Silence. Then, a confused exclamation: “What?”

“This thing was one of Koschei’s most beloved possessions and you’re surprised that he used it for one of its intended purposes? An Antediluvian Gem is not just a soul storage medium, it’s the supreme caster’s essentia ballast; do you not know the tale of the Inverse Sorceress?"

“...A woman said to possess such magical power she could erase mountains and slay Nine-eyed Dragon Descendants. She vanished in Karga a short while after the Ankhezian Empire collapsed, did she not?”

”I wouldn’t say vanished as much as used that place to return to her own world, but yes. The gems she used to cast the Dragon Slayer were Antediluvian, I had a hand in their creation. The essentia involved in that spell would’ve ripped her apart where she stood if she used any lesser ballast medium. Koschei used two of these as lenses in an ocular contraption, this one was the Left Eye. The old man’s soul is in there, at least what’s left of it… He probably snuck inside after Tian Feng thought he’d killed him, there’s some pretty bad spiritual damage that’s been mostly repaired. Doesn’t look like soul-grafts, there’s no rejection impurity… Must’ve taken him centuries siphoning the ambient spiritual emissions of his descendants to fix himself up like this.”

“...So what now? Can I not just toss the gem, or is the connection not mine to sever?” Victor asked.

“Unfortunately the second one, you can’t just toss it. Koschei prophesied his own return, so I’d wager that he’ll try to implicate himself into your body and take over at some point… And knowing the man who sent you to me, he probably hoped that I’d advise you on how you could avoid such a fate, so I’ll help you on this and collect the debt from him later.”

The Smoke Witch put the gem back down on the table. She got up and walked over to one of her shelves, which was stacked high with scrolls, and pulled a particularly heavy, single-reeled scroll with black vellum and a golden reel case, hopping up to sit on the table as she pulled it open. Eldritch, magenta lights shone from it, dancing over her face.

“Your options are limited; one of them is severing your link with the artifact and storing it in a place that would entrap the object and prevent the spirits from moving it. Right here would work, for instance; Koschei’s soul would struggle to escape the mansion even if he went full manifestation out of nowhere. Alternatively, you could try to usurp the prophecy itself and in the process subsume Koschei as one would subsume an Azoth Stone, but it’d be a one-in-a-million shot even if you were prepared for such a thing…”

She looked down at Victor.

“...And you certainly are not. Frankly, it’d be easier to beat him in a straight fight than a mental one; at least then you could leverage outside factors. I strongly recommend leaving the gem with me and maybe coming back for it in, say, two hundred years? You should be ready for it by then, and Koschei’s soul will have atrophied enough to be a surmountable challenge.”

Vic looked down at the gemstone’s crystal-clear form, obviously trying to build up the mental wherewithal to leave behind one of his only remembrances of home and family. He reached for it and held it up by its strings, staring through it at the witch… And then, he turned his eyes to Zelsys. Their eyes met; she instantaneously made the mental connection, and she chuckled: “No, I think there’s another option. Tell me, Smoke Witch; how do you think I altered my own physiology?”

“Mutagens. Rituals. Maybe gastromancy, if Ozmir is still around. You’re going somewhere with this, so just get there,” the witch shrugged.

“I know of a cultivation method by which one might achieve direct communication with and total control over the unconscious aspects of one’s own mind and body; practicing such a method to fruition would permit one to establish total supremacy in a mental battle if it is on their own grounds, would it not?”

Freezing in place, the witch let go of the scroll’s handle, causing it to forcefully retreat into its casing. Her doubtful face peered at Zelsys: “...I’m sorry, what? Did you go to Sagruhel’s Tomb or something?”

“I have the scroll. It’s written in a combination of Imperial Trade script and mnemoglyphs; will or will it not work?”

“Sure it’ll work…” the witch began, turning her eyes to Victor.

“...If he succeeds in walking the Way of the Self-forging Blade as you have,” she continued, further demonstrating awareness of the cultivation method Zel spoke of without being told what it was. “On the assumption that prettyboy here manages to achieve sovereignty over himself, the act of defeating Koschei on the mental plane will subvert the prophecy of his return; it will be fulfilled in that Koschei and his would-be vessel will become one and the same entity physically and spiritually, but it will be Koschei who will be subsumed rather than vice versa. It’s a fundamental weakness of the process by which an Antediluvian Gem may be used to hijack the body of someone sufficiently similar to the soul within, be it through blood relation or coincidental similarity. The process; the so-called Enantiomorph, necessitates a third party to observe it taking place, but it can’t take place with more than one observer. As such, you can forestall Koschei’s inevitable attempt at usurpation by ensuring that the child is never alone with only one other person while wearing the amulet. If it ever comes to pass that he must be alone with someone…”

The Smoke Witch grinned, putting the scroll back on its shelf, and in the same motion, retrieving another, much more mundane-looking one; just wooden slips bound together and rolled up, symbols burned into it. With her other hand, she opened the top drawer of the desk she was sitting on, the interface vortex of Fog Storage artifact erupting from within it. She reached in and pulled out a second, smaller bamboo-slip scroll, empty and fresh.