236 - Living Cards

Lexie did not sleep throughout the night.

She and Pvilycht spent most of it working out possible pathways for the living card, and after brainstorming, they finally put it together, with Lexie writing her thesis and sketching it on her old black pad. 

“Eldritch and human pathways are different,” Lexie explained. “Because human pathways are naturally magic-resistant, with some leeway depending on how much mana they have internally. Eldritch and other creatures have mostly malleable pathways, which is probably a function of how much of their magic comes internally from their souls. This makes them so much more capable of diverse and varied magic than we are. Anyway, most humans don’t have soul magic, but those who do, like the elementals and a few others who made deals with Guardians back in the day, tend to have very malleable pathways that are transformed by their ability. This led the First Mages to believe that if we could somehow manage to imbue soul magic in regular, mundane humans, it would end up making their pathways more amenable to magic. That's what they tried, but it didn't work.”

Pvilycht nodded. Though he probably already knew what she was saying, she liked reiterating it. Saying it out loud helped her to work through her thoughts. 

It reminded her of when she was younger and would learn concepts by giving a lecture to herself. Except now, Pvilycht was her willing student. 

“The First Mage found that simply imbuing souls with magic using cards wasn't enough to transform the pathways and would end up hurting humans in the long run,” Lexie continued. “Back in the day, Guardians also used to infuse people with soul magic, but the First Mage either didn't know exactly how they did it, or reciprocating their methods with card magic was so detrimental that they shut it down and had to figure out another way to use card magic. Which then birthed the three-tiered systems of pathways we have now.” Lexie’s voyage into the forbidden sections of the library had revealed all this about the First Mage's research and had shown her that there had been many further attempts to make cards that worked for mundane, all of which had failed.

Even though they never described the First Mage's research as giving mundanes soul magic, she could extrapolate as much from the descriptions given.

“I’m guessing the failure has something to do with simply not being able to replicate the challenge the guardians often gave their champions, which would then allow the human souls to adapt to the magic that they earn in that challenge. The same way dungeon hearts work to give you powers stronger than what you would earn otherwise. This is only a guess.”

“It is a good one,” Pvilycht assured her, to which she smiled. 

“Now I’m not a Guardian, and I also cannot replicate the challenges, so that method is off limits to me as well. It would also be really dangerous to research manipulating people's souls like that. But what we’re doing now is to somehow do that research on an extracted soul, a miniature piece of life that is all instinct and no direction, that can be controlled by a human, kind of like how a stable dungeon is somewhat controlled by Fae."

“Yes, but I believe it would be easier to find a creature with an instinct as close to the intent of the magic you're going to create," he says. “That way, the card will always seek to perform its duty, and there will not be as much need for control.”

“You're right, Pvilycht. And also, we need to figure out a way to stabilize the card and ensure that it is not as chaotic as it could be and turns on and off when it's supposed to.”

When it came to stabilizing the chaos, that was where Lexie’s soul card came in.

She could use her card to siphon off some of the chaos of the card and render it more contained, but would that work as a long-term stabilization technique? Or would she need to keep the card attached to her at all times to do the trick?

That would be hugely inconvenient if so.

Either way, she would figure it out. She would need to talk to someone who knew in-depth card mechanics, like Elvira Ernest.

She would, of course, also need someone with expertise on human souls so that they could ensure that the card acted just as human soul magic would, and it wouldn't harm them.

It was a very strange, almost Frankensteinian idea, but Lexie was excited to see where it would take her. 

Lexie only took a break to do some humanizing meditation while using her soul card on herself. She did it while Pvilycht was still there, because she wanted to see if it had an effect on him and if that was possibly the cause of his new tepid nature. 

When she was done, she opened her eyes and said, “So? Do you feel different now?”

He thought about it and nodded.

“In what way?”

“It is difficult to describe.” He opened his mouth and closed it several times, frustration showing when the words simply weren’t coming out. “I do not feel so…driven, except when we were discussing the card. I was excited by that.”

“Then what do you feel? Depressed? Anxious?"

He shook his head.

“Apathetic.”

“I suppose.”

Lexie thought about it. "I think that being my disciple and having you draw from me is dimming your light, but it’s not replacing it with anything better. You do not have purpose anymore.”

“I thought my purpose would be what you want.”

“Yes, but that can’t be enough to sustain you. You need to live your own life. Don't you want that?"

He shrugged. "I'm not sure what that means."

Lexie sighed. "I don’t want you to be fully focused on me, especially since I’m not even sure what I’m doing yet.” One of the reasons she'd picked Pvilycht as a disciple was due to his independence. She wanted that to continue. Sure, she was glad for his help, but Lexie didn’t need one more person hovering over her. “What would you be doing if you weren’t with me right now?"

“Finding creatures to experiment with.”

“Why not do that now?”

“I do not know.” He shrugged. “Some of my methods feel…wasteful. I don’t think you would approve of them, which made me not want to do them.”

Lexie frowned, wondering if this was a Pvilcht problem–given he was an experiment and a combination of different beings–or if this was a general Eldritch problem. She had never heard of Eldritch being like that before. None of the ones in Naem’s soul line seemed to defer to him that much. Sure, the ones with higher awareness, except for Ganor, seemed to fear him, but mostly they were simply doing their own thing and didn’t seem to care about him at all. They didn't draw their purpose from whatever he was doing.

So either Pvilycht was different, or Lexie's light was doing something to him.

Maybe because she had soothed his Eldritch light and...was humanizing him, but then he didn't know how to be a human? Was he having issues self-actualizing?

How did she help him with that?

“Can’t you experiment without causing pain or breaking the creatures down?” Lexie asked him.

He shook his head. "I have never done so before."

Lexie brushed her chin.  "I think I might have to talk to Naem. I’ll try to nap sometime today and see if I can meet up with him again. Maybe he’ll know what to do.”

“Alright. You should also complete your Eldritch Lord test soon. For both our sakes."

"Yeah. You're right." Lexie sighed. There was simply so much to do on Earth, though. It was so hard because she felt like she was being pulled in a lot of different directions.

Lexie didn’t know when morning came. She was still bent over with Pvilyct brainstorming possible pathways when her door opened. 

They both turned to stare at a shocked Aiden, who was standing in the doorway.

“Who is this?” Aiden asked, frowning at Pvilycht. 

“He’s Pvilycht,” Lexie said. “My cousin.”

“Cousin?”

“Neqal’s creation, but I kind of stole him from Neqal, and so he’s my disciple now.”

“I see.” Aiden nodded slowly, his eyes widened. “And this all happened in the dungeon?”

“Yup.” Lexie turned to Pvilcyth. “Pvilycht, this is my Dad.”

Pvilycht gave a formal bow, which only weirded Aiden out more. 

“You don’t have to bow to him,” Lexie reminded Pvilycht. “He's not a Lord, and I don't think humans like being bowed to."

“Some humans do.”

“Has he been here all night?” Aiden asked. 

“Yeah. I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I might as well be productive and plan out my living cards.”

“Living cards?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you.” Lexie was so excited to tell him about it that she got on her knees and gestured with her hands. “Basically, they’re cards that don’t need any internal mana because they contain internal mana on their own. How? Because they’re alive essentially with pathways sourced from–"

“How about you tell me all about it over breakfast, honeybee?" Aiden said. “And Lex, can you do me a favor? Can we keep your er…sessions with Pvilycht to the daytime only? There’s just something about walking into my daughter's room and finding a strange creature there that's more than a little unsettling."

Lexie thought that might make her less productive, but she shrugged. "Fine, but I'll let you know if I need to talk to him at night."

Aiden nodded. "Alright, I can accept that."

Lexie banished Pvilcycht with a quick goodbye and bounced out of bed into the shower.

Then, during breakfast with Aiden and Tate, during which Aiden forced her to eat an entire stack of pancakes, she told them all about her idea for the living cards.

Tate was very confused by the concepts and asked a lot of questions, like how she planned on making cards alive and not like evil little gremlins running around.

Lexie told him about her soul card and its potential for stabilizing chaos, but no matter how much she explained it, he didn't quite get it. So Lexie figured it would be one of the things he would have to see for himself. 

Aiden, on the other hand, was fascinated and wavered between impressed and worried. 

“Well, I have to say I never quite thought of that approach before," he mentioned as they cleared the table. “Are you sure attempting something like that won’t be dangerous for you? And for your soul?”

“No," Lexie responded. "Pvilycht doesn't think so either."

"Pvilycht is Eldritch, honeybee. Don't forget that."

"Yes, but he's not lying."

"Who's Pvilycht?" Tate asked.

"My cousin."

His eyes widened. "You have an Eldritch cousin?"

"Yeah."

Tate stared at Aiden next, who shook his head. "It's not from my side."

"I bet." Tate's lips kicked up. "Every day I find out something weird about you, Lexie. What's next? An Elf Uncle? An Orc Aunt?"

Lexie thought about Ganor and said, "Actually–"

"Anyway," Aiden interrupted. "I wouldn't start anything yet until we think about all the ramifications."

“I already have. The soul card is good for me, and the worst part is that now I have to talk to Madswick about it.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s the only necromancer I know who's good at soul magic.” Most of the other necromancers were in District 8, and Lexie didn't know any of them well enough to approach them with this.

"Be careful with him," Aiden said. "Don't make any deals just yet."

“Okay.”

“I know another necromancer,” Tate said. “He’s probably not as good, and he's also kind of shady, but if you're in a pinch and this Madswick guy is giving you a hard time, I can take you to him."

“Okay.” She cocked her head at Tate. “What are you up to today?”

"Going to hang out with Conrad and co. Train with them for a bit," he said. "I heard you were coming for the match this weekend?"

Lexie was still iffy about being in a public space with all those people and the possible press. “Maybe not, but I’ll be there for the celebratory dinner.”

After breakfast, Lexie and Aiden went to meet Vacek, and together they picked up Dewie and Xena from campus.

When Xena stepped on the trolley, Lexie noticed that her expression was off.

She seemed mad about something, and when she sat next to Lexie, it was with a noticeable huff.

Lexie glanced at Dewie, who climbed on after her, silently asking if he knew what Xena was so annoyed about.

Dewie gave her an apologetic look.

“Jace told her about what happened last night,” he finally explained as he sat on the other side of Lexie. "And she made me tell her where we went."

“I can’t believe you took him to a dungeon,” Xena exploded and glared at Lexie. “In the middle of the night with no guards. He could have gotten hurt.”

“But he didn’t. I kept him safe.”

“What if you couldn’t?”

“I could. That’s why I took him. I wouldn’t have taken him if I couldn’t.”

Xena kept staring at her, and Lexie was starting to get her hackles up.

“Um, guys…” Dewie started with his placating look. “It’s not that big of a–”

“What’s up with you?” Xena asked Lexie. “You're different and very...strange. I’m trying to figure out if it’s just the dungeon or if it's…you know…” She shot a look at Vacek, who was pretending to read something on his pad and ignore the situation.

Aiden and the guards were also doing the same thing.

Aiden met Lexie's eyes for a moment, his gaze asking if she wanted him to intervene. Lexie shook her head subtly. She could handle this.

"There's nothing wrong with me," she said.

Xena didn't look like she believed her, but she likely thought Lexie couldn't answer honestly with all the people around them, so she gave up.

"Well, I’m glad the two of you came back, but next time take an adult with you at least."

Lexie didn't mention that she was more powerful than any other adult, and she just shrugged.

They made the rest of the trip in silence, which only Dewie tried to break. Once they landed, Vacek took Dewie to survey the area and tap into his vision, and Aiden began to do his own investigation. 

Xena approached Lexie as she stood a little away from the group.

“Look, I’m sorry I was being a pill earlier,” She said. “I was just really worried. Losing you was hard enough, I can't imagine having both you and Dewie, trapped in that awful place..."

It wasn’t awful, but Lexie could see how Xena would think that. "I'm sorry I worried you."

“Do you want to talk to Lionel?” Xena asked.

“Talk to him about what?"

"You know...he might be the best person to talk to about your problem."

"It's not a problem."

"Lexie..." Xena caught Lexie's arm as she was about to turn away. "He can help."

Lexie widened her eyes, reading behind the guilt and the intensity of Xena's gaze. “You told him?”

"No,” Xena said quickly. “I gave him a hypothetical scenario, and I didn’t mention it was you. I only said that maybe this person had changed thanks to prolonged exposure in a dungeon. You know, when Uncle Max came back for the first week, he kept shooting things…”

“He’s always shooting things.”

“Yes, but it was worse than before.”

“It’s called trauma, Xena." Lexie was getting frustrated, and she was angry that Xena would even hint to Lionel about her secret. "He’d spent a few years in a dungeon, though it might have only felt like a few months to you. He was hunted every day by lightning zombies. Did you all really expect him to come out and be normal after that? He’s doing much better than a lot of people would be doing in his shoes.”

Xenabit her lip, doubt appearing on her face. “You sure that’s all? Are you okay? You’re not feeling any…I don’t know, different?”

“No. I’m okay." Lexie knew that Xena’s worry came from a good place, but it erected a new barrier between them that Lexie could feel.

Because she knew that she couldn’t just come clean to her about everything the way she could with Dewie. It would never be that easy with Xena, because it would involve changing her mind about everything she knew to be an Eldritch, and Xena was very stubborn.

She always has been.

She tends to assume strong opinions about things after one or two bad experiences and sees them as either black or white. Like when she thought Heroes were evil, until she became one herself. Or when she was terrified of the Fae until she met them.

The only way for Xena to be convinced that the Eldritch weren't all evil was for her to experience them. So maybe Lexie would be doing her a service in admitting that she was more Eldritch than she'd ever been.

But the fact that Xena had already hinted so much to Lionel and also her proximity to the Fae, made Lexie a little leery about it. 

"Lexie," Vacek said as he walked back with Dewie. "Dewie saw something."

"Vulcan?"

"Not really, but he saw how the bomb was set off and the technology used. Not to mention the trinkets I gave him to meditate on last night."

"I meditated with them all morning," Dewie said. "I can't really see Vulcan directly. The Mountain said Oracles are somewhat protected, so it makes it hard to tell what the other is doing."

"What about Lucy?"

"She wasn't an Oracle," Vacek said.

"Then where are her powers from?"

"That's not important right now. The important thing is that technology and the trinket were given to Vulcan by an envoy of the Emperor of District 8."

"The Emperor? Rufus?” 

"Yes. He's involved with this somehow, and he's not really the collaborative type, so he's unlikely to just hand the man over to us. He also doesn't like me or any foreign influence he deems a threat to his sovereignty, and he's not someone I can easily blackmail, bribe or bully."

Dewie sent him an alarmed look and Lexie wanted to remind Vacek that he was talking to children here. But he seemed lost in thought. He rubbed his chin, cocking his head. "On second thought, Lexie, would you like to do me a huge favor?"