Soul structures involved far too many elements to keep track of; there were sounds, vibrations, visual representations, physical, mental, and even spiritual impressions. Nothing truly stayed the same. All these elements oscillated and alternated between various phases. It was all typically overwhelming, and Caen was still unable to interpret most of what he sensed.

  When the thread clusters that represented magical affinities grew prominent, what was happening, to Caen's senses, was barely significant changes in several elements.

  He'd started noticing these near-imperceptible changes that occurred within his soul structure whenever he cast a spell. And that helped him now as he sat on a flat branch under the night sky of the Plane, tracking down a series of changes in his fragment’s soul structure.

  He continued to cast spells on his fragment as he did this. Caen had never noticed changes like this on the soul structure of any Planar creature. His fragment’s soul was clearer to him than that of anyone else’s, besides his own. A consequence of their magical bond, perhaps.

  He spent two days mapping a web of thread clusters. He only ever stopped to jot down analogs of the elements of its soul; eating, he managed while working. The thread clusters, of course, did not involve visual elements alone, which made the work of properly isolating them quite difficult.

  These were different from the representations of affinities and were heavily interconnected.

  Having completely determined what all the relevant elements were, Caen checked his own soul structure and was stumped. There was nothing here that seemed parallel to his fragment’s web of thread clusters. He suspected this of being a ‘spirit receptor’ of some kind, something that received and interpreted the intentions of dryads or anyone else with a fragment.

  Does this mean that I can only Mimic magical affinities, and not magical abilities or spells?

  It was a crushing thought. Caen had been nursing hopes of Mimicking all sorts of Planar creatures, and possibly even bloodlines.

  He took a calming breath and considered his options.

  Parthra was the safest place he knew; harm would not come to him while he was in this Plane. Mimicry only allowed temporary change to Caen's existence. Nothing he'd done so far had been permanent or lasting. It also came with instincts of its own that he knew would warn him if he was doing anything that would result in serious injury, damage, or death.

  I'm going to try it.

  He spent the next few hours combing over his soul for any portions that were similar to the elements he'd isolated in his fragment's soul structure. While he found none, he continued to compare them.

  Soon, he found areas of his soul structure that were not quite malleable, but were still less rigid than the surrounding portions of his soul. Thread clusters that were intricately interconnected with other elements, some of which intersected or included his affinity clusters.

  Caen began to mold his soul in conformity to his fragment’s. He had to replicate the entwined configuration of interconnected elements. This, Caen did carefully, paying attention to his intuition, but it did not warn him against any alterations he made.

  However, he noted that every change caused ripple effects in his soul structure. Other distant elements of his soul that he wasn't directly altering changed as if in response to his actions. He stopped several times to make sure his magical intuition wasn't giving him any warning signals. Time passed as he worked.

  The instant Caen was done, something vanished from his awareness.

  It wasn't something he'd ever been cognizant of before now, and only its sudden absence alerted him to its existence in the first place.

  Instead of observing the results of his efforts, he tried to move his spirit.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  It didn't budge. He couldn't even so much as sense it.

  For all his years of abjection, Caen had never felt anything like this. This was more complete, more total, than the magical illness that had afflicted him for so long.

  His spirit tendrils were nonexistent. His speculon wasn't working. His mind couldn't even hold the tiniest portion of a magical visualization. This was the very definition of true and utter abjection.

  He could still see his and his fragment’s soul structures, however. Though there were now three cords of connection: Caen, his fragment, and Parthra, all connected to one another.

  This was the only thing keeping his panic at bay. He could simply disconnect from the fragment whenever he wanted, effectively undoing whatever in the three realms this was.

  He examined the changes he'd made to his soul.

  I have no way of telling if this is the fragment's spirit receptor. How do I even use it? Maybe I just project my intent?

  AmUsEmEnT.

  Caen flinched. Something had just washed over him. A complex knot of meaning. Neither an impression nor an emotion. It was unlike any language he knew, yet he understood its intention fully. The newly constructed web of clusters in his soul structure had reacted to it and grown prominent.

  Barring the vision where Parthra had spoken with him, this was the clearest communication he'd had with the ancient tree. Brows raised, Caen looked at his fragment and expressed fondness towards it.

  It was as easy as breathing.

  His fragment surprised him by expressing its curiosity in turn. The relevant portion of its soul structure grew prominent.

  Caen laughed. “You can understand me!”

  Still using that language, he intended for the fragment to rise into the air and reshape itself into a sphere. It agreed and, in a second, had complied. This was just as fast as Frerit-ya-tess had been with her fragment.

  He intended for bioluminescence in its form, and it complied very quickly. He intended for it to feed.

  It complied.

  He even grew a small fruit from it in under an hour. He shaped the fragment into a helmet, then several silly hats.

  All these he did while observing the fragment's soul structure. It was surprisingly easier to perceive some elements of its soul. And even now, he noticed more interconnected changes than he had before. Caen jotted these down and made some analogs in his notebook. He would have to test these out afterwards. He fed his fragment some plant matter and some soil.

  Excited, Caen turned his attention to the branch he was sitting on. He'd seen fragmental dryads reshape whole sections of Parthra, and even a bunch of non-dryads too, though those usually needed to work in large groups and at a much slower rate than the dryads could.

  Caen wasn't quite sure how to achieve this. But he could communicate in that Parthran form now. He looked around and made sure there was no one within near view.

  “Could you take me a few feet higher?” Caen quietly asked, very deliberately directing his communication to the branch and not to the entity that was Parthra.

  The branch expressed consideration, and then it startled him by surging upwards. Caen was utterly amazed by this. He spent more time fooling around, reshaping very small portions of the branch into various Vishic runes.

  Alright, that's enough of that. Moment of truth.

  He disconnected from his fragment. His soul began to revert to its prior configuration. Caen let out a sigh of relief. He could feel his spirit again. And his beautiful, beautiful Blood-healing and Flora passive augmentations. Parthran magic was wonderful, but he loved his spirit.

  In his lowly—but beloved—human form, he cast slower spells on his fragment and observed its soul structure, hoping to identify those elements he'd gleaned while more firmly connected to it. A day later, he'd sufficiently identified the elements that he suspected represented his fragment’s bioluminescence, resilience, and its ability to feed.

  Caen spent the next few days replicating each of these in himself. He tried to retain his magical affinities, but to no avail. He also could not influence his fragment when Mimicking these other abilities.

  Bioluminescence allowed him to glow with Parthran lights like he'd seen some dryads do. He'd gone into a secluded nook before doing this, lest he draw any onlookers. Suppressing it required him to consciously dampen aspects of it. It was more inclined to glow brightly, and the lights were so soothing that he suspected they had to be a magical effect.

  Resilience granted him physical resistance and durability equivalent to his fragment's. However, when he used a needle to forcefully stab into his palm with the intention of harming himself, the needle sank in with hardly any hindrance. After some emergency care, he fiddled around with the ability and realized that he could concentrate the durability in certain locations of his body, just like with his fragment. When he concentrated all of his durability onto a point, he was completely invulnerable to that evil needle, and even his dagger couldn't pierce through that tiny area on his palm.

  He’d been looking forward to Mimicking the fragment's ability to feed, and it did not disappoint in the slightest.