The moment the ring slid fully onto Dorian Viremont's finger, the world lurched.
There was no blinding light. No surge of pain. No dramatic flare of power.
Instead...silence.
Not the silence of a quiet room, but the absence of sound itself. As if the very concept of noise had been stripped away.
Dorian's breath caught in his throat, the weight of his body vanished.
The bed beneath him, the cold stone floor, the faint glow of the moonlight leaking through the curtainsall of it peeled away like a poorly painted illusion. His stomach twisted violently as the sensation of falling gripped him, yet there was no wind, no direction, no up or down.
A vast, fog-drenched expanse stretched endlessly in every direction. The mist glowed faintly green, thick and alive, rolling like a slow ocean without waves. There was no sky, yet something above emitted a dim, omnipresent radiance, neither light nor darkness.
And at the center of it all stood an emerald monolith. It towered impossibly high, piercing the unseen heavens, its surface etched with countless markings that shifted and rearranged themselves when Dorian tried to focus on them.
Symbols, formulas and things that brushed the edges of comprehension and slipped away before they could be named.
The sheer presence of it pressed against his being.
Dorian staggered back a step, heart hammering.
"This place again…" he muttered hoarsely.
But unlike the last time when the vision had been brief, violent, and accompanied by an overwhelming voice this place felt… stable. Structured as if it existed independently of his will.
"So you finally put it on."
The voice came from beside him.
Dorian spun around to see Liora who stood there as if she had always been there, her tall figure draped in flowing green robes instead of her usualattire.
Her emerald hair drifted weightlessly, as though submerged in water, and her eyes glowed faintly mirroring the monolith behind her.
Dorian clenched his fists. "So this is your doing."
Liora smiled faintly. She gestured around them. "Welcome, to my soul space."
Dorian's gaze snapped back to the fog, the monolith, the shifting symbols embedded in the very air. His sharp tongue, so quick in most situations, failed him for once.
"Soul… space?" he repeated.
"Yes, you've been here before...against my will but I'll let it slide due to your ignorance"
Liora's expression turned instructional, almost teacher-like. "Every being possesses one, a domain where the soul exists independent of the physical body.
For most people, it remains dormant their entire lives sealed, unreachable, irrelevant."
Her eyes met his. "Except for those with soul resonance."
"Soul resonance", Dorian repeated, " A recurring phrase,"
She nodded. "Because it is the reason you're here. Anyone can be trained to discover soul resonance but by the time most learn it, most of their lives have been spent. It is by no means an easy feat to achieve
But you, you naturally have the ability to resonate with your soul"
He exhaled slowly, forcing his racing thoughts into order. "And that's why you want me to learn your alchemy. Correct me if I'm wrong"
"You're not, Go on," She urged him
"I've been here before, the night I met you. I don't know how I got here back then, but I guess it has to do with this...soul resonance."
"Correct once again,"
"And how did I do that? Shouldn't it be impossible to just casually spawn in another person's soul?"
"Soul space," she corrected him, "No it's not impossible but it's extremely difficult,"
Didn't seem that difficult, Dorian thought to himself
"How did I get here then? Was it the ring?"
"Yes"
Dorian looked at the ring on his finger, it looked so ordinary, such a powerful tool and get it was handed to him casually, it made him wonder how powerful Liora really is.
"The ring acts like a key, and a symbolic gesture.
Once you are able to turn that lead ring into gold then your journey as an alchemist has reached the end" Liora replied simply.
"Really? For some reason I feel like that's harder than it sounds"
She tilted her head. "You're right to think that, I've been studying alchemy for a while now, and even I can not achieve that"
Dorian raised a curious brow. "It's that hard?" He looked at the ring and thought to himself how hard it would be to turn the lead ring golden in comparison to forming wind out of thin air without mana.
He looked around again, studying the monolith with a curious intensity rather than awe. "So this place… it's real."
"As real as the soul itself."
"And I'm physically here?Like teleportation magic?"
"No," she corrected. "Your consciousness is."
That explanation only made him more confused
Dorian crossed his arms. "So you drag me into this strange place without permission, knock me out last night, read my mind, and expect me to just… accept this?"
Liora shrugged lightly. "You put the ring on."
A beat passed.
The fog stirred subtly, reacting to the tension.
Dorian stepped forward, violet eyes hard. "What do you stand to gain from this? Helping me.
But before you answer I want you to know that, I don't kneel. I don't swear lifelong loyalty. And I don't accept chains no matter how pretty they are."
Liora studied him in silence, her gaze penetrating, weighing.
"…Interesting," she murmured. "Know I am not doing this out of the kindness of my heart or out of pity for the broken and unwanted seed of the Viremont house.
I have my motives but fear not, it isn't something evil or good or something so grand.
When the time is right you will know but for now, I will act as your guide on your alchemical journey"
Dorian furrowed his brows, he still had lingering doubts but for some reason his mind was calm.
"You teach me alchemy. I learn. I grow and I help you with your motive. That's the deal."
"Sums it up," she said calmly.
Something unspoken passed between them.
Then Liora gestured outward. "Now. Since you insisted on answers let us begin properly."
She raised her hand, and the fog around them parted, revealing countless faint silhouettes embedded within it.
Dorian squinted. "What am I looking at?"
"The souls of things," Liora said.
"…Things?"
"Yes. Everything has a soul, down to the grains of sand beneath your feet."
He scoffed instinctively. "That's ridiculous."
"Is it?" she countered. "A sword has a form. A purpose. A history. A state of being. Strip away the material, and what remains?"
Dorian hesitated.
She continued, voice calm and absolute. "The soul is the blueprint of existence. The reason something is what it is and not something else."
She turned to him. "Soul resonance equips alchemists with the ability to sense those blueprints."
Understanding flickered behind his eyes.
"That's why…" he murmured. "That's why I could see your circles?"
"Yes," Liora said. "You didn't perceive mana. You perceived me changing the shape of the atmosphere into wind. And those circles are called transmutation circles".
"Show me," Dorian said quietly.
Liora's lips curved upward. "Very well."
She flicked her fingers and acracked silver coin appeared between them, suspended in midair. Its fracture ran jaggedly through the center, old and worn.
"Fix it," she said.
Dorian frowned. "With what?"
"Your resonance."
He closed his eyes and the fog receded from his perception, and something else took its place. The coin's soul unfolded before him not visually, but conceptually. He felt the coin's intended form, its original state before it broke.
The blueprint. Slowly, carefully, he reached out not with his hands, but with intent and pressed the fracture together.
The coin trembled.
Click.
It was whole.
Dorian's eyes snapped open, the coin dropped into his palm, unbroken.
Silence followed.
Liora stared in quiet disbelief
"…Impressive," she admitted.
Dorian smirked faintly.
She recovered quickly. "Don't get ahead of yourself. This was done inside the soul space. Here, the soul is exposed. Outside"
She leaned closer. "it will fight you."
Dorian clenched the coin, excitement burning beneath his calm exterior.
Liora smiled.
Far beyond the fog, unseen by Dorian the emerald monolith pulsed once as if acknowledging him.