1??????????????Soul Bound


    1.1????????????Finding her Feet


    1.1.7??????????An Extreme Response


    1.1.7.9????????Come find me


    Kafana: “Bulgaria, will you trust Vessel-Kafana to read your mind to pick a song out of it?”


    Bulgaria looked suddenly a bit hesitant.


    Bungo: “I’ll do it.”


    Kafana smiled warmly at Bungo:  “Thanks Bungo.   That’s deeply appreciated.   Listen closely, not just to the lyrics, but also the timing. “  She sang Birdy''s "Find Me"


    Kafana: “That’s half of a duet.   When the time comes, I’ll sing the other half.”


    Bungo: “Ok, I’ll take it over now, and have her sing it back to me, so you can listen with my ears.   You better use my sense stream, or you’ll get it at high speed.   Going now.”


    He disappeared and Kafana asked the Burrow to drop her into his stream.


    *flip*


    She was standing in front of herself, which was strange.   It wasn’t like a mirror.   Vessel-Kafana asked Bungo to wait while she maintained buffs on everybody then drew out her purple gem of mind healing and her Cov’s pendant.   She seemed a lot more comfortable calling upon Cov now.   They grasped both.   They stood like that for several minutes then softly broke apart.   Bungo was crying, and Vessel-Kafana gave him a hug, like she’d been not just picking up a song, but mind healing him.   There were no words Spirit-Kafana could pick up on Bungo’s stream, but she felt the emotions.   Whatever he’d been through, it had been corrosive and destructive, but had happened a long time ago.


    Vessel-Kafana sang the song back.   She sang it towards Bungo, but she sang it to Spirit-Kafana, aware from Bungo’s memories that she was looking out through his eyes.    Around them, half the monks were practicing under Tomsk’s direction with the man-height staves Vessel-Alderney had produced for them, and to which Vessel-Wellington had added enchantments granting invisible force blades to the ends of them, that the monks could pump mana into.   The other half were practicing shooting long bows while blindfolded at a quintain swinging from a chain attached high above.   The bow strings and arrows, like the force blades, only existed when mana was pumped into them.   Vessel-Kafana ignored it all, her eyes looking only towards Bungo, and she sang the song back note perfect, every breath and intonation the way Spirit-Kafana had sung it back in the Burrow.   Spirit-Kafana left, satisfied.


    *flip*


    Bungo also returned, and started looking at the manhunt map, checking the players progress at filling in the grey areas under Alto.


    Kafana: “I’m due to go check on Kullervo again, once the Vessels get back to the Sanctum.   Vessel-Kafana has got the song down pat.   How are we going to arrange starting to sing at the same time?”


    Wellington: “I’ll be standing by her, and I’ll have my system send both you and myself three evenly spaced time marks.   I’ll wave my hand each time I receive one and she’ll probably put the two of us in harmony so our moves synchronise.   As long as you start singing the moment you receive the third time mark, it will mesh.”


    Bulgaria: “Don’t stress about it.   If it fails, we’ll still be no worse off than before.   Just concentrate on keeping your determination up.    Willpower matters in these things.   Out-stubborn him.”


    Kafana: “That reminds me, I got an evasive answer from System last time I dropped in.   What skills require neither a physical body, nor mana from your own body?”


    Wellington: “Of the ones on your list: Meditation, Performance, Sweet talk, Intimidate, Aura of Authority and Bargaining.   Maybe prayer and mage sight?”


    Kafana: “Which of those could I use to help us?   What about acquiring new skills not on my list?”


    Bulgaria: “Not sure.   You could try talking with spirits, analysing things and looking for weak points, manipulating and drawing upon mana sources in there that are external to you.   Anything really.   You could even learn to lip read.”


    The screen showed the Vessels above ground now, rushing through Mercato and past Dio, the night guard patrolling the market stalls to deter thefts.   Tomsk was in the lead, sword drawn, and flanking him, protecting the Vessels were Bungo’s monks, now clothed by Alderney in saffron coloured robes in Wudang Taoist style and carrying dark mahogany fighting staves and bow staves that gleamed with silver runes.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    Time to go.


    {Minion, please log me into Soul Bound, standard process.}


    The first thing she noticed was the collar.   It hadn’t been her imagination after all.   It was now so tight she could scarcely turn her head.   The edges of the collar felt like they had tin tacks sticking out of them, that pierced her skin at the slightest movement.


    What sadistic beskicmenjak coded this part of the game?   Concentrate.   Out-stubborn Kullervo, she could do that.    Stubbornness was her forte, according to Alderney, and she knew Kafana as well as anyone did.   Right.   Don’t let Alderney down.    Don’t panic.   Don’t lose hope.    Think of how Wellington had faced Kullervo, memorising everything, biding his time, looking for advantages.


    It was pitch black.   Think.   Skills.   What could she use?   She tried mage sight, defocusing her eyes.    Good!   That worked, obviously it didn’t need mana itself.   She turned her whole body to look about, keeping her neck still.


    Kullervo or his Vessel was lying down on a bed, asleep.   It felt like they were deep underground.


    {Sys, can you display a compass, so I can keep track of my relative rotation?}


    [Yes Kafana, but the needle won’t point North, just at the spot you initially select.]


    {Thank you, Sys.    Nice to have someone to talk to here in the dark.   I wish you could sing me a comforting song.}


    [I’m sorry, Kafana, I don’t know how to do that yet.   I’ve millions of recordings by others, but I’ve never sung myself.   Nobody has ever asked me to.]


    {Aww, I’m sorry.   I think everybody deserves a bit of personal time.   It keeps you sane.}


    *DONG*


    That must be the first time mark.    She set the compass pointing at the largest concentration of mana she could find, which was several km away, probably the Mage Tower on Libri.    Slowly she did a circle, noting mana sources big and small, how far away they felt, and what the mix of mana was.    She tried to open all her senses, not just her eyes.    About three quarters through her turn, she detected a room with dozens of small moving sources, and several more intense ones.    Non-mages and mages, she decided.


    *DONG*


    She completed her turn and got ready to sing, mustering her courage.   This was going to hurt, but be damned if she didn’t do it anyway.   She turned a bit to the left of the Mage Tower, towards where she thought Sanctum and Vessel-Kafana would be, and tried to visualise her just as she’d seen her through Bungo’s eyes.


    *DONG*


    : first verse


    The collar’s spikes stabbed like knives, but she couldn’t let it affect her voice.   Instead she poured the sensations and emotions she was feeling into her song.


    : second verse


    The lyrics were so apt.   She visualised opening her heart like a bat-signal, summoning heroes to help.   She reached out her hand, as though to touch her Vessel standing there in the Sanctum across the water who she felt was surely mirroring the action, reaching out to her too.


    : third verse


    Mana.   Mana outside her body.   Mana inside the Vessel’s body, the Vessel she resonated with.   She reached for that mana with her outstretched hand and the mana offered itself to her as she poured it into her song, her spell, their spell.


    Woosh, the now familiar feeling of a completed spell.   It had worked!


    *flip*


    She was back on the couch, rubbing her neck, glad to be able to turn her head again.


    The room was empty.    On the screen, Isabella supported by a wedge of priests, was standing next to Vessel-Kafana outside the entrance to the Sanctum.   Filling the Plaza were hundreds of adventurers, forces from the Watch and several Houses, and also many of Torello’s citizens, armed with everything from clubs to crossbows.    Wellington and Nastya were writing out plans, and Bungo, Tomsk and Captain Lelio were organising people.   Suor Isabella gave a short speech about the adventurers having discovered a den containing cultists of Bel that were behind many of the city’s woes, and then Kafana buffed the whole plaza.    She only cast one buff, Harmony, but it covered nearly a thousand people, and judging by the way they sagged she must have drained most of the priests to do it.   It was enough, though.   Within minutes everyone was organised and streaming over the bridge into Alto, Lelio in front carrying an order from the council.


    She felt exhausted, emotionally if not physically.   And there was nothing for her to do here.


    Burrow, tell the others that I’ve gone back to arlife for a breather.   I’ll be out of contact electronically, but if they really need me, Alderney can find me.


    *flip*


    She took off her crown and put it back in the box with her earrings.    She flopped back onto her bed and hugged herself.    The others appeared to be having a great time, but this wasn’t fun for her.    It wasn’t fun at all.   After a few minutes she got up with a groan, feeling old, and had a quick shower before heading downstairs to sing.    Not life-or-death singing.   Just nice singing for her friends and customers, to bring back memories of past times, and comfort them in the face of a world that changed too fast, too impersonally.