I leaned back in my chair thinking through all the implications of what I'd just learned. "Wait, but doesn't that mean different rune stones can interfere with one another if they're both using omnidirectional interlacing?" I chuckled imagining the chaos that might happen if different rune devices started activating eachother randomly. "I guess referential interlacing is kinda important regardless. I wonder how they keep the references unique…"
I was just about to dive back into the lesson material when a voice suddenly spoke close behind me. "Ohou? What do we have here, a little junior runemaster playing with stones? Quite the unique soul construct you have there little runemaster, no wonder she asked me to come take a look."
"What the!!?!?" I started at the sudden intrusion, dropping my inscription wand and nearly falling on the floor as I tried to twist in my chair to see the source of the voice.
Floating in midair with a sly grin was a ghostly zombified head, where its neck should be there was an extended coil of ghostly energy which extended back from the head connecting to two other skeletal skulls which seemed dormant.
"What are you!?!" I tried to recover myself from my awkward position, twisting the chair to face it properly. "And why are you here??"
"Didn't you hear me?" The head chuckled. "Keravashka asked for me. Said there was a strange soul construct product of the Mage Tower, wanted me to come look. As for what I am…" The head looked at her with a twinkle in its eye. "It's probably best you don't know kid."
"Right she did say…wait Keravashka? Is that the vampire's name? I thought it was Violet?"
"Ahaha, oops, Violet's just a callsign she gives out to people she doesn't trust. Don't go spreading it around, alright? Now let's have a look at you, why don't we?"
"AH!" I leapt back as the head shot into my chest.
"Pipe down, I'm just having a little looksy, not like it's going to kill you." The head grumbled from inside my chest. "Ooh is that really…Damn I didn't think they could do that…" The head murmured as she shifted around a bit inside me.
I closed my eyes trying to ignore the strange shivery feeling coming from inside my chest that seemed to slither around a bit every few seconds like some kind of horrible parasite.
"Alright, I'm done, you can stop squirming." The head retracted from my chest and floated back to a comfortable distance.
"So you're from another world, huh kid? Pretty fancy stuff. Double-end receiver, all locked and isolated from eachother, forming an interchangeable ritual that can be cut off at will. To be honest I'm impressed, didn't think those bastards fancied astromancy much, but here they are pulling off stunts like this. Did they say much about why you're here? Has to be something if they're granting you this much autonomy."
"Um…You're talking about the Mage Tower, right?" Most of what the head has just said flew right over my head, but I remembered Violet saying something about my soul being linked to the Mage Tower somehow.
"Yeah, obviously, who else do you think I'm…" The head froze. "Wait, say that again."
"Umm… 'you're talking about the Mage Tower, right??'" The head blinked. "Do you…not know who they are?"
"Umm…not really. I talked about them a little with Violet, and I heard a little bit in my world, but…"
I didn't really get what the point of this part of the quest was, but I supposed it was some kind of intro lore dump about the secrets of the Mage Tower or whatever, and I was doing my best to pay attention, though the head wasn't making it easy for me.
"Humamamama…" The head smacked their lips. "I can see why Kera asked for me…" They looked down at the floor and started murmuring to themselves. "An interchangeable ritual, no knowledge of...another world. Did they disguise their presence? Maybe…Kid are there more out there like you?"
"Uhh…if you're talking about people from my world, then yeah, there should be like…what fifty million? I guess?"
"Fi—fifty MILLION!!???" The eyes of the head bulged out, and smoke released from the other two skulls as their jaws simultaneously dropped open. "What the hell are they doing!!?? How have I only just heard of this?? Goddamn if I still had my body, I'd…" The head closed their eyes and took a breath.
"Ok, this is a lot to process. So those special development zones popping up all over the place…?"
"Yeah, that should be people like me. To be honest I'm not sure why I'm here, normally we should have started in one of those towns."
The head drooped down towards the floor. "This is beyond me. Global conspiracy. Souls from another world. Mass rituals. Hidden motives. This is beyond my paygrade, I'm just a simple skull spirit. I may have grievances, but I'm just a humble astromancer trying to get by. Please forgive me great gods of the Mage Tower, I never knew your reach was so wide…"
"What are you…?" I was confused by the head's sudden change of pace, but they cut me off before I could inquire.
"I need to go! They might find me here! They might be listening! I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! I WON'T SAY ANYTHING!" The head yelled as loud as it could.
The door to the house suddenly swung open, and the head let out a high peach squeal as ghostly white tears dripped down its chin. "Please let me live!" It sobbed, turning towards the doorway.
"Why are you sobbing?" Violet stood in the doorway, her eyes narrowed at the floating head.
The head's eyes widened at Violet's entrance. "Ummm, nothing. I don't know anything. I need to go, sorry I couldn't handle this one!" It tried to fly desperately over Violet's shoulder through the door frame, but she suddenly reached out and yanked it down by its ghostly tail.
"Wait." She frowned looking at the head. "You haven't told me what you saw."
The head shivered in fright as the cold aura around Violet intensified. After a moment it broke.
"She's a soul construct! Empty body serves as a ritualistic receptor. The whole thing is segmented, controlled from the instrument on her end of the ritual. You can destroy the receptor, but the soul would be safe in their original body. Even if you could somehow force her to remain a forceful removal of her from the ritual in her world would sever the connection and bring her home. Soul-based attacks might work, but a part of the soul remains home, it'd be difficult to inflict anything more serious than a wound. I don't know how they did it. I don't know anything else. Please, let me go. I want no more part in this."
Violet furrowed her brows for a moment, staring at the head. It flinched and closed its eyes, but said nothing more.
"Fine." She let go of the head's tail. "Consider your debt paid."
The head didn't even stop to acknowledge her words before whisking itself away as fast as possible.