SK studied Elias the way a butcher studied meat—head slightly tilted, eyes narrowed, expression stripped of anything polite or human. His attention had sharpened, coiled inward like a blade half-drawn.
"…What did you see?" SK asked.
Elias blinked.
"What, no I—?" He stopped himself, then repeated slowly, testing the words.
"What I saw?"
SK's gaze hardened.
"Don't play clever with me, boy. When you put the mask on. What. Did. You. See."
The shack felt smaller suddenly. The wind rattled the warped boards, and somewhere in the rafters something skittered and went still. Jamie, who had been poking at a glass jar full of preserved something-that-should-not-have-had-that-many-legs, paused and glanced over.
Elias inhaled through his nose.
"I don't remember," he said carefully.
SK didn't move. "Try again."
Elias clenched his jaw.
"I don't remember," he repeated, firmer this time.
"Any voices?" SK pressed. "Nightmares? Anything watching you back?"
That—
That made his head hurt.
The pain came suddenly, sharp and disorienting, like a nail driven just behind his eyes. Elias staggered half a step, one hand rising to his temple before he could stop himself. The world tilted.
Something stirred at the edge of his thoughts.
Not a memory. Not fully.
An impression...a womans laughter.
No—more the idea of one. The curve of a silhouette, the echo of movement. And laughter. Soft at first, then peeling, amused...ominous.
Interested.
His vision swam. The laughter slipped away the moment he tried to grasp it, just at the edge of rememberance, leaving behind only the migraine and a faint, sickening sense he could not quite put his finger on.
Elias sucked in a breath and forced his hand down.
"There's nothing I can remember clearly," he said. "And forcing it isn't helping."
SK watched him closely, then clicked his tongue.
"Bloody figures."
Elias straightened, ignoring the lingering ache. "But I need to know about the Mask," he said. "What did it do to me?"
SK didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he stared.
Not at Elias's face.
At everything else.
Elias felt it then—that subtle pressure, like fingers brushing against the edges of his being. He frowned.
"Hey," he muttered. "What are you doing?"
"Shut it," SK replied absently.
Flow perception.
Elias could feel it now, unmistakable. The old man's awareness slid over him in slow, deliberate passes, like a current testing stone. It wasn't invasive—not yet—but it was thorough.
SK saw it all.
The circulation of Flow through Elias's body was smooth. Too smooth, if anything. Broad channels, well-maintained, reinforced from repeated use. The quantity was… excessive for a child his age, but not unstable. No turbulence. No scarring.
Normal.
Uncomfortably normal.
SK frowned. He had seen the true vastness of the boys energy so this normalcy was in itself abnormal.
He could go deeper. With his Trait he could peer past the Flow. Look at the soul itself.
He didn't.
After a moment, he withdrew, clicking his tongue again.
"Nothing's screaming," he said. "Which is either very good news or very bloody bad news depending on your honesty."
Elias exhaled slowly. "That's… comforting."
"Wasn't meant to be."
SK stepped back and leaned against his cluttered table. "You brats know anything about Soulbound Artifacts?"
Elias and Jamie exchanged a glance, then shook their heads.
"We've learned about artifacts in general," Jamie said.
"Right," SK said. "And that's where most teachers stop, because the rest gets people killed."
He squinted at them. "You got any artifacts on you?"
Elias reached instinctively for the Jade Dagger at his belt.
"I have—"
Before he could finish, Jamie reached up, tugged something free from within her coat, and set it down on the table with a soft clink.
A Gilded Nullbrand Collar.
The air changed.
Elias stared at it.
SK stared at it.
Then, slowly, both of them looked at Jamie.
She blinked between their expressions.
"…What?"
Elias rounded on her. "Why do you still have that?"
She tilted her head, genuinely thoughtful.
"I don't really know," she said, scratching her chin.
"I was kind of hoping I could try and put it on him again if he didn't cooperate."
Elias slowly covered his face with his palm.
SK looked from the collar to Jamie, then to Elias.
"…Right," he said after a beat. "Moving on, what do you think artifacts are?"
He picked the collar up carefully.
Jamie perked up. "So, artifacts are tools made from beast parts to replicate their abilities."
"Correct," SK said. "And how do those functions work?"
"Arrays," Elias replied automatically. "Inscribed formations that guide Flow into specific outputs called functions."
SK nodded. "Very good. Congratulations. You've explained artifacts to a layman."
He snorted. "I won't ask about rankings or any of that crap. If you don't know those, go read a fucking book."
He infused a thread of Flow into the collar. The inner surface lit up, faint golden lines tracing intricate patterns.
"Enhancement Array," he said. "Foundation of functions. Works in tandem with Binding Arrays to manifest whatever tricks the creature had in life."
He glanced at Jamie. "Remember what I told you when that bloody bloke attacked?"
Jamie thought for a moment.
"The body is a vessel," she said. "Sever part of it, and you sever part of the soul."
"Good girl."
He put his hand in his pocket and brought out a strip of jerky to hand her. Jamie reached for it eagerly—
—and Elias smacked her wrist away.
SK shrugged and bit into it himself.
"Suit yourselves."
He continued, tone sharpening. "Now. Soulbound Artifacts are different. Instead of residual essence lingering in a corpse, these bastards have souls stitched into them. Spills. Shards. Living will trapped in the inanimate."
He stepped closer to Elias.
"They happen when a creature's will is so strong it refuses to pass on and remains. Or when some idiot forces a soul into an object."
He loomed directly in front of him. "You know how dangerous that is, don't you."
Elias thought. "…Corruption."
SK nodded. "The soul tries to overwrite the vessel using it. Binding and Containment Arrays keep it from spreading virally. But fuck around and touch it—"
He snapped his fingers. "—and you'll fucking find out."
He grabbed Elias by the collar. "Which is why I'm asking if anything's off. So I can exorcise the shit now."
"I'm fine," Elias said.
"If that were true," SK said flatly, "you wouldn't mind me peeping your soul for a minute."
Elias tensed. "No."
SK's grip tightened.
Instinct flared.
Flow surged.
Elias didn't even aim.
The shockwave blasted outward, slamming SK back into a shelf with a crash of glass and wood.
The shack went silent.
Elias froze.
"I— I didn't mean—"
"Oi!" Jamie snapped. "You can't just blast old people!"
She hurried over, crouching beside SK. "Are you okay?"
SK raised a hand.
He sat up slowly, rubbing his shoulder.
"…Interesting," he muttered.
He waved them off. "You've got your answers. Now fuck off."
They two stood still for a moment then headed out.
Elias went out first. Jamie hesitated at the door, then smiled. "You're a really good teacher for an old guy."
The forest swallowed them.
As they walked toward the city, Elias's thoughts churned. The gate. The laughter. A soul bound not to an object—
—but to him.
'Was it trying to revive? Use me to return to this world?'
He didn't mind dying.
'But not yet.'
Not before his mother gave birth.
He glanced back once.
'The old man knew arrays. Artificing. That was basically Sorcery. I think I'll go back later.'
By the time they reached the city, dusk had fallen.
Jamie grinned. "Same time tomorrow?"
Elias blinked. "What?"
"You look like got more questions," she said. "And he's interesting. I wanna know where he got that stuff from."
He looked at her. She seemed to be ale to read his mind.
'Its not a bad thing though...'
Before he could answer—
WHACK.
"Ow!"
Beth loomed over them, arms crossed.
"So the hell did you two run off to? It doesn't matter." she said before they could open their mouths to explain.
She grabbed them both by the collars.
"You're not going home till you clean the back storage. And It better be so clean i can see my reflection even when the lights are off."
Elias and Jamie exchanged a look. Jamie signed;
We forgot to get the Frostbind leaves.
Elias stared at her for a moment then they both snickered.