The spells used to manipulate Parthran fragments were not quite Saffronan. But they did use spirit patterns—though of a different model—and even had visualizations of a sort. Apparently, the dryads used a different system altogether. They were able to send out signals with their spirits that interacted with some sort of receptor within their fragments.

  Lowly human that Caen was, he had to settle for the basic spell analogs. An aged dryad with white skin and connected patches of black all over her body introduced herself as Frerit-ya-tess.

  “Fragments are not for protection, as many of you have come to think,” she said. “They are a mark of Parthra’s regard. Nothing more. Its regard will earn you the approval of denizens here and will grant you the potential to reform and reshape sections of Parthra—after years of practice, that is.”

  “Wait, so it won't offer us protection?” asked one of the three sisters.

  “That is merely a byproduct of its nature,” Frerit-ya-tess replied. “You are free to use it for your safety, but it is very important to understand what a fragment is ultimately intended for.”

  She then explained that she would need to induce hallucinations in them to help them see what forms and shapes the fundamental components of the spell system entailed.

  One of the climbers, a Vedul man with traditional head tattoos, objected to this due to strong personal reasons, and the dryad assured him that he would still be taught the components, just at a much slower rate than others.

  Once the climber had excused himself, the dryad, Frerit-ya-tess, plucked a cluster of colorful leaves from her own head. She made a sound that reverberated throughout the grotto and opened her palm, releasing colorful smoke that quickly filled the space.

  The next few hours were a fascinating blur. It felt a little like some of the exercises Vai would put Caen through, a few years back. Frerit-ya-tess said many things. Caen… saw many things. Strange and impossible shapes. He felt the weight of incomprehensible ideas upon him. The dryad's reverberations lapped at his consciousness with potent vibrance. The nuance and intricacies of these morphed into discernible bits.

  He knew that the location of this entire experience was closer to the Seam than it was to the Material Realm, and he committed as much of it as he could to memory.

  Through each brief stint of lucidity, Frerit-ya-tess would explain things to them, and Caen would listen intently, doing his best to take notes and draw diagrams of the strange things he was seeing, vocal analogs, color phases, repeating notions, twisting patterns. Caen was enamored.

  Moving his spirit in the requisite patterns felt very much like learning a new language. It was novel and unintuitive. The visualizations were far easier to grasp, however. Uncle Vai often said that the Astral was universal. Caen felt like he understood that a bit better now.

  Afterwards, the dryad left them to practice with their fragments, but half of the climbers seemed lost in the visualizations. The three sisters sat in a ring, meditating. Caen hurried after Frerit-ya-tess.

  “Please, I have questions,” he said, holding up his fragment. “I want to know more about this: why it looks this way, how it's different from the others.”

  She nodded, smiling. “Follow me.”

  She led him to another grotto that opened up to the sky. They sat on comfortable seats there.

  “Your fragment, you must have noticed, is smaller than the others.” The connected patches of black on her white, wavy skin began to glow with Parthran bioluminescence. She had a similar fragment to his. “These kinds are often given to those who have distinguished themselves in certain ways.”

  “What ways in particular?” Caen asked.

  “Parthra decides.” She pulled forth the patches of black, forming them into another arm with fingers of its own that wiggled. “Let me tell you something that will thoroughly surprise you. You get to grow yours.”

  Out of politeness, Caen made an appreciative sound. Parthra had mentioned this earlier. “How exactly do I do this?”

  “In the same way that others feed theirs. I intended to tell the others about this in the coming days, but you must understand that if a fragment is not nourished sufficiently, it will fade back to Parthra.

  “All fragments must feed for nourishment, but only those of certain grades can grow in size and durability.”

  “What do I feed mine to grow?”

  “The real answer is anything. It will break down just about any organic substance, but inorganic ones can be absorbed over a much longer period of time.”

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  She went on to explain how the proper etiquette was to place one's fragment inside a nutrient-rich container of soil, which had to be replaced or re-enriched regularly enough. Caen's fragment, however, would eat the sand and container as well, given enough time.

  For all the financial strain this was sure to cause him, Caen was very pleased. He fully intended to feed his fragment to bursting. His mind whirled with the possibilities. If inorganic matter was par for the course, what else could it absorb? How far could he stretch the concept of what passed as ‘food’ for his fragment?

  “Can I feed it fire?” he asked.

  She paused, giving him a strange look. “Why would you… well… yes. It would eventually absorb the fire for nourishment and durability, gaining a very small amount of resistance. But that seems to me like going a bit too far, young man. If you overwhelm your fragment with… harsh treatment, you could end up destroying it, and it will return to Parthra. I know of only so few people who have re-earned a fragment after dishonoring Parthra's blessing.”

  “I apologize if I offended you with my question,” Caen said. “I meant no disrespect. I just want to understand the extent of my fragment's capabilities.”

  Frerit-ya-tess nodded reluctantly. “I also apologize for my scolding tone. This is a matter of propriety for me.”

  “Understable,” Caen said. “I have another question. Can my fragment… protect me from magical damage like other fragments can?”

  “That, it can do. But it is weaker than others. Eventually, though, after it has been fed properly, this wouldn't be much of a problem anymore.”

  Caen asked her several more questions about the form and appearance of his fragment, and Frerit-ya-tess showed him how to suppress the bioluminescence of his fragment to such a degree that it wasn't even visible to his speculon. She showed him how to smoothen it as well, removing the engravings, and making it appear like those of the other climbers.

  His fragment could also be resized, packed into a very dense form in lieu of volume. He also needed to intentionally engage its feeding process. Caen, of course, could not reproduce any of these effects yet. He would need to learn them.

  The days flew by quickly. Caen went into the grotto with the other climbers, learning how to combine the components they'd learned about from Frerit-ya-tess. Some of them had opted to experience the hallucinogenic effects once again because of how fleeting the experience had been. Caen had taken extensive notes, however.

  Using his Flora affinity, he began practicing the spells. They did not need adaptation in the same manner that Saffronan spells did, which was a truly curious thing. When he'd asked Frerit-ya-tess about this after her hours-long instruction, she'd simply said, “Parthra provides.”

  From the mischievous way her eyes sparkled when she said this, he could tell that she enjoyed whipping out such phrases.

  All elemental magic, as Caen understood it, possessed the ability to shape and move the specific element it concerned. Those with fragments could, of course, levitate theirs, alter their shape, and make them move mid-air or on surfaces up to a certain distance.

  Despite how painfully slow the process was, Caen took immense pleasure in shaping his fragment into different forms, moving it around his body, and suppressing its bioluminescence.

  Frerit-ya-tess and the other dryads Caen had seen with fragments could move and reshape theirs in just a few seconds. Non-dryads, however, could take as much as seven minutes to perform the same feats. Caen could manipulate his fragment in just under four minutes while Mimicking the fragment’s Flora affinity. While using his own Flora affinity, however, he took just as long as the others.

  The spells that Frerit-ya-tess had shown them did not have typical Saffronan modifiers, but they were also much less rigid, allowing for a measure of alteration. Frerit-ya-tess had explained that dryads possessed an innate ability to apply the equivalent of modifiers to their workings. This was not something that she could teach humans.

  When shaped into a dense sphere, Caen’s fragment was no larger than his fist. There was so much room for growth.

  “We have a lot in common,” he whispered to his fragment under the starry night sky of the Parthran Plane, as he fed it most of the plant matter that he had gathered on his trip through the layers.

  After inquiring from Frerit-ya-tess, who assured him that it was okay for him to do so, Caen tested the durability of his fragment. She’d insisted, after Caen had pressed her, that fragments could not feel physical sensations and could not experience pain. Still, she cautioned him once more about restraint.

  His dagger could leave marks on the fragment, but couldn't pierce it in its densest form, even if he added a lot of pressure. He could scratch out a groove on the bark, but doing so eventually dulled his dagger's edge. It could heal from all these, and already he could see the marks closing, but he'd need to feed it later.

  This was an aspect of the innate resilience all fragments possessed. Resilience for them entailed resisting damage as well as very slowly recovering from it through a reassimilation of dismembered parts. Caen felt immense gratitude to Parthra for giving him a fragment that could grow.

  His fragment helped with absorbing blows, but not by much. A bullet pierced through easily enough, and he'd had to source far more nutrient-rich materials to feed the fragment afterwards. He could shape it to seal up the hole, but he also found that the more damage the fragment took, the more slowly it moved.

  Observing it with Soul-sense didn't reveal any prominent thread clusters except for Flora and Vibration. He wondered why that was the case. This was clearly some form of regeneration, and yet it did not present as a Blood-healing thread cluster; meanwhile, the regenerative characteristics of the awakened trees of the Odaton Plane had presented as such. This gave him a lot to think about. Caen jotted furiously in his journal whenever he wasn't casting Parthran spells and fiddling with his fragment.

  He spent a few days observing its soul structure, trying to locate anything that might pass for a representation of its spirit receptor.

  The dryads claimed to affect their fragments through this, and Caen was determined to locate it. He cast Flora spells using the fragment’s Flora affinity.

  Then finally, he noticed something.