Die. Respawn. Repeat.

Chapter 88— Book 2: Aspects and Colors

"What you mean?" Tarin glances up at me.

"There's Firmament everywhere, and there are different aspects of Firmament. The imbuement stones are labeled with different aspects. Miktik's Firmament sink converts one type of Firmament into two more harmless types. How many aspects are there? What do we know about each aspect?"

Tarin frowns. "We not sense Firmament like you," he points out. "But Firmament in everything. All types, yes? Elements, but also abstract. Thought, shape, color."

That makes sense. It's more or less the same understanding that I have. Every single one of my skills has a completely unique aspect of Firmament, and even though the imbuement stones I saw seem to come in the more traditional elemental variations, I have no doubt there are stranger types out there.

Hueshift can't work directly with Firmament aspects, according to Inspect. I'm not convinced the limitations are quite as strict as the skill is trying to imply. There's some link between aspect and color, even if that link is a little tenuous; if I can make the right changes, and make enough of them...

Well, it's all just theory for now. I'm hoping I can imbue this Lightning stone with some Hueshift Firmament and make it act as the Firmament converter needed in Miktik's Firmament sinks. All I need to do is... program the stone to convert whatever type of Firmament the Whisper uses to punish disobedience into something more harmless.

I snort at my own phrasing. All I need to do. I doubt the process is going to be simple.

It'd be nice if Virin was here and I could talk to the crow about imbuement again, but he isn't. I'll have to remember to speak to him in the next loop. For now, I have some ideas I can try.

"Ahkelios," I say. "Do you mind helping me out here? I need to test out Hueshift."

"What do you want to do?" he asks, peering at me suspiciously.

"I need a strong source of Firmament so I can see what I'm doing."

"...And you want to try fiddling with me?"

"Please don't put it like that," I deadpan.

Ahkelios folds his arms across his chest and glares at me before finally relenting. "Fine," he says, hopping up onto my knee. "Do you need me to do anything?"

"Just stay still."

Despite Ahkelios's protests, changing his Firmament is relatively safe. I think. As much as Firmament seems to be tied to the mind of an individual, Ahkelios is a different case his mind is stored within whatever part of my Firmament functions as the core for the Temporal Fragment skill. Or... Temporal Link now, I suppose. The Firmament he's made of is closer to a puppet he uses to animate himself. Pure Temporal Link, zero Ahkelios.

Well, a little bit of Ahkelios. But it's an expression of him, not the core of him. Color, not aspect.

Which is important. Temporal Echo was the first skill I'd ever gained, so it's the type of Firmament I'm most familiar with. And when I reach for Hueshift, it gives me one simple requirement: to alter the color of Firmament, I must be familiar with it. I must know how to use it. The easier it is for me to manipulate, the easier for me to change its color. It isn't impossible for me to manipulate Firmament I'm not familiar with, but it will be a lot harder.

I reach for the skill. It feels the same as Color Drain, for the most part, but there's something new added on to it. I can still feel its old ability to drain the 'color' of something, but now there's another mental lever and a little bit more depth and complexity to the Firmament the skill uses; I can feel what it's going to do. Draw in Firmament, draining it from a target. Change its hue by altering it in some fundamental way. Send it back, if I choose to do so.

Like Inspect tells me, it doesn't change the fundamental aspect of Firmament I'm working with, just its color. The Mirror Inspiration does something quite similar, but it operates on a more fundamental level, changing the aspect itself into something more aligned with the emotion I'm using hence the word 'mirror', I suppose. It reflects the skill, changing it in subtle ways. Hueshift doesn't do any of that.

I take a moment to mentally target the Firmament that makes up Ahkelios's body. I know the aspect well by now, and the color of it is expressed through his personality, another point of familiarity. We're close enough that I understand him, at least to a degree. I feel the shape of his Firmament, the hue of it. His personality filters and colors my Firmament, turning it into something brighter. A sky-blue hope and joy, speckled with a playful yellow.

Hueshift.

His form flickers and changes in color to the solid-green of envy, ironically making him look far more like a traditional mantis. Ahkelios makes a noise of indignation and squirms around on my knee. "This is uncomfortable," he says.

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"Is it affecting you?" I ask, worried despite myself. It shouldn't have any effect on him.

"No," he confirms, to my relief. "It just feels... not right. Like I'm wearing clothes that are a little too tight."

I consider commenting on the fact that his species doesn't seem to bother much with clothing, and decide not to. It's probably a translation error.

"I'll reverse it," I say. It's easier to shift the Firmament back in the other direction; it settles easily, like it's just being pushed back into its natural shape.

Hm.

This gives me a better idea of what using Hueshift is like. It concentrates my Firmament on the part of my body closest to my target in this case, my knee then opens up into what feels like a jaw, clamping down around its target and drawing in its color before spitting out the new one.

So all I need to do is...

I hold the Lightning imbuement stone in my hand and activate Hueshift. I target the Lightning-aspect Firmament held within the rock itself first, keeping my Firmament senses alert as Hueshift travels up to my palm and begins to clamp down around it. With an effort of will, Firmament Control seizes those metaphorical jaws, stopping the skill in its tracks.

I can't imagine what trying to do that would have been like if I were still working with Firmament Manipulation instead of its upgraded counterpart.

Then, still preventing the skill from completing, I begin to push it into the imbuement stone. It's like Temporal Fragment was, in that sense, back when I imbued the stones Mari gave me. Some skills are easier to imbue than others, and I'm fortunate that Hueshift is one of them.

Unfortunately, the Firmament I push into it almost immediately begins to leak back out.

Imbuement stones shallow or otherwise, though I don't know what rank the ones Mari gave me to experiment with were seem much easier to push a skill into, but by the same token, the stone releases that energy much more easily as well. Mari's stones didn't have that issue, but she did call them precious village artifacts.

Which means my next step, the one I was hoping to avoid, is anchoring. It's the part of imbuement I suck at the most. I've tried the tying-a-knot method the crows use, and that's incredibly difficult for me to use, nor do I have the years that Mari implied it takes to learn it.

So let's try something new. Something of my own.

I focus inward on my Firmament sense and block everything else out except for Hueshift and the Lightning stone.

Electricity crackles across the surface of the stone, skipping past shallow pits and racing along the pores. The outermost layer of Firmament is a storm, impossible for the Hueshift Firmament to anchor to without interference; all that innate energy rips across it before it has the chance to settle, acting like a barrier.

I dig the claws of Firmament Control into that surface layer of Lightning. With some effort working on a single layer of Firmament is apparently harder than simply manipulating it as a whole I search for weaknesses in that pattern of Firmament, then tear open a small hole. Then I flood that hole with Hueshift, allowing the stone's inherent Firmament to close back up after it, sealing it within.

In theory, anyway. I hold my breath as I let go of the reins. The stone sits in my hand for two seconds, three, four but there's no sign of Firmament leakage. No sign of the skill dissipating.

I breathe a sigh of relief.

"Did you do it?" Ahkelios asks, his eyes wide.

"I think so," I say. It occurs to me, now that I've actually imbued the stone with Hueshift, that I still have no idea how to use it. The stone in theory should be capable of absorbing Firmament and altering its color, but... There's no consciousness linked to that Firmament. No ability to choose what it does. I frown in thought.

When I activated Hueshift, I was trying to change the stone's inherent Firmament from yellow-Lightning to blue-Lightning. There was no particular reason for it at the time, but if it retains that programming, then this should work.

I pull a thread of Firmament out from within myself and Hueshift it to yellow, then carefully feed it to the Lightning stone. If I'm right...

The thread turns blue. Good. The Hueshift seems to work even if the aspect of Firmament isn't the one I was targeting when I used the skill. That's step one out of the way.

Step two: I need this to work on Whisper's geas skill.

Fortunately, I still have the small piece of Firmament squirreled away from not one but two of her attempts to use that skill on me; one of them is still being chewed on by the Void, and the other is tucked away in a small part of my Firmament. I draw it out now, examining it with a critical mental eye. It's not strong enough for me to visually see a color associated with it, so I tag it with Hueshift, feeling for a mental color instead of a physical one.

It's a dark black-green, Hueshift tells me. The color of grief and guilt, though why Whisper's Firmament would be colored that way is beyond me. I can't quite bring myself to care, either; whatever she's feeling, it's no excuse for what she's inflicting on her citizens.

Still, something to keep in mind. It's information that might prove useful in the future.

Changing the color of Firmament has proven to alter the efficacy and function of a skill, at least to a degree. There has to be a color that will if not entirely neutralize then at least minimize the effects of disobeying Whisper.

I hesitate for only a moment, and then change the imbuement within the stone, reaching for a version of Hueshift that changes the black-green of her Firmament into a bright and sunny yellow. I thread the small fragment of her Firmament through the stone, watching as it changes subtly in my Firmament sense, and then...

Well, and then I wrap her geas around myself again, as if she'd just used it on me. What was the command she'd used with this piece of Firmament again?

Oh, right.

Meet me in my palace in two hours.

Seeing as it's been long past two hours and I've never met her in her palace in this version of events...

I feel a sharp, stabbing pain as the Firmament fragment reacts. It's a small fragment too small to do any significant damage but it still hurts. I grit my teeth.

I better get some Durability for this.