The next morning, Dev woke up right with the dawn. The others had already steered him outside the tent, so his first sight was the golden glow of sunrise. They were already talking, so he waited for a moment to chime into their conversation.

  ‘You think we should try looking around for food?’ Justin asked.

  ‘I think we’re all hungry. We should look around, and maybe work on axioms and aspects while we’re at it.’

  ‘Gah! Don’t jump in like that. I had no idea you were awake.’ Justin said.

  ‘Well, I am now. Let’s get moving. We’ve got, what, seven more hours until the desert island? Did anyone see what the island that just passed was?’

  ‘I only just woke up,’ Elluvian said.

  ‘I woke up first,’ Justin said. ‘Just in time for the tail end of the light show. Unfortunately, it blinded me to the details. Essence sight seemed stormy, though.’

  Dev sighed. ‘I guess that’s something. Justin, do you want to get the tent?’

  ‘On it.’

  Dev felt his body begin moving, as the tent was packed up quickly and neatly. Reclaiming control, he looked around. He jumped as his stomach rumbled louder than he’d thought possible.

  ‘Right, I think we need to get some fruit. I don’t know what else to forage in a jungle. Head west so we can get extra time again?’

  ‘Sure, makes sense.’

  Dev walked over to the edge of the edge of the jungle proper, admiring the intense vivacity of the plants.

  ‘Elluvian, I know I asked you last night, but are you sure that you don’t want to use something from around here? The life around here seems incredibly potent.’

  ‘No, Dev. And I won’t be rushed into a decision. And I’d appreciate it if you’d get off my back about it.’

  ‘Weren’t we going to talk about axioms?’ Tae asked, trying to defuse the situation.

  ‘And aspects,’ Dev confirmed. ‘Not that I know much about either, getting my stuff during he planetary ascension. Hey, Elluvian. You said you cultivated before. You should know about them and how to get them normally. Actually, shouldn’t you have some of your own?’

  ‘I should,’ Ellluvian said, sounding grateful for the change in topic. ‘They’re gone.’

  ‘Gone,’ Tae asked, ‘Aren’t they part of you?’

  ‘That’s what I thought.’ Elluvian said. ‘But I’ve tried several times since waking up here, and nothing. I suppose losing my aspect makes sense, aspects are stored in the body, but my axiom is missing as well.’

  ‘That is odd,’ Dev said, intrigued. ‘Is your soul unchanged?’

  ‘I can’t sense my soul,’ Elluvian answered.

  If Dev had been drinking something, he would have spit it out. ‘How can you not feel your soul? You had an axiom, and you never made contact with your soul? You’re practically all soul right now. Don’t you have some sort of sense of yourself?’

  ‘Like spiritual proprioception?’ Justin asked. ‘Cause I don’t have anything like that.’

  ‘Neither do I,’ Elluvian said.

  ‘Me, either,’ Tae agreed.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  ‘I guess that’s somewhere to start?’ Dev said, unsure. ‘Access to your soul will only help getting your axiom, I imagine.’

  ‘Didn’t you get access to your soul during the ascension?’ Justin asked. ‘I’m not sure how that would help.’

  That gave Dev a realization. ‘Thank you, Justin. That gave me an idea. Can you three handle yourselves for a minute?’

  Not waiting for an answer, Dev mentally dived down into his soul.

  Now, if I remember correctly, the dreaming prince said that during the ascension, the others were crushed against my soul. So I should be able to access them down here, surely.

  Not sure what to do, Dev looked mentally around, not finding anything. His soul still stood in the center, a clean azure color. He stretched his awareness out around him, trying to find any irregularities, after a few minutes of this, he surfaced, only to find himself looking at some small, bright red fruits in the upper reaches of the trees.

  ‘Hey,’ Tae said. ‘Are those edible?’

  ‘I have no idea. I’m not sure if it’s even worth grabbing them. By the time we figure out edibility, we’ll likely be back in the desert. Let’s just leave them. They are way far up, anyway.’

  ‘Man, Warren really didn’t prepare us for this,’ Dev grouched after a fruitless hour of searching, interrupted by his brief forays down to his soul.

  ‘To be fair to him, he was given three days. And what he taught would be great if we were staying in place.’

  ‘What are you even doing, Dev?’ Elluvian asked him a couple of tries later.

  ‘I’m trying to find your souls. Looking around in my soul space for them, stuff like that. Hopefully, I can poke them and you’ll feel it.’

  ‘Any reason you aren’t using your axiom?’

  Dev facepalmed. ‘I forgot it. I haven’t used it in a couple of days, and I don't know how to use it properly, anyway.’

  He quickly dived back down, activating his axiom as soon as he was down there. It rippled out, and he felt nothing. Testing, he confirmed that it still felt the same as before, a great blockage in the center. He poked at the blockage mentally, then quickly ascended.

  ‘Did anyone feel that?’ he asked.

  ‘I think everyone felt that,’ Justin answered. ‘That is some heavy stuff.’

  ‘Not the axiom, the poke.’

  ‘Well, I didn’t feel a poke,’ Justin responded. ‘Just you challenging every predator in the jungle for their territory.’

  ‘I, too, felt nothing.’ Elluvian agreed.

  Dev waited for a moment, then prompted Tae when he wasn’t answering, saying, ‘Tae, anything?’

  ‘Oh, yeah, I didn’t feel anything.’ Tae said. ‘Man, no wonder you stayed sane for so long when we were melding. With that hiding inside you, it’s a wonder you had issues at all.’

  ‘Surely it’s not that strong,’ Dev said, confused. ‘I’ve shown it to people before, and they didn’t really react this strongly about it.’

  ‘Well, it is that strong.’ Elluvian said. ‘I wasn’t going to say anything, and maybe it’s just because of sharing a body, but it’s far stronger than any I’ve felt before. Even stronger than my father’s and he was king for a reason. I think we’ll need to look into finding a way to mute it a bit, or we will be getting unwanted attention.’

  ‘I’ll try. Warren did show me a sort of pseudo-essence sight using my axiom. Maybe it will help here.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Elluvian said. ‘We’ll keep an eye out up here. You try and figure it out. I’m eager to learn what results you get.’

  Dev dived back down into his spirit space, quickly activating his axiom again. As it rippled out, he grabbed for it, but it slipped from his mental fingers. Have I gotten worse at this?

  He tried again, and this time he caught it, steering it around his spirit space. That’s much better.

  Dev swept the wave around for a scant few seconds before it faded, trying to detect irregularities. He released a new one, grabbing it faster this time and trying to prolong it to no effect. Right. Should have expected it wouldn’t be that simple.

  After that one faded, he created another, trying sweeps several more times.

  What if I… beep it. Dev released a double wave, grabbing for both of them, only for both to slip through his spectral fingers. He tried again, several more waves slipping out before he managed to grab both. Sweeping them together across his spiritual space, Dev nearly lost control as he finally felt a mild imperfection in the space near his soul.

  Dev quickly ascended back to his body.

  ‘Hey, I think I found…’

  He trailed off as he saw the surroundings, where there was a large group of people encircling them. Judging by the furs and the slight familiarity he felt from some of them, they had finally found the group from last night.