Slowly opening his eyes, Noctis stared at the door of his room for a couple more moments, his heart pounding in his chest, still stunned by this surreal experience.
Dread and wonder mingled within him, leaving him shaken.
Shaking off the heavy fog clinging to his mind, Noctis fought to regain focus. The spark of curiosity warred with fatigue as he planned to start learning again right away.
Longing to understand more about his strange discoveries, he forced himself up, but a sudden weight pressed down on his body, catching him off guard and making frustration and helplessness flare within him. Glancing downward, he saw himself drenched in sweat, his consciousness teetering on the edge of unconsciousness.
With his remaining strength, he dragged himself onto the bed.
Did I overdo it? As the soft embrace of the matrec met him, smothering every coherent thought, he abandoned resistance and let himself fall into the sweet embrace of slumber.
***
Atop a golden web, built out of thousands of golden threads, a silent human male was standing.
At the center's rim, he watched the ripples below, letting out an inaudible sigh. After a pause, he returned to the heart of the web, where a still-forming structure, which was woven from a myriad threads, lay.
Slowly sitting back down at the exact center once more, the figure picked up a mesh of string and began constructing again, a thoughtful expression gracing the contours of his face as his gaze landed on a particularly pale, thin golden thread.
***
The dream faded. Waking up with a weird feeling of having forgotten something, just like almost every day, Noctis sat up and looked at the clock. It was midday. He sighed lightly, frustration simmering beneath his breath as he lamented having overexerted himself and, as a result, wasted an entire day.
The weight of disappointment hung heavy, but clinging to routine, he showered and ate, seeking comfort in familiarity, even if this familiarity was one of his most begrudged enemies.
Finishing up, he continued his studies. Going through the given books in search of answers and enlightenment, Noctis spent the rest of the day doing so. And while doing so, he found a few answers to his questions and, at the same time, more questions to replace them. His concept fragment most likely stemmed from one of the primordial Authorities, as these were the most common authorities. Noctis started there, trying to understand the ranking system more clearly and how it worked.
In short, every primordial Authority could be imagined as a family tree. The original concept—such as space, time, or fate—forms the main branch that gives rise to this tree. Sub-concepts, or fragments, branch out from this original source.
For example, from the concept of heart, the mind, and the soul could sprout.
From mind, emotions would branch off, and so on. Each branching represents a new, more specialized Authority further from the original. This seemed not entirely logical, since there were cases where concepts like colores and animales were part of a particular branch. Like owls were part of the mind branch, which perplexed Noctis greatly.
This, however, partially disproved his theory that his authority stemmed from something like spiders or so, since these animals seemed to have their home in the fate family.
At least that was his assumption for the moment, as he tried to find a pattern in the outliers in these family trees. Sadly, it wasn't made easy for Noctis since the most detailed descriptions of Concept families were those of the Hearth, followed by Change and Destiny, while Fate's family tree was so woefully incomplete.
The further one is from the original source on this 'tree,' the weaker the Origens call towards its source becomes. In other words, the more specialized or distant the fragment, the less attracted towards the origin it is.
However, the closer a person is to the main branch, the more abilities from all related sub-concepts they could access. Being higher on the tree meant broader access to abilities within that part of the concept family.
For example, someone with a fragment from 'emotions' can use any emotion. Someone with the fragment 'Lust' can only use Lust, but their mastery and application of Lust are greater due to specialization.
Simply put, fragments closer to the origin offered more adaptability and potential, while specialized fragments further down were easier to use but more limited. At least that was how Noctis explained it to himself.
Concepts are ranked based on how far they are from the original source. For example, 'Mind' might have a rank of one, meaning it was as close to the origin as it got. The higher the number, the more it had branched from the original concept.
Generally, the lower the rank number, the more valued the concept fragment is, as it retains more of the original concept's identity and strength. Higher rank numbers corresponded to fragments with diluted power and identity.
Understanding this only partially, Noctis was both exhilarated and anxious. Excitement raced through him even as confusion and apprehension clouded his thoughts.
It was great that his fragment most likely had a quite low number, considering his symbolism was so close to the idea of fate. Yet the mystery surrounding the call made him feel both fear and exasperation. Noctis was also unsure how the government handled abnormalities.
Deciding to be cautious, Noctis stayed silent until problems he himself could not solve popped up, or when he could say with certainty that there was no risk in telling the authorities. He had seen his fair share of cruelties while living on the outskirts, making him rather cautious in this regard.
Later, as he got further into his book, Noctis finally found something about the phenomenon surrounding the connection between his Soulsea and the Web, or to be precise, the Authority fragment. To be precise, what he read simply validated his guess.
He was already ascending towards the next rank.
There were two distinct classifications of Concept Wielders' progression.
One classification depends on proximity to the source or the fragment's rank. The other measured the individual's development.
While the first was mostly dependent on the concept fragment one received, the latter was mostly dependent on one's own efforts, yet there were exceptions.
In stage zero, one was merely holding the fragment and couldn't assimilate with it, through which one would get little advantage. No changes in body and only theoretical access to one's abilities and symbolism.
But how did one advance from a rank-zero holder to a rank-one assimilator? The reason most rank-zero holders stayed in this stage for years upon years was not that progressing between the first stages was difficult. In fact, it was the opposite, even, because it depended on the size of the fragment.
A fragment could only begin connecting to the host once it reached a certain size. This meant the time people spent in this stage varied widely, making it hard to set a fixed time frame for dealing with them. So what would happen when a fragment of the size that reached the critical mass was absorbed by a person?
They would most likely die, the strain too great for the human body.
Well, the normal progression would be for a person to slowly nurture the fragment within themselves through various ways, and then, when it has reached sufficient size, the fragment will slowly start fusing with the person.
If they survived the initial contact with a large Authority fragment. Then, when the fragment holder starts with such a large fragment, they will, of course, quickly start assimilating it and enter the assimilation phase. This was, in and of itself, great. Yet everything had its ups and downs.
One could not gain without losing something.
With great profit came great risk. In this case, one's foundation was unstable because one had skipped the pre-stage—the time to get familiar with one's Authority, how to use it, and, of course, the dangers it posed. There definitely were more, yet Noctis knew too little and couldn't make much more productive conjectures. Uncertainty bled into quiet frustration, underscoring his limitations.
Concentrating on his hand, Noctis imagined five fine threads emerging from his fingers. Waiting for a few silent moments, as he willed, five threads had emerged from his hand, dangling liflessly in front of him.
Looking at these white threads, Noctis couldn't help but think back to when he had first found out that his symbolism was white threads and his complicated feelings toward them.
The second stage he was apparently in now was divided into multiple smaller realms. Noctis naturally began in the first realm: soul assimilation. The term was self-explanatory—his Soulsea was in the process of connecting with the concept fragment.
The second realm was called mind assimilation, followed by the assimilation of the physical body, and ending with the assimilation of one's fate. This could vary across authorities, but in essence, people would usually follow this path.
As Noctis had already noticed, the process of assimilating with the fragment was very slow. The bigger the fragment, the longer it would take. At his current pace, it would take around 20 years to get through the first realm alone. There were many ways to speed up the process, the primary being to use the abilities and symbolism the fragment bestowed.
Through this, one used up the energy the fragment held, to then let it regenerate and become more integrated with the individual. A simple analogy would be cutting down a malformed part of a tree, letting it regrow stronger and more fitting, and repeating this until it fit perfectly.
From the looks of it, the best way to move forward would be to follow the natural path and use symbolism as much as possible. Considering that fate was one of the things to be assimilated, the usual progression path might not have been the optimal one. Nocts was, however, not foolish enough to try things at random.
By figuring out the limits of the symbolism, of course, he would try to find the abilities he had, but he had not yet realized what exactly he had authority over, so finding an ability corresponding to his authority would be quite a difficult task.
If he were unlucky, he'd have to wait until he reached the assimilation of mind to figure out what his abilities were.
Producing more and more silk from his right hand, Noctis dedicated much of his concentration to this process. While holding a book with his left hand, he read on. The process of letting out silk felt, to say the least, bizarre. Noctis had never felt anything like it. It was as if something was draining from his body, slowly leaving him feeling something inside deplet.
After a while, as his consciousness grew fainter, Noctis knew he was reaching his limits. It had been around 40 minutes since he started, producing this silky substance. Sighing inwardly and not in the mood to fall unconscious once more, as he had done so quite often in the last few days, he watched the pile of silk before him and stopped producing more.
The pile had grown quite formidable, reaching his knees. A slight frown creases his brow as he stared at the white mass lying before him. As he was thinking, Noctis couldn't help but ask himself.
"How am I supposed to use it?"
This silk was interesting, yet, upon reflection, what possible use could he have for such a substance?
Maybe sell it for a profit? That might work, but he had a feeling that he was supposed to be able to use it in battle in some way, shape, or form. Even if he was not the type of person to actively seek out conflict, this world was harsh to the weak, and Noctis was most certainly weak. Picking up some of the silk, wanting to test out its properties, Noctis tried multiple tests, tearing it, feeling the sharpness of it…
After a while, Noctis could conclude that the thread was quite durable, as he had to strain his muscles quite a bit while pulling it apart. However, given his weak physical condition, even if it was slightly improved after he got the concept fragment, this didn't mean much. A normal person, as long as they weren't malnourished, would be able to rip it apart with not too many problems.
Yet that wasn't even important since these threads were easily cut with a knife barely resisting at all, with the only redeeming quality being that they were sticky, which would lead to the knife being stuck for a while after cutting through the thread, which would mean that if Noctis were to take a bunch of strings and bind them together, he could mostlikly disarm the asailent if blocked with these strings.
There weren't many other qualities; the singular, thinner threads were hard to spot, yet they weren't durable, which made them meaningless in most situations. The threads were quite sharp, at least sharp enough to leave slight cuts on his fingers, which could be useful, but at the same time, a double-edged blade, as they did not distinguish between friend or foe.
Noctis had yet to check if they were flammable, as he had no source of fire with him, and he should probably try such things in the training grounds. He was supposed to do such neishe experiments on the training grounds as well, but wandering to some far-off place every time he wanted to test something seemed like such a hassle and, on top of that, inefficient, so Noctis went with: what others did not know, would not bother them.
One redeeming quality of the thread was that he felt he had partial control over it. As long as they were connected to him, he could move the threads like appendages of his own body. He couldn't reconnect with them once the connection was severed, but this at least gave the threads some use.
Sadly, the control felt a bit weird, as it was a totally new sensation using a new, unused limb, which made it a whole lot more difficult. In the long run, it should be manageable at the very least, as this was simply a problem of practice.
Feeling hunger cloud his thoughts. Noctis decided to quickly finish his last tests and then go to the cafeteria.
Back in the day, Noctis had read a few comics about a guy with spider powers and hoped to steal a few of his tricks. He believed that it might work, considering everything had to have its origin, and maybe just maybe the origin of the idea for the superhero's powers was the concept of fate, and if that was the case, Noctis would be able to replicate some of his moves!
With great excitement, he took the hand symbol the masked vigilantes always used and tried to shoot out a web like a grappling hook.
It flew…
and flew…
and then lost velocity…
and then fell to the floor.
Noctis"…"
Webfluid"…"
Looking on the ground, there lay a streak of white string, unspectacularly fallen to the ground.
With a lost and depressed facial expression, Noctis trotted out of his room on his way towards the cafeteria to drown his suffering in food, and if there was any… alcohol.