Though that didn’t mean that Lindon couldn’t cause problems by accident. He was reluctant to mess with Dross’ internal configuration, but he needed a better look.
Dross expanded, his external layer of “skin” vanishing. Now he looked like a mass of organic rings, all spinning in time with one another. Between these interlocking circles was a recognizable system of madra channels, the hazy dream madra moving in gradual loops.
Seisha’s brush froze in her hands as she was about to take notes. Her drudge gave a whistle that Lindon thought sounded hopeless.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” she breathed. “It’s like a Remnant with another unique, independent spirit of its own. I can’t even begin…”
Lindon’s one hand was occupied with directing Dross’ madra—his right arm still in its sling—so he split his attention to summon a brief spark of fire aura to point out a specific part of Dross’ soul. One of the major rings at the top was faded in a particular spot, as though it had broken and begun to return. “This is one of the connections that broke when he exhausted himself. I was thinking if I could reinforce it—”
She cut him off with a look of wide-eyed horror. “What? You want to splice another spirit inside him?”
“Oh, apologies, that’s not what I meant. I’ll graft purified dream madra into him and let his own spirit rebuild itself.”
“It’s doing that already.”
“Yes, but if I let it continue, it will be like he’s being born all over again. There’s no telling who he’ll become.”
At his core, Dross was a compilation of many minds and spirits that had been pieced together and then developed into an individual over time. But on some level, he was still a memory spirit. Just remembering who he had been might be enough to make him that person again.
Or it could start him over from the beginning.
Seisha looked completely overwhelmed. “Okay…let’s say you can do that. What happens next?”
“Well, improving the connection in that ring would hook over to this one, which would accelerate its regeneration. That’s my biggest concern. If I could make all the repairs at one time, I’d get Dross back as he was. But fixing one link in the chain starts a cascade I can’t predict.”
Lindon could tell his mother was only following him on the most theoretical level. He had hoped her years of experience would make up for her faulty education, but then again, this was a unique spirit. Perhaps the only expert in the world was Northstrider.
And the Monarch had never responded, no matter how many times Lindon called his name.
“So if you were to repair him, you’d either be bringing him back to life…or killing him.”
That phrasing hurt, so Lindon focused on the job. “Technically, he should be functional now. Just without much personality or most of his memories. That’s what I’m trying to bring back.”
“I see,” Seisha said faintly.
Then she corrected herself.
“No, I don’t see at all. But I will.”
With determination, she began sketching Dross’ internal structure. Her drudge bristled with sensors and flew all around.
To his mother, every new mystery was an opportunity to learn. That was something he’d always been proud of.
But he had hoped she would know an answer that would help him now. Just waiting to see if Dross recovered went against everything he wanted to do.
He wanted Dross back.
Lindon released Dross, letting the purple loops fade back into a ball at the back of his spirit. “For now, he needs time. He’ll stabilize slowly, which will give him better odds of recovery. I hope.”
Seisha placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. All we can do is our best, and the rest is up to the heavens.”
Lindon clenched Suriel’s marble in his hand and nodded.
“Not fair,” Yerin said, immediately upon catching sight of Lindon.
Little Blue and Orthos had finished supervising Kelsa’s training for the day, and now they were sitting on his shoulders again.
“You could raise a spirit of your own,” Lindon pointed out. “There are Sylvan Riverseeds forming out by the pond.”
“You ever spent time chatting with a sword spirit? No, because they’re always cutting. And blood spirits are…” She shuddered.
Lindon had interacted with some blood-aspect Remnants, and even their dead matter tended to act as sadistically as possible. Then again, the only real blood spirit he had spent any time with was Ruby, and she was an exception in most ways.