Rune Seeker - Book 3: Chapter 63: Connections

When Hiral awoke, it was to the sound of Seena admonishing Li’l Ur. “… and you had to know it would make him explode.”

“I’m truly sorry, mistress. While he is my soon-to-be apprentice, I didn’t think even he would make enough of a connection with the runes to…” The little lich trailed off as Seena sighed.

“I know, Ur. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. You were just helping out when he asked. If anybody should’ve known better, it was Hiral. It’s just… If he doesn’t wake up by the time we arrive, it could be a problem.”

Very much considering pretending to not be awake from the tone in Seena’s voice, Hiral decided against it. “Sorry, I’m up. How long was I out?” He pushed himself up to a seated position while he spoke, then gave himself a good once-over. Body felt fine—no pain, which was always a win—but his tattoos and Meridian Lines were visible on his Second-Skin. Must’ve sucked Left and Right back in. His solar energy was low, but not completely bottomed out. Given his solar energy absorption rate, he couldn’t have been unconscious for more than a minute.

“Barely at all,” Seeyela said, and Hiral turned to find the woman crouching beside him. “What happened? Exploding doesn’t usually knock you out. And you didn’t destroy the disc.”

“He could’ve destroyed the disc?” Laseen asked from nearby. “That was even a possibility?”

“Meh, maybe it was safe since it wasn’t a street,” Seeyela said.

“What does being a street have to do with anything?”

“Maybe just let Hiral answer the question,” Seena suggested. She’d also come over to crouch beside Hiral, with Li’l Ur glaring at him from her shoulder.

Pretty obvious who he blames for Seena being angry. First things first. He activated Foundational Split, giving his doubles the bare minimum of solar energy needed to manifest.

Left and Right materialized beside him, complete in their own Second-Skins, though the tattoo around Left’s neck looked a little brighter. Actually, that wasn’t the only thing shimmering, he noted as he turned to Right. Yup, there too.

“Ahem, the mistress was speaking to you,” Li’l Ur said.

But as he looked up at the glowering mini-lich, there were the same things he’d seen on his doubles: Glowing, silk-like threads connecting it to Seena. They swayed gently, as if in a breeze he couldn’t feel, and though they looked fragile enough to vanish at a touch, something about them felt as solid as the stone he sat on.

Turning his head, he found more and more of the strange, solar energy strands stretching between, well, almost everything. Hundreds of them reached between Seena and Seeyela, but just as many more bound them to Hiral and his copies. Looking closer, he could even see the strands between the people and the equipment they wore.

The more he looked, the more he saw—and not just between people and objects. Thousands of the streamers seemed to reach into the sky, stretching out for the bounds of the dungeon.

These are all… connections?

Hiral touched his new Rune of Connection with his own thread of solar energy, and he almost passed right back out. Information flooded into his head so fast it was like taking a blow to the temple, pain spiking straight across. Forcing his eyes closed didn’t solve the issue, his high Atn being so kind as to still fill in the details.

Yes, every strand he saw was a type of connection. Connections between people, with their items, to their own abilities and how they worked. He felt the streamers linking him to his Ring of Amin Thettand Emperor’s Greatsword, and even their ancient connections to their previous owners, like an echo. Connections from his armor and the little lich it had come from. To his RHCs, and even to all the items within his ring.

His mind’s eye painted the streamers between him and his doubles, and even hinted at how they’d been formed by his Foundational Split ability. At how they’d taken some of his personality traits, but not all of them, and had since created their own personalities in turn.

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Bigger than all those were the connections between PIMs and the PIMP, between the dungeon and the things within it, and even between reality and how it operated. The Rune of Connection was one of the primary building blocks to the whole PIM system, and it was just too much for him to take in like this!

Hiral cut the energy off, the streamers vanishing like they’d been blown away—though he could still vaguely feel them. Now that he had the Rune of Connection, he’d never really be able to ignore their presence again. But, at least for now, they weren’t overwhelming him with the stories they were trying to tell.

Finally opening his eyes again, he found the others—except for Dr. Benza, who was driving the disc—around him in a semicircle. “Sorry,” he said. “This new rune is a bit different than the others.”

“The Rune of Connection,” Left filled in, pointing at his own neck.

“That’s a rune?” Seena asked, getting close to him. “Doesn’t look like your other ones. It’s more like a collar of writing around your throat.”

“Like my double helix?” Hiral asked her, and she nodded. “Not surprised. Apparently, runes actually come in two shapes. Why is that, Ur?”

“Two children of the same parent language,” Li’l Ur said absently, one hand playing with Seena’s hair. “They were both… both… languages…” His small skull of a face scrunched up as if he’d completely lost his train of thought, but it wasn’t that unusual for him. That would be all the information they’d get out of him for now.

“Doctor, how long till we get wherever we’re going?” Seeyela called over.

“Two minutes, tops. We’re almost there.”

“I’ll be ready,” Hiral said, already starting to use Cycling+. “Or close enough.”

“You sure you’re okay?” Seena asked him, worry on her face.

“Yeah,” Hiral said. “The rune has a lot of sensory input. I’m going to need to get used to it before I use it in a fight.”

“What about Left? What did you get out of this?” Seena asked the double.

“Unfortunately, nothing,” Left said. “My Equilibrium tattoo is only half-complete. Right has the rest of it.”

“You can’t use it at all?” Seena asked, and Left shook his head. “That’s too bad. We’ve still got a Boss of some kind ahead of us.”

“We’ll find a way.” Hiral reached out and took Seena’s hand.

“We will. Look, you focus on recharging as much solar energy as you can.” Seena paused at that to look up to the rain pouring down on the disc’s blue shield. “I have a feeling we’re going to need it.”

With those words, she gently pulled her hand from his, then turned and started towards the front of the disc.

“Don’t take it personally,” Seeyela said. “She’s not handling Yan’s… She’s not handling it well.” Seeyela gave him a pat on the knee, then stood and followed her sister. Laseen and Fenil followed them a few seconds later, leaving Hiral alone with his doubles.

“Now that it’s just us, and we’ll know if you’re lying, how are you doing, really?” Right asked. “That explosion was worse than usual.”

“Really, I’m fine,” Hiral said. “This new rune will take some getting used to, but I’ll get there.”

He looked down at the Spear of Clouds that’d prompted the whole revelation. As soon as his eyes landed on it, something itched at the back of his neck, and he instinctively pushed the tiniest, tiniest thread of solar energy back into his Rune of Connection.

Instead of the tangled web of connections he’d seen before, only one sprang up to his sight, like it demanded his attention. It was that single strand connecting the spear to the scar in the dungeon. And… it was calling to him. It was important, though he couldn’t say how or why.

Despite not knowing the reason, and trusting in the instincts that had guided him so far, Hiral touched the weapon and began weaving his solar energy. Activating his own Runes of Connection and Increase, he reinforced the strand that stretched into the sky until it was practically a line of plasma in his vision.

It hardly took any of his solar energy at all, barely 2%, and then it was done. The strand snapped like it’d been cut—its role fulfilled—and the Spear of Clouds fell even further into its slumber. It still held a power deep and pure, but there wouldn’t be any more dramatic displays of it.

“Did you just do something?” Left asked as Hiral cut off the energy to his runes.

“Yes, but I have no idea what,” Hiral admitted. “Come here, though. I’ve got enough solar energy to give you a bigger amount. We’re going to need you both ready for whatever comes next.”

His doubles nodded at him and took his hands, and Hiral quickly canceled and reactivated Foundational Split. With them all at 20% solar energy now, he took the spear in hand and pushed himself to his feet.

Outside the disc, the ruins of the city sped by, the streets quiet and still but for the falling rain. There weren’t even any bodies—of bats or Growers—and it almost felt like the whole island had been abandoned.

“We’re here,” Dr. Benza announced.

Hiral jogged over to the front of the disc to join the sisters as the platform slowed, and he found himself looking at a familiar courtyard. In the middle of it stood a man, bent with age, alone in the pouring rain.

“Grandfather,” Laseen said respectfully, and the old man turned to look at them.