The Sixth School Book II Ch. 018

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All Characters in the story are 18 years of age and above...

***

Chapter Eighteen: Resonance...

Greg fell through the floor.

Some small part at the back of his mind knew it should have been panicking even as he came out of the bottom of the airship. Yet another small part was questioning the irrationality of falling through several solid floors and out of the airship. What little paranoia his mind could still scrounge up left him wondering if this was some elaborate plot by Morpheus to kill him. Greg had, after all, once told the deity that he could kill him whenever the fancy hit him. These, along with a whole host of other thoughts and emotions occupied some small corner of Greg's mind. Ninety-nine percent of it, however, was occupied by the new layer of reality that the mid-purity life order promotion elixir had allowed him to tap into.

There was so much information in this new layer that his mind was like a lagging computer. The closest approximation of what Greg was experiencing was like looking at a screen. If only one image was on it, it was easy to focus on that. Split it into two and while less optimal, one could still keep track of both sides. Split it into four and the task of keeping track of everything becomes challenging. Eight is even worse and sixteen is downright impossible for most people. In this analogy, the screen Greg was looking at was split into thousands of different images. Greg was looking at the whole screen, seeing everything at a glance but was unable to make out what any single image was. Worse yet, whenever he tried to focus on any one image it seemed to bleed into another one, making it impossible to have a firm grasp on anything.

Looking up at the airship as it became smaller and smaller, Greg didn't just see the vessel. He could see the space it occupied. And not in some metaphorical sense, but could quite literally see the dent the vessel made into the fabric of space. Greg could even see the fabric of space stretch between him and the airship the further away from the vessel he got. Some small part of him couldn't help but wonder if this was how Morpheus saw the world. Greg instinctively knew that if he could somehow interact with this layer of space, he could easily erase the distance between himself and the airship. If he just tweaked it the right way, he could end up back on the airship. The thought, however, had barely entered his mind when it was supplanted by another.

The wind blowing all around him as he continued to fall caught his attention. The air all around him was suddenly full of meaning and depth that it never had before. On the one hand, it was a life-giver, sustaining the lives of countless beings all across the realm, and yet at the same time, it was a patient and relentless destroyer. It didn't matter if it was the tallest mountain, given enough time, it would be ground down into a plain. Before Greg could pursue this thought for more than a few seconds, a new aspect of the air jumped out at him. Freedom, where it wished it went, from the top of the highest peaks to the depths of the lowest valleys, there was nowhere that air could be denied if it wished to go. At the same time, air was the most easily trappable thing there was. A child could puff out their lips and it would be trapped.

These and a thousand other thoughts flowed through Greg's mind all at the same time. It was a lot like playing a high-stakes video game but rather than seeing graphics on a screen, you only got to see the binary code of the game instead. So overwhelming was the experience that it barely registered to Greg when his body slammed into the ground. So lost in the revelation aspect of wind was Greg that he didn't even pick up on the odd fact that, forget being a broken mess on the ground, he didn't even have a scratch on him. By now, the airship was little more than a dot in the sky, and yet all Greg could think about was how sound was like a shell for meaning. The place Greg had landed wasn't at all secluded. And yet, Greg was too lost on how stone was the foundation of civilization to pick up on the odd fact that no one around seemed to have noticed him lying on the ground, let alone the fact that he'd just fallen from the sky!

***

Calyn sat at one of the tables on the deck of the airship, her gaze fixed on the scenic landscape that sprawled out below. They were currently flying over the Reni woods, a jungle a little over three weeks by airship from Ethavel. From all the factions that had been trying to get close to Mage Hira and Grenad, Calyn had gained enough resources that she could have focused entirely on ascension for the next ten cycles. It wouldn't have been enough to get her over the line into third tier, but it would have brought her right to the edge of it. Fearing that Roka would take them from her, however, Calyn had left ninety percent of those resources with her aunt for safekeeping. What was even worse was that she had handed over the best of what she had and only remained with the worst ten percent of the gifts. What she had would keep her going for little more than six months.

It was a mercy that Roka had turned out to be so understanding. She had been present when Roka, his teacher, and guard Olivia had been planning their route to the Arcana Islands. The original route they had been planning would have had their first stop be Kelden a city just outside of the vast swath of territory controlled by her clan. She had fully been prepared to part with some portion of those resources when she approached Roka to seek permission to call on her aunt. It would have stung badly, but losing even half of everything would still have left her with five years of progress still to be made. One could thus imagine her shock at Roka's response.

"You wish to call your aunt to get the resources you'd need for your ascension?" He'd questioned. Calyn quietly nodded in confirmation, waiting to hear what price she'd be made to pay. A shrug, however, is all she got. "Sure, why not?" Roka had said before turning back to the map they'd been planning their route on.

Calyn had already opened her mouth to negotiate when it sunk in what the young man had just said. Her planned words had escaped as an exhale as she found herself staring dumbly at him. In the end, it was Olivia who took the conversation in the direction that Calyn had been expecting. "Are you certain that it's wise to let her clan know that we are so close? We are, after all, keeping her as a slave," she argued.

Calyn had already anticipated that this would be a concern and had been ready to give assurances that nothing would happen to them. Before she could speak, however, Roka did. "They were willing to give her up as a slave to avoid making an enemy of me. I doubt they'd be willing to undo all that by attacking me," he'd stated with a carefree shrug.

"Except you weren't in a city just a stone-throw away from their territory when they were negotiating with you. A foe caught off guard is a very different beast from one that has been given time to prepare," she stated. It spoke to how strange the situation she found herself in was, that Calyn found herself agreeing with the guard even though Olivia was arguing against her. All the points she was raising were the same ones that Calyn would have had if her position and that of Roka were reversed.

The young man seemed to consider his guard's words for a second before turning to her. "How long would it take your aunt to get to Kelden from where your clan resides," he'd posed.

"A little over a week," she'd answered truthfully. Unlike Ethavel which was all the way across the continent, the Sydrak clan ensured that no part of its territory was more than a week away from the main clan abode by use of smaller flying treasures. Getting to Kelden wouldn't take her aunt more than ten days.

"Oh, well that makes things easier. You aren't allowed to contact your family until after we land. Getting the passengers for the next leg of our trip should take around two weeks, perhaps more. That should be enough time for your aunt to arrive at Kelden while also denying your clan the chance to plan anything against us in advance," he'd laid out. "Besides, there is one crucial detail you are all forgetting. The contract you signed precludes you from betraying us in any way. If those of your clan come after us, you'll be placed in the unfortunate position of having to fight and kill them. Fail to do that and it's your corpse they'll be fighting over," he stated with perfect neutrality. Calyn was once again reminded that, just because Roka wasn't the kind to try and wield power over others, didn't mean that he was naïve in the least. Should she ever betray him, then the same affable individual would, without a hint of pity, watch her die for it...

***

So, what is life?

Stripped of everything extraneous like the different kinds of beasts and plants, if one drilled down to the very core of things, what made one thing living and another dead? Zoom in close enough, and there was no difference between an ant and the pebble it was crawling on. It's all just atoms and molecules. So what makes one set of atoms living and the other dead? What exactly animates a flower and fails to do the same to a piece of metal or glass? Is it simply an issue of getting the right chemical reactions going and off it goes? Or did an extra factor have to be in place for things to work? Was this extra factor the soul? Or was the soul just another piece of the puzzle that he couldn't understand and so was conveniently trying to fit it where it didn't belong?

"Alright, I think that's enough."

Greg felt a sudden clarity wash over his mind as if some external force was suppressing the effect of the mid-purity life order promotion elixir. He couldn't help but blink a few times as his mind caught up to the fact that he had been lying on his back on the ground staring up at the sky for almost three weeks... or was it four weeks? His mind had been like a computer given a puzzle it couldn't solve and asked to do just that, solve it. A human given such a task would eventually grow frustrated with it and just give up. Unless directed otherwise, however, a computer would just keep trying to pursue the task till the end of time. Having his eyes opened to a new layer of reality made it impossible for his mind to stop trying to parse out the world around him.

When Greg first heard of laws, he'd been thinking of it in scientific terms, something like Newton's first law of motion. He'd been thinking of it like a rule book that defined the world around them. And while he hadn't been entirely wrong, it was just barely scratching the surface of the realm he was stepping into. As a mortal, when he looked at a rock on the ground, all he saw was just that, a stone. After taking the mid-purity life order promotion elixir, it was as if he'd discovered new layers to the stone. The stone was no longer just rock, it was infused with all manner of meanings.

To begin with, it was a home. From little bugs hiding under rocks to human beings that have taken rocks, and carved them into blocks that made their houses out of it, to races like dwarves who carve out whole empires inside mountains, to even dragons that made their homes on the peaks of the tallest mountains. Stone, for as long as living beings have existed, has been a home to them. Stone was also a keeper of the record of the passage of time. With enough time, all stone will eventually be ground down into dust. Still, as things come and go, stone tends to remain defiant in the face of time, weathering the coming of one age and the end of another. Dig through it and you will see traces of the things that have been before. It will tell you the story of what was, and eventually, even you and your civilization will be buried in stone for another to come along and find. Stone was also the anchor of civilization. Be it roads, bridges, houses, sculptures, the tools that peasants used, or the precious stones on the crown of a king, stone permeated every facet of society so thoroughly that, in many ways, people had even grown blind to it.

These were just three of hundreds of layers that opened up to Greg whenever his head turned to the side and he caught sight of a rock, to say nothing of everything else in his sight. Space, air, grass, buildings, people. What before had been singular entities as far as his perception was concerned, were now revealed to be packed full of an almost endless amount of layers. To make the picture even more complex, the deeper nature of items didn't just involve what it looked like under a microscope. With the prejudice of his former life, for example, he'd assumed that the deeper nature of a stone would require one to know what elements it was made up of. Was it composed more of carbonates, oxides, sulfates, and the like? This, however, couldn't have been further from the truth. In this world of magic, stone was far more than just the particular elements it was made up of. Barely any of what went through his mind when he saw a rock, however, had anything to do with its chemical makeup. The closest approximation that Greg could come up with as to what anything truly was in the world as he now saw it, was a debate between a scientist, a philosopher, a poet, and a stoner.

The wind would blow and the poet would close their eyes, feel it against their face, and say that freedom is the true essence of the wind, wherever it wishes, it blows. The scientist would snort and adjust their glasses before calmly replying that wind is just the movement of air from high-pressure regions to low-pressure regions, there is no freedom in it whatsoever. If anything, wind is the perfect example of inevitability. The philosopher would listen to the two, think for some time while stroking their beard, and then say something like, the wind perfectly encapsulates human life. Most of the time, it's a fleeting phenomenon that is only felt for a short while before it is gone and forgotten. Every once in a while, however, there is a gale strong enough to leave a lasting mark. The stoner would look between all three of them, take another pull of whatever they are smoking, and ask, how do any of you know that it's the wind and not something else that is blowing?

The strange thing is that, as far as magic and the laws that governed it, all those perspectives, including the stoner's question, are valid. Greg had found himself wandering down thought trails that equated the dark depth of the sea with the human desire to lie with no intervening steps of logic to justify this equation. The worst part was that Greg had been paralyzed in this cycle. Try as he would, he couldn't keep his mind from going over everything in this way. He couldn't stop trying to peel off one layer after the other futilely trying to get to the core truth of it. Had Morpheus not intervened, Greg could easily see himself pointlessly spending the entire year in this one spot, endlessly questioning if it was rocks or fire that was the cornerstone of civilization.

An old monk in loose robes appeared from the side and came to stand over him, his nebulous eyes looking down at him with some interest. "As expected. The mortal mind is not well-suited to seeing the deeper truths of the universe. It gets lost in a maze of its own making trying to chase down an ultimate truth that it thinks is hiding just behind the next discovery," the monk stated. Greg couldn't tell if Morpheus was trying to mock him or just stating an obvious truth that he had observed many times before. Whichever it was, he wasn't given long to consider as the old monk held out a hand to him. "Come on, there's still a long road ahead of us...

***

Calyn once again found herself seated on the deck of the airship instead of meditating. The past few months hadn't at all gone the way she'd been expecting it to go. Calyn could remember how she'd felt the moment the deity passed his judgment that she would be his slave for the next hundred cycles. The image that had dominated her mind was standing in between a dragon's open jaws. At any time and for any reason, they could snap shut and that would have been the end of her. She had been fully prepared to live on the edge of a knife for the next hundred cycles. The truth, however, turned out to be almost comically the opposite of what she'd been expecting. Not only was the dragon not interested in her, it wasn't even present. Other than at the Governor's castle, she hadn't encountered the deity again. Even more unexpectedly, the one that the deity was linked to, wasn't interested in having her as a slave.

When Roka had her sign the tier-seven mana contract, she'd pointed out to him that there was nothing in it that required her to obey him. With little more than a shrug, he'd reiterated his position, she wasn't his slave. Despite his words, Calyn had expected to play the role of a servant. Yes, he wouldn't lord over her or try to force her to do things she didn't want to, but at least she'd do menial tasks for him. True to his word, however, Roka asked nothing of her. While he, his teacher, and his guard Olivia were busy trying to get the airship up off the ground, she had been left to her own devices, to do as she pleased. At first, she'd felt odd and unsettled by the fact that, for all intents and purposes, she was a free woman so long as the Deity didn't take Roka over. That feeling, however, was soon replaced by a feeling of ecstatic relief. She was free to continue pursuing ascension through the tiers as had always been her goal, and that's what she did. With what resources she still had on hand, Calyn had thrown herself into meditation and pursuit of more power.

The more time passed, however, the more a new feeling of unease started to grow in her. At first, she wasn't sure why. But as time went on and she thought on it more, the answer slowly became clear to her. Unfortunately for her, it was one of those answers that didn't leave you with an obvious path forward. As the weeks went by and Roka didn't call on her for anything, it occurred to her that, while he may not wish to enslave her, it didn't mean that she was now a part of his inner circle. Yes, she was tagging along with them, but that was only because she had declined Roka's offer of freedom. If he'd gotten his way, she would have been free and back at her clan while he went on with his life. This led to a question of how she wished to proceed.

On the one hand, she could remain neutral as she currently was. Stay true to the contract between them, protect him and his family whenever it was called for, and keep his secrets if she came across any, but other than that, maintain the current status quo. The main advantage of this approach was freedom. Calyn was the proud scion of a powerful clan. The only people she'd ever had to lower her head to were her father and the clan head. With her father being the clan head's brother, not even other elders in the clan had tried to wield their authority over her. This isn't to say that she disrespected any of them, she just didn't have to bow and scrape around them as most others in the clan would have to in their presence. With Greg, that would change.

Looking at his group casually, one would be almost tempted to think that Roka wasn't in charge. With how open and willing he was to listen to others and take their advice, it'd be all too easy to think this a band of equals. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. To begin with, his family was under his complete authority. A short while of interacting with them and this would become all too clear. They looked to him as the head of their family and deferred to his authority whenever there was any issue that required his input. With Olivia, Roka's authority was even more pronounced. He was always seeking advice from her guard on many things. But when Greg gave an order, however, Olivia carried it out without fail. As for Lothar, there wasn't even a question of whether he'd follow Roka's lead or not. Like her, the fire mage knew that a deity watched from behind Roka's eyes. He had zero desire to draw the attention, let alone the ire of such a being.

The only one with whom there was perhaps a question of whether he had authority over them or not was Alena, the woman Roka referred to as 'teacher'. And yet, even with her, theirs was a relationship that was more akin to that of two equals as opposed to teacher and student. In the rare instances where there was a disagreement between them, rather than one deferring to the other, they would each make their case for their side and then deliberate on the merits and weaknesses of each other's argument. And this was to speak nothing of the lingering, smoldering looks that Calyn had caught passed between the two of them. Even if he didn't explicitly hold authority over her, she was firmly on his side and would follow his lead in most things.

If she chose to try and get closer to the young man, rather than doing her own thing to the side, Calyn knew that she would have to lower her head to him. He, a nobody from some backwater town that nobody knew of, would lead. And she, proud daughter of the most powerful clan of body-enhancing mages on the continent of Farendel, would follow. Sure, there was the fact that he was somehow linked with a deity, but so far, the deity in question was a no-show. Calyn was starting to suspect that unless Roka's life was in significant danger that the boy couldn't deal with, the deity wouldn't make an appearance. Though she doubted that life would prove that easy, there was a very real possibility that she might go the entire hundred cycles without the deity showing up at all. It wasn't the deity that she'd be lowering her head to but the young man, Roka...

***

Ethavel was a large sprawling city that went on for miles. Greg wasn't certain which particular district they had landed in but from the kinds of buildings that lined the street on both sides, this was an entertainment district of some kind. There were all manner of establishments like taverns, a theatre a gambling house, and a few restaurants interspersed between. With the sun having just set, the area was slowly coming alive as people started to trickle in. Morpheus had helped suppress the effects of the elixir, which Greg suspected was the only reason he hadn't gone catatonic staring at a wall. Still, while it had been suppressed, it hadn't been eliminated completely. Greg could feel it at the back of his mind, the world all around him seemed to be trying to reveal some hidden truth that, if he just paid enough attention, he would discover. It was an effort of will to ignore those whispers and keep focused on what Morpheus was saying.

"As I explained to you before, this is the first rank of the demi tier, resonance. Had you reached this stage the same way other mages do, you probably would have resonated with a lot fewer laws than you currently are. But even with your heightened sensitivity to the laws, if you've been paying attention, you will notice that almost all the insights you've gained revolve around either the elements or life. Normally, your strongest affinity would have been the one you resonated most with. As things currently stand, that should have been with some law of life. But with everything turned up to eleven, even elements you barely have any affinity with are coming alive to you. The affinity for life magic you gained from your teacher explains why you are resonating with life laws. Being an earth mage, you are more closely tied to elemental laws, which is why you've also been lost in the other elements, earth, air, water, and fire. Your access to space laws is probably the result of being linked to me."

"I left you in this rank for almost a month for two main reasons. The first was to allow you to get a feel for the laws themselves. The scientific perspective you gained from your former world barely scratches the surface when it comes to the world around you. Calling fire an exothermic reaction involving oxygen and some other form of fuel, while technically correct, is like trying to define a painting using the colors that were used in the painting. Green, yellow, blue, and red might be the colors in a painting, but it's such a surface definition that you might as well not say anything. Fire is the center of the camp. Fire is the protection against the night. Fire is the glow that drew tribes together. Fire is what shaped the tools that eventually forged empires! It's a beacon in the night, a guide to the lost, be they on land or at sea. Fire is also the great consumer. A force before whose fury few can stand, living or dead. While the scientific knowledge of your former world isn't exactly wrong, you'll need to expand your view of the world around you if you wish to understand laws at any real depth."

"The second reason I left you in that state for so long was to allow you to see the pointlessness of trying to arrive at an ultimate truth. The reason you got trapped in an unending loop of questions and answers that only led to more questions is because you convinced yourself that there is an ultimate truth hidden somewhere in the laws that you could figure out and cause everything else to snap into place. To begin with, if such a thing exists, then trust me, you are nowhere near powerful or insightful enough to grasp such a truth. And if you somehow were, you would almost certainly immediately rise to the rank of an Elder as not even deities have grasped such a truth! Secondly, you need to keep a cool head and accept the small gains you make in your understanding rather than discarding what you've uncovered so far because some deeper truth exists out there. Just because you don't know what infinity plus infinity adds up to, doesn't mean that one plus one isn't two," Morpheus cautioned.

There was a while of silence between them as Morpheus allowed him to take in what he'd just said. By now, Greg had already worked out that no one around him could see him or interact with him. Otherwise, someone would probably have noticed him Lying on the ground beside the road for three or more weeks straight. Even when the people looked in their direction, they seemed to be looking right through them, none of their eyes able to focus in on Morpheus or himself. Still, even though they seemed to be cloaked in some way, the crowds all around them seemed to instinctively step aside to avoid them as they walked. Greg couldn't help but smile as he jestingly focused on Morpheus' wording. "Why do you say 'you' like you know what infinity plus infinity adds up to? " he questioned.

A snort left Morpheus as he replied. "I'm a god, of course, I know what infinity plus infinity adds up to," he stated arrogantly.

Greg's brows rose as he turned to the old monk with curiosity. "Really? What does it add up to?" He questioned.

"Twice infinity," Morpheus replied shamelessly earning an unimpressed look from Greg who turned away with an eye roll. Unbothered, Morpheus continued. "I like your analogy for a debate between a scientist, a philosopher, a poet, and a stoner. It, however, is missing the most important part of the picture, you. There are countless laws in the universe, to grasp one, however, you need to focus on the ones that speak to you most directly. Take earth for example, is it the hardness of stone that speaks to you? Is it the way sand can shift to take any shape? Is it the fact that stone can act as a bulwark against almost any form of attack? Is it that all life is supported by the earth? There is almost no end to all the ways that one could seek to connect to the earth, You, however, have to find the one that speaks to Greg in particular, that's the one that you will find the easiest time pursuing a deeper understanding of," he advised.

"I'm going to stop suppressing the effects of the elixir. Rather than trying to find the ultimate truth behind the universe, just open yourself up and try to feel what truth resonates with you the most. The temptation to try and keep peeling back layers will be there. Don't indulge it. Whatever truths jump out at you, no matter how deep or superficial, don't analyze them. Your only goal in this rank is to find the law you resonate with the most. Is that clear?" The deity questioned.

Greg took a deep breath to compose himself before nodding at Morpheus. Greg had to grit his teeth as Morpheus slowly stopped suppressing the effects of the elixir and he found himself being assaulted with all manner of truths from the world around him. The cobblestone road under his feet spoke of standing unbroken no matter how many generations have come and gone. The vitality of the people moving all around him called to him, tempting him to uncover its secrets. Even the space around him seemed to be trying to tug at his attention. Greg had to force his eyes closed to keep from looking too deeply into any one thing lest he once again lose himself to the desire to find an ultimate truth. Instead, he tried to do what Morpheus had recommended, he looked within himself.

Closing his eyes didn't exactly quieten the truths coming at him. He could still feel the air on his skin, and the ground under his feet also. Not to mention that closing his eyes just caused him to become aware of his vitality as opposed to that of others. Rather than fight any of these streams of information, however, Greg tried to indifferently take them in without focusing too much on any one impression or the other. He wasn't exactly sure that this was the right thing to check for but with every truth that snuck its way into his mind, Greg questioned just how deeply connected he felt to the particular truth. The more he paid attention to his instinctive response to the truths he was tapping into, however, the more he came to the surprising realization that while most truths were fascinating, none of them elicited more than an intellectual interest in him. Like, they would make an interesting topic of discussion with friends but would be quickly forgotten thereafter.

A frown creased Greg's brows as he opened his eyes and turned to look to his left. His confusion only increased when he found himself looking at a nondescript alley alley on the other side of the street. From time to time, a man would turn down the alley but other than that, most people just passed it by without a second glance. Something in that direction had tugged at him. Unlike the other truths that had been fighting for his attention, whatever it was that was in that direction had just barely brushed against his senses before fading. And yet, for some reason, this was the first truth that elicited a visceral response from him. The sensation barely lasted a second and would have probably been missed if Greg hadn't been paying attention. Even more confusing was the fact that this truth didn't have the same flavor as that of the elements, life, or space element as all the other truths he'd been so far experiencing. Whatever this new truth was that he was sensing, it was related to some other school of magic other than the ones he was so far associated with

It was a passing sensation and Greg was tempted to ignore it seeing as other truths seemed more easily accessible. Morpheus, however, had advised him not to take himself out of the picture. He wasn't just supposed to try and connect with a law he had scientific, philosophical, artistic, or just passing fascination with. Whatever law he chose to pursue, it had to be one that spoke to him directly. Turning in its direction, Greg crossed the street before walking into the alley just a second behind a short stocky man. Greg wasn't trying to be stealthy, but as with everyone else, this man didn't seem to notice that someone was walking behind him. Greg's eyes had been scanning the entire alley trying to see if he could pick out what had called to him. But other than a burly man standing beside a door, there wasn't much else to see in the alleyway.

Whoever these two men were, they clearly knew each other as there were barely any words exchanged between them before the man guarding the door pulled it open for the one Greg was walking behind. Following the man through the door, Greg found himself on a set of stairs going down. The lack of hesitation from the man before him told him that he'd probably been here many times before. Despite the gloomy nature and poor lighting of the stairs, the man didn't seem nervous in the least, if anything, he seemed to grow more excited as he descended the stairs. There was another door at the bottom of the stairs, this one without a guard. The man didn't waste any time reaching forward and pulling it open.

A smoky haze escaped from the room beyond. Rather than be irritated by it, the man actually took a deep breath as if to savor it, before walking inside. Following suit, Greg stepped forward after him. He, however, came to a stop barely a step from the door as he found himself looking at scantily dressed men and women flirtatiously laughing and mingling with one another. From the sounds that were reaching his ears from further inside, some were doing a lot more than just flirting. "This... this is a brothel," Greg spoke up, the confusion evident in his tone of voice.

"Interesting," Morpheus', who'd been quietly following behind him, spoke up. "Perhaps the primordial's interest in you isn't as random as she made it out to be," he stated, sounding amused...

***

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