The standing body of research generally agreed that souls were left adrift on the surface of the ocean.  Watchers and wizards additionally argued that a river of soul energy wound its way through the islands of the Deadfire, heading somewhere and for some purpose. These two facts should mean, in theory, that animancy work would be easier aboard a ship in the Deadfire. 

Theory and practice did not always conform.

The brisk breeze--good for sailing, the crew of the Defiant was in high (and loud) spirits--tugged at Ydwin’s papers, and she slapped a hand down on top of them. The Rauataian officer’s bird squawked overhead, taunting, and cursing followed in the creature’s wake as it flew away with whatever it had stolen. It had rained not so long ago, and the damp planks of the decking soaked her trousers. Ydwin knew that if she moved out of the wind, the lingering humidity would fog her spectacles, and the long shadows of the setting sun would make it even harder to read her notes.

All in all, the Spire was a more practical location for her research. Well-supplied, respected, funded by the Vailian Trading Company, with an easy source of Luminous that no one asked questions if she took it for her own purposes. On stable ground, so that lab equipment could be set up for longer experiments. Other minds, curious, academic, to discuss the greater intricacies of metaphysics. A very slim chance of being attacked by pirates or boarded by sea monsters, and no chance at all of one’s fearless leader being found on the floor of their cabin because the gods wanted a chat. 

Though Ydwin could not entirely rule out the possibility of the arrival of giant walking statues.  She did, alas, live in interesting times.

Breakthroughs in animancy did not come from being safe, or being practical. If Ydwin had cared so very much about such things, she never would have left the Land. Certainly, she never would have severed her Essence from the Wheel. So, yes, all in all, despite the conditions and the company, Ydwin was satisfied with the Defiant and her captain. 

A shadow fell across Ydwin’s notes. 

Unfortunately, the Defiant did require one to manage the prying of more than one nosy, sullen wizard. Fassina stared down at her, two bowls of whatever the cook had put together for dinner in hand, suspicion and curiosity warring on her face. Ydwin smelled the powerfully pungent aroma of koiki fruit wafting from the dish.  

“Dinner is ready, if you intend to eat.”

Ydwin was well aware that the rest of the crew did not entirely trust her dietary habits. She could eat the same meals as the rest of them, if she desired, and sometimes food even benefited her body’s natural processes, encouraging the recovery of muscle and skin from injury. Actually fueling herself required soul energy, and as most preferred not to see how she went about getting souls from animals, that was a process she usually underwent in secrecy, even if she felt that it was hardly much different than simply cooking and eating them, when you looked at it. Luminous was better, when she didn’t need it for research, a quick glow and all was done. Tossed away as animancy work, for those who did not know. The ignorance, though, meant that her eating was viewed with suspicion. As if she had any desire to have any part of a sweater sailor in her mouth. 

She took the meal from Fassina with a quick, perhaps slightly dismissive, thanks. The cook had prepared shark meat and koiki wrapped in khapa leaves, a dish Ydwin was more familiar with when made with whale meat. Still, it made a welcome change from hardtack soaked in stews made from dried fish, as was often the case in the long crossings between islands. The easy passage over the last few days had given the crew ample time for fishing. She took a bite, noting with mild interest that the reported “warming” feeling koiki gave did not affect her. Perhaps one required a soul more connected to a body with a faster circulatory system. 

Fassina had not left.

“Is there something I can help you with,” Ydwin asked mildly. 

“What is it that you are working on,” said Fassina. Altogether, an unsurprising question from the former apprentice. While Aloth shared the typical Aedyran distaste and dismissal of her work, Fassina was a practical Vailian. The potential of animancy was not to be ignored, especially not on a voyage such as theirs, where the nature of the soul could hold vital intelligence as to Eothas’s true goals. 

“The primary focus of my research is meta-mortality, as well as the nature of luminous adra. The Watcher’s own experiences have been enlightening on that front,” Ydwin replied. “I hope to extrapolate from there some explanation as to the mechanism of Eothas’s return.”

“You clearly haven’t been listening to Xoti,” Fassina said wryly. “She has plenty of her own explanations.” Ydwin was pleased that she did not have to define meta-mortality. At least the Vailian had solid foundations in metaphysics. 

“Nothing the priestess says has any scientific backing.” The theological was all well and good for the masses, but no, real solutions and explanations to the current crisis would not be found in such things. No, the answers lay in research and experimentation, as they always did. Fassina seemed to agree with her. She glanced around, seeing that the rest of the crew was busy with their duties and their dinner, leaned in.

“The casita mentioned something that you might find beneficial to your research,” Fassina said quietly. “That the gods are no such thing at all, but constructs of animancy. It changes nothing of my feelings on them, but it might better guide your experiments.”

All Ydwin said aloud was “Interesting.” Internally, she had some quick processing to do. Did it change her own opinions? Their power was real enough, if not their origins. Rymyrgand’s inevitable end had shaped the Land even if the being himself was constructed. The mechanics of such an end were real as well. All real processes increase entropy. Everything returns to Rymyrgand’s realm--a real enough place, one she had been to. The gods were constructs. Their domains were not. 

For the moment, that was all that had to matter. 

If Eothas was a construct, though…She turned back to Fassina. “I have an experiment I would like to run. Would you care to assist me?” She could do it herself, but proper lab safety dictated the presence of a partner, and a wizard’s knowledge was never a hindrance. Many animancers studied the arcane arts as well. It was not something Ydwin spent much time with, but with Flaune at the Spire, it had not been necessary. 

For a moment, surprise crossed Fassina’s face, but she schooled it. The innate distrust of a fampyr warred with a wizard’s curiosity, and the curiosity won. “I will help you,” she said, after a moment. “I have certainly made worse choices in company.”

“Excellent. Meet me on the poop deck tonight, after the watch changes. It is best that we’re not disturbed.”

***

The clear weather continued long into the night. Just after midnight found Ydwin and Fassina on deck alone. The watch on duty left them to it, after assurances that they would keep an eye on the stern, and continued the patrol down on the main deck. Neither Ydwin nor Fassina were concerned with any late night attacks, though. Between the Watcher’s inroads with the Principe leaders and the Vailian merchant galleon they had passed an hour ago, there were far riper targets in these shipping lanes. 

Ydwin laid out the equipment on a tray on the deck: several samples of freshly powdered Luminous, a number of empty adra fragments, several trinkets she had taken from the Spire, copper wire, a beaker, and a small ceramic platform with free moving magnets on a track underneath. She kept the magnetic flea in her pocket. The sea was calm enough that she wasn’t terribly worried about anything moving, but the tray was an extra barrier. Finally, next to all of the equipment, she laid a small symbol of Eothas, carved from the stones of Evon Dewr bridge, and obtained via expensive donation from the Sacred Stair. She could not afford to lose such a thing--the priests at the Temple of Gaun would be expecting its return.

Fassina joined her momentarily. She eyed the set up for a moment before settling across from her. “What is all this, anyway.”

“Have you discussed the statue Eothas currently inhabits with the captain, by chance?”

“The son of some old Engwithan king, as I understand it,” Fassina said. “Designed to hold his soul, should it ever have been ripped from the Beyond.”

“The Engwithans knew more about animancy than we will perhaps ever understand,” Ydwin said, “but as far as I know, it is not possible to pull a soul back once it crosses into Berath’s grasp.”

Though perhaps such things were more doable before Berath existed? Ydwin was not clear on the timeline of the tragedy of Moros Nua. 

“As the gods themselves seem confused about Eothas and his return,” she continued, “it is logical to conclude that he did not make it to the Wheel. The question is, where did he go? And how did he return?”

“Perhaps his soul simply retreated to the nearest vessel capable of holding it, as soon as Waidwen’s body was destroyed?”

“That he was housed in the statue since the Godhammer, and did not rouse the statue until now?” Ydwin nodded. “I had considered this as well, but then, why wait twenty years? Surely if he was present in the statue the entire time, he would have acted on his original intentions with Waidwen?”

“We know moving the statue requires tremendous energy,” Fassina replied. “It’s why he has been stopping at pillars of Luminous, and he drained the souls of all those present at Caed Nua. The keep was all but abandoned for much of that time, so perhaps he simply did not have access to the energy he required?”

“A possible explanation,” Ydwin agreed. “This experiment is intended to explore another one. If Eothas was left adrift, then perhaps something drew him to the statue, beyond simply the scale required to house the soul of a deity.” She gestured to the samples of Luminous and the trinkets. “My intention here is to see if certain emotions create a stronger draw on the soul, by seeing if the amount of energy drawn from the Luminous adra increases. These trinkets were obtained from people experiencing strong desires drawn from different emotions. The wire will link the samples and trinkets, and we can measure the draw based on how luminous the empty shells become. They are of the same mass, I cut these previously.”

“All of this seems like something you can do yourself,” Fassina said. “What do you need me for?”

“You seemed interested,” said Ydwin. “But my equipment does also require a charge, and I am unable to create one myself. Your spells will be of great value in that.”

Fassina thumbed through the early pages of her grimoire until she found electrical spells. “Is that all?”

“Soul energy is withdrawn more evenly if the sample is submerged, and salt water is a better conductor.”

Fassina muttered an incantation, and an imp appeared. “Naturally,” she sighed. “Take that bucket and fill it with water.”

The familiar did as it was bid. “An imp?” Ydwin asked.

“The spell summons a spirit at random,” Fassina grumbled. “But the little beasts are still drawn to me, even after leaving Arkemyr behind.”

The imp struggled under its burden, and some of the salt water slopped onto the deck as it set the bucket down with a heavy thunk. “Useless things,” Fassina groused, and dismissed her summon. “I’d have preferred a wurm. They’re stronger.”

“At least it isn’t a grub or a beetle,” Ydwin tried. Fassina glared. Deciding that discretion was best, Ydwin let the subject drop, and filled the beaker with salt water. She placed the beaker on the ceramic plate and connected the leads, and linked the final part of the circuit to the stone symbol. As stone did not conduct, she placed it into an adra fitting, designed to channel the energy from it. “Do you have an emotional preference to begin with?”

“Anger, perhaps? Eothas does not seem a wrathful god, but surely he must have some level of anger at what happened? And if not, it seems a good option to cross off first.”

From her trinkets, Ydwin selected a broken pocket watch, its face shattered when it was thrown across a room in a rage. Her own cipher abilities confirmed that the bitterness still lingered on the object. The copper wire was wrapped around the metal casing, and the other end of the lead was connected to the empty adra fragment. She pulled the magnetic flea from her pocket, placed it inside the water, and uncorked a sample of Luminous. She poured the powder gently into the water, and then nodded at Fassina.

“A spark, if you please.”

Blue crackles leapt from between Fassina’s fingers, and she sent them sparking into the magnets under the ceramic plate. The flea began to spin, slowly at first, before rapidly picking up speed. The powdered adra started to dissolve, its glow diffusing through the salt water.

After several minutes, the glow in the water dissipated slightly, and a corresponding faint light shimmered in the empty adra. The two of them waited a few minutes longer, but the glow did not increase much more after that. Fassina shrugged. “Anger does not seem to be much of a driving force, here.”

“I would agree.” Ydwin made a note. “Onto the next, then.” She poured the Luminous solution into a flask and corked it. No sense in wasting the reagents. 

Over the next hour, the pair tried all of her trinkets. A bracelet of coral, given to a lover before being obtained by the Spire, for joy. A broken doll, thrown away by heartbroken parents, for grief. The broken off hilt of a dagger, shattered in a fight, for justice. And finally, a wedding band snapped in two, for regret. Joy provided a stronger glow than anger did--perhaps Eothas was at peace with his choices?--and justice quite a bit more. 

“The god thinks he is justified,” Fassina said in disgust. “The deaths he causes are a means to an end.”

Ydwin could not help but agree, and she added the speculation to her notes. But as the experiment continued, there was a complication. Grief glowed brightly, and regret the brightest of all. If her own theories held true, Eothas’s driving motivation was, of all things, regret.

“If he’s so driven by remorse, why do this in the first place,” Fassina said, seemingly to herself. For a moment, Ydwin did not respond. Why indeed?

“You said the gods were created, yes? Perhaps it is related to that.”

“The casita did not give much of an explanation as to the mechanism behind this, but if they’re constructs made of souls…”

“Yes,” Ydwin said. “I would think many lives were needed to create so many beings of such power.”

“So concerned with death, and yet causing even more with his actions now,” Fassina said. “And on some level, he believes he is justified, it seems.”

“I wish I had a more recent sample associated with him,” Ydwin said. “This is from the Godhammer, and could be contaminated with his feelings then. If we could get something from Hasongo, perhaps, or the digsite on Maje Island…”

“Take it up with the casita, I suppose.”

Ydwin had hoped to conduct her experiments without adding another burden to the Watcher’s plate, but she could not see how she could get something from Hasongo without bringing it up. She might have better luck in Port Maje, if their travels took them there, though it would be another expense. The Gaunites did not agree to return her donation when she gave them back their little relic. 

“So we have learned that regret is involved, and grief, and justice,” Ydwin mused. “Would you be interested in joining me, should I obtain a more recent sample of Eothas’s?”

The prying of nosy wizards would never be something Ydwin would appreciate, but working with an experienced scientist? That, she had missed. Fassina was practical, measured, careful, if grumpy. Her skills made up gaps in Ydwin’s own, and she did not have to be coddled in a lab. Nor was she squeamish about animancy. She had made no comments about why Ydwin might have so much Luminous on hand. 

Fassina considered for a moment. “I must admit, I have missed experimenting with someone who treats me with actual respect. Arkemyr believed all discoveries were his own, no matter how much work I did.”

“I would, of course, share the credit of any discoveries,” said Ydwin, stung at the idea that she would not. “I have no need to prop up my own accomplishments by diminishing that of others. You are not an animancer by trade, but your foundations in metaphysics are established. Wizardry is as much engineering as magic, as I understand it.”

“Engineering the arcane,” Fassina said. “There is an overlap in skillset, yes.”

“So, what do you think?”

“I think,” Fassina said slowly. “That I would be happy to join you in future experimentation.”