions have left us any surprises, I want to take care of them before you all get there. Last time was a bit too close.”

“That’s… dangerous,” she said hesitantly. “I don’t think you could have taken that whole kill squad by yourself last time.”

“I’m rank 6 now,” he pointed out.

“Sure, and they might all be rank 15. I mean, if I sent three rank 10s to take care of you and they all got killed, I’d send more guys who are all stronger next time.”

“That’s true, and if I see anything like that, I’ll get the hell out of there, but I still need to go to the hub either way. I’ve got a few soulprints to trade in, and I’m hoping to find at least one new one for my build before I devote the rest of my space to just ranking up my current soulprints.

“I’d like to find some more of those spiders before we actually leave the floor, but it doesn’t look like the tower is quick to replace them, so I’m not sure how viable that wish is. It might be better to push to Floor 4 while the way is clear, assuming that it actually is. We’ll have more information to plan with once I get back.”

The sun was fully up now. They went to wake the others and explain the plan, then packed up the camp and started on their way.