Brelyna stared down at the gold and dark item on the desk with intense interest. The dunmer leaned back in her chair, a million thoughts racing through her head. Childlike curiosity was turned aside by the pragmatic methodical system she'd conditioned herself into over the years however, in order to keep from being overwhelmed. She would consider each implication in turn over the next few days.
The group had assembled in the Arch-Mage's personal quarters on the top level of the College. It was a wide, expansive chamber, circular like virtually every other room and lined with bookshelves, tables, charts, artifacts, and numerous other magical and scientific instruments. Behind her desk in the center of the room was a small garden of planets she used for alchemy, and behind that was a wall that separated her sleeping area from the rest of the chamber.
"… So it's a permanent phylactery," she considered, leaning back in her chair slightly, "You're all liches, but without any of the downsides." Testing something, she waved a detect life spell over the four girls who sat across from her. When it did nothing, she cast another spell this time detect dead, and the girls immediately lit up in a soft glow that lingered for a few seconds. They were mildly alarmed, but the Arch-Mage calmed them down, "Don't worry, it's just a detection spell. So…you really are all undead. Technically speaking, at least."
"… Some of us more than others," Madoka said with a hint of embarrassment. The girls sat in chairs on the other side of the desk, each comfortably spaced from the others. The heartfelt and tearful reunion from a few hours ago had cooled, leaving behind the uncomfortable feelings everyone still held. Of note, Kyoko sat between Nagisa and Mami. It hadn't been intentional, but it was still a clear sign not everything was sunshine. Madoka sat a bit further away than the others, isolated and clearly embroiled in her own problems mostly unrelated to the latent Mami/Kyoko/Nagisa drama. Sayaka for her part lay on a table along the far wall that had been cleared off for her.
Upon arrival, both Madoka and Mami had been directed to the baths, and now a few hours later the whole group was fed and clothed in College robes.
"Did you bring what I asked?" Valtir asked Brelyna. He stood a few feet away, examining a star chart on the wall.
The dunmer gave him a dry look, "We're in my personal quarters, Valtir." She opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out a misshapen chunk of purple crystal about the size of her fist and set it down on the table, "This is a soul gem."
The girls looked down at the rock next to Sayaka's gem.
"… Um…" Madoka muttered, unsure of what to make of this.
Kyoko's eyes narrowed, "… No it's not."
Brelyna ignored the redhead, "We use soul gems in enchanting. When an animal dies, its departing soul can be pulled into the gem and its energy used to fuel an enchantment on an item, such as a sword or an amulet. Certain soul gems can also be used on higher-level beings such as humans or elves, but it's… generally frowned on. Normally speaking, the higher-ranking a creature, the more magic their soul can provide."
Nagisa gulped, the sudden revelation making her far less certain about pursuing the concept, "Wait, you harvest souls for magic?" The idea sounded far, far too close to what the Incubators did, and the idea did not sit well with her.
"They're animals" Brelyna said, "It's no worse than hunting them for food or pelts."
Madoka was also frowning, but for a different reason, "… And what happens when the soul gem runs out of magic?" she asked quietly.
Brelyna shrugged, "It's used up and the gem breaks. Why?"
"So you don't have witches here?"
"Like… wild mages?" the dunmer asked, confused as to where this was going, "I mean sure, but—"
Madoka, somewhat uncharacteristically, cut her off, "No. I mean…" she paused to consider her words. How to explain a witch? "… What exactly happens to a soul when it's used up?"
"It's taken," Valtir answered, "If it was a white soul, like an animal, then it returns to the dreamsleeve to be reincarnated. If it was a black soul, a sentient being, then either by the Daedric Prince the soul was bound to, or more often to the Soul Cairn, a shadowy realm ruled by the Ideal Masters."
"'Ideal Masters'?" Mami asked.
The altmer shrugged, "A mysterious group, probably ascended mages who achieved a sort of godhood. They consider the use of soul gems to be a sort of pact, and claim souls who have been used up."
"… Like a contract," Madoka mused, putting the pieces together in her mind. So this world had its own bizarre Law of Cycles analogue, even if it wasn't as benevolent.
Brelyna coughed politely as she took the reins of the conversation, "We're getting off topic. Now, for us soul gems are one-way. Once a soul is taken from the host body, that's it, it's done. The soul cannot communicate with the body and the body dies if it hasn't already. But yours… has some sort of psychic connection?"
Kyoko grimaced, "I uh…ended up being a bit of a guinea pig for Neloth. He put some sort of 'silence' spell over my gem and cut my connection for a few seconds."
The dunmer digested this, "… Interesting. It makes sense, I suppose. So we know your connection can be disrupted."
"One hundred meters is about as far as we can get from our gem before our body shuts down and begins to decay." Madoka added.
"But Sayaka's body is still… well, 'alive'. She has a pulse and is breathing." Mami said.
Madoka nodded, "The only other time I've seen this was—" Madoka froze in a fit of sudden inspiration. Her eyes went wide as she slapped her forehead, "Oh, I'm an idiot," she exclaimed.
"Wha—" Mami gasped as Madoka nearly tipped her chair over when she jumped to her feet and reached for Sayaka's gem.
Madoka grasped the gem, looking it over, "It's so simple! Ah, if only I had a way I could tell or not…"
"Tell what?" Mami asked, very confused. The other two girls were equally lost… at least until Nagisa's eyes also widened as she hit the same page as Madoka.
"… An isolation field."
That got the other girls' attention. Mami's perplexed expression only got moreso, "But odd colors aside, Sayaka's gem looks fine. Didn't the Incubators need some sort of infrastructure to pull off what they did to Homura?"
"The odd colors are the isolation field! Homura was a god," Madoka replied, still looking over the gem, "If I had wanted to, I probably could have done the same thing, I just… never thought about it, I guess. All Homura would have had to do would be to somehow invert Sayaka's telepathic connection." It was so easy, so elegant. Madoka mentally kicked herself for not seeing this earlier, legitimately a little angry at her apparent denseness. Of course Homura would have done this after seeing the Incubators do it. Of course.
At this, Kyoko gave a loud and almost hysterical laugh as the implications set in, "Oh… oh my god, are you fucking kidding me?!"
"Kyoko, this is serious," Mami chastised her, then turned back to Madoka, "So how do we get her out?"
The redhead continued her biting giggle as she sat up and stopped leaning in her chair. She unfolded her leg and set both down on the ground as she turned to Mami, "Okay, so, I know I'm not the smartest person here and I'm just a lowly mortal or whatever, so if you guys could help guide me through this, that'd be great. So like, the Incubators decide to trap Homura in an isolation field because they're a bunch of dicks, right? But then their whole plan goes to shit and it causes Homura to apparently become the literal devil or whatever," she nearly eyerolled at the sheer amount of melodrama, "I got that right so far, right?" she looked around to the hesitant nods of affirmation.
"Where are you going with this?" Madoka asked.
Kyoko snorted in amusement, "So… okay, so Sayaka gets all up in Homura's shit and won't stop, right? For whatever reason, Homura can't keep her memories wiped. And you're telling me Homura's big, ingenious, master plan of plans to fix this is to… put Sayaka in the same damn isolation field?"
"… The very thing that caused her to ascend in the first place" Mami said, a wry smile forming on her lips as she too found some dark humor in the situation. The irony and Homura's seeming obliviousness, combined with the amusing image of Sayaka accidentally ascending with a confused Homura looking on were just too perfect, despite Sayaka's current condition.
"That… sounds like Homura, actually," Nagisa admitted.
"It's classic Homura," Kyoko affirmed, "This is the girl who can't stand being asked for directions on the street by strangers, but won't hesitate to break in and wake me at four in the morning to tell me that she has to cancel our afternoon plans. Goddamn hopeless dork."
Madoka walked over to Sayaka's body, still cradling her gem, "… We thought she was asleep all this time, but instead she's been trapped in her gem, suffering. We have to get in there somehow."
Nagisa considered this as she bunched up her legs in the chair and put her chin over her knees, "… Homura's labyrinth was intentionally pulling people in. But Sayaka hasn't shown any signs of that."
Madoka shook her head, "Oktavia was always far more isolated than Homulily ever was; she never noticed the outside world. And anyway, the situation's not quite the same. I took Sayaka into the Law of Cycles, so she's already a witch in a sense."
Valtir walked over to Madoka, "There may be a way in." When everyone gave him undivided attention he continued, "There have been a handful of times where someone has had to go into a soul gem for a particular reason. Usually in such cases they constructed a magical tether from their soul to their body, as well as had a second person to reel them back out when the job was done. It's extremely dangerous, though I'm sure you know that."
"Then what are we waiting for?!" Kyoko said as she got up and headed over to Madoka and Valtir, "Let's go get Sayaka!" Preferably before she turned into a wrathful god of vengeance or whatever.
"Not so fast," the altmer said as Mami and Nagisa followed the redhead, "Like I said, this is dangerous. Soul gems are brittle, and soul connections are hard to maintain. If the tether snaps, you could be lost in there forever, if not launched into the void altogether."
Kyoko gave him a hard glare, "You think I give a shit? I'm not going to let her just waste away, I'll take that risk."
Valtir put up his hands in a calming gesture, "I'm not saying you can't. The problem is that not all of you can go. I feel comfortable sustaining two tethers; any more courts danger."
"Well I'm going to be one of them." Kyoko stated, eying the others and daring them to argue. Neither Mami or Nagisa felt that they should.
"… Me too," Madoka said with quiet determination, placing Sayaka's gem in the bluenette's hands. She turned to Valtir, "When can we start?"