Chapter 17 Mirror Requirements
Chapter 17 Mirror Requirements
The news of what Jorren had done was already flying around like wide fire. Even though they couldn’t put a name to it, it was obvious to the people of Vashen that a dangerous person was living amongst them. Someone who had the geninue capacity to draw people’s essence.
Coupled with the news of the break-in into the Overspill by a shadow on the day of the Midwinter festival, everyone was talking about it. To the people in the city of vashen, it was certain that a shadow was amongst them, and that sparked a deep level of fear amongst them.
Jorren lay on his pallet, his mind having no connection whatsoever on the ongoing uproar. What occupied his mind was the woman he met at the slum’s central who tried to use her power to draw his essence. It didn’t occur to him that there was someone else other than him who had the ability to do such using a negative resonance.
He genuinely wanted to know more about the girl, if she was truly a negative resonance. He wanted to find out if the woman’s hand cracked the stone at the soulwell, and if she did, how she felt. It had been a question that the keeper didn’t exactly give him a complete answer to, and if he found out another way to know what really happened, he’d jump on it.
He was looking forward to meeting the lady, but he didn’t know how. The recent uproar demanded that he keep his head low for a while, and he didn’t know if the lady was undertone like he was under the keeper.
The door to the house flew open that morning and the keeper stormed in, tapping his stick on the floorboards as soon as he closed the door.
“Jorren Thale,” the keeper’s voice sounded grave.
Jorren didn’t need to ask why the keeper’s voice sounded the way it did that morning. He knew already. In fact, he was expecting it. He, however, didn’t know how Davan had crafted the story to make him look like a villian.
“What have you done?” the Keeper growled as soon as Jorren got to his feet.
For a moment, Jorren did not speak. He calculated the intent of the keeper. Why was he bing it up? Has something happened? Did anyone put the signature of his attack?
“I did what I had to do,” Jorren said quietly. “Your pretty boy was trying to make a scene… a very convienient situation for him but very inconveinent for me. I’m sure you understand.”
The Keeper didn’t speak immediately. He just stared at Jorren.
“You are supposed to keep your head low and your mind high,” the Keeper added. “That shouldn’t be something difficult for you to do, considering that your life is in danger, should it?”
“It was this once,” Jorren said.
The Keeper kept quiet, but Jorren suspected that his silence was saying volumes.
“There was a girl,” Jorren added. The Keeper was silent.
“I suspect she’s tier zero,” Jorren continued. “But I’m not sure. It was a fist fight. She tried to pull. Or not. I don’t know all the details.”
The keeper turned and rounded the workbench to come face to face with Jorren again, the workbench standing between them.
“You have to keep your head low,” the Keeper said. “It’s only a matter of time before the system begins to investigate the shadow that broke into thier chamber in exactly sisxty seconds. If you keep up with your actions, they’ll find you in a matter of time.”
Jorren didn’t speak. He knew the Keeper was right and didn’t try to debate it with him. He knew the fates of other tier zero variables in his lineage, and for him who has some kind of headway, he knew deep within him that it was something he must treasure.
“Where is the Hollow salt,” the Keeper asked.
Jorren walked back to his corner where he produced a jar and the codex, each in one hand. As they harvested the essence dampening material, he was the one that sited to the arrogant Davan Rell while he was about to destroy himself with his head full of worry that the Hollow-Salt must not be harvested with bare hands. Davan Rell’d thought he was trying to stop him and ignored him, only to loose some part of his essence to the salt. Jorren had then harvested it into the jar and tied it with clean cloth.
When he handed the jar to the Keeper, the old man inspected the jar, then poured out the content of the Hollow salt on the bench. It looked like grounded crystals of sugar; only that it glowed an unearthly purple and no soul was supposed to touch it with their bare hands.
“What your current architecture does to souls with intact architecture,” the Keeper started. “Is what this Salt does to every soul on earth.”
Jorren’s gaze was glued to the glowing, purple crystals that shimmered despite the low light of the room.
“But this is slightly different for people with your soul architecture,” the Keeper continued. “For people with your kind of soul, this salt is a tool, designed to harness what is already within you.”
Jorren looked up sharply at the Keeper.
“How so?”
“You wouldn’t be able to use the Hollow salt until your second ascension,” the old man said. “Which means you need to begin preparing for your second ascension.”
Jorren’s gaze went between the crystals on the workbench and the gaze of the Keeper, then a question hit him. He asked without thinking.
“Does the system know about the hollow salt?”
The Keeper hesitated. “Only a few people who know what they are doing. It is a treasured secret that only few know, and fewer people knew how to harvest. It’s a tool used to stop a man whom the system believed is growing uncontrollable.”
“So, essentially, if the system sees me as a threat,” Jorren started. “They can use the power of the hollow salt to silence me.”
“Unless you make your second ascension quickly before they find out,” the Keeper added.
Jorren’s face was blank, but his chest tightened.