"You get it?" Damon inquired.
"Yeah, I think I get it. I don't know if you're right, but I understand what you're saying."
"Well, what else could it be?"
"How do you expect me to know? I haven't even seen it yet. I'm just going off what you're telling me. I just don't think that it's likely for..." They argued back and forth for a while, ultimately getting nothing done and getting nowhere.
After an hour of Damon sticking to what he innocently and genuinely thought was right and August trying to obstinately prove him wrong, August blurted out, "... Well, I don't know! You haven't even told me how to interact with magic yet, so how should I know if the soul and physical brain interact?! Besides, who cares about philosophy? And don't even talk to me about the floating man argument. You know how I feel about that."
Damon resumed explaining again, "You can interact with magic by taking it for yourself. I don't know if it's because it's in the fourth dimension or if it's for another reason, but your soul, unlike anything else, can interact directly with magic."
"Any magic that your soul possesses can be made into structures. Structures are made by willing the magic into different shapes by manipulating the shape of your soul. Your soul is composed of an exterior shell and an interior mass of magic. By manipulating your soul, you can guide magic into different shapes before creating more complicated structures out of them. The easiest structure to make is a simple string."
"Each type of magic, when manipulated by the soul, has unique interactions with other magics that apply to both magic connected to your soul and not connected to your soul. Also, you should keep in mind that while you can change the magic connected to your soul into a certain type, it will revert back to neutral magic over time if left unattended."
"For example, when converted into the type correlated with heat and fashioned into multiple strings that share a common point of convergence, the strings will convert some nearby unaffiliated types of magic into that same type at a linear rate, with the number of strings increasing that rate geometrically. This allows you to heat up objects because the types of magic mirror the energy in our three dimensions and vice versa. Although, of course, when you stop manipulating it, all of the magic will return to your soul and revert back to neutral magic."
"So," August interjected, "your magic is limited by the amount of energy your spirit is born to possess? Sounds unfair, like something a nepotistic, aristocratic, plutocratic society might be built on. You know, being powerful by right of birth alone and allowing corruption and evil to abound."
"As if you know the slightest thing about morality. You're right, but we did manage to dodge a bullet there because that isn't the case." August frowned at the prospect of being wrong. "You're not limited to the magic that your spirit has at all. By tainting unaffiliated magic with your own via special structures, you can 'convince' the magic to become your own. The energy associated with it will be pulled into the fourth dimension and converted to magic before nurturing your soul."
"That's not to say that you can expand without limits, of course. In my experience, when you expand to a certain level, your spirit will begin to feel as if it's bursting. I don't know what happens beyond that point, but I don't imagine that it's anything good."
"Of course, everything that was associated with the magic you convince to become part of yourself disappears because it was converted into magic, but what you reap is well worth it."
August spotted an inconsistency and went on the attack immediately. "Wait, you said that your soul reaches a point where it feels like it will burst? Doesn't that mean that you're still limited by your soul's innate capacity?"
"Normally, yes, but what I've found to be the case is that your soul can adjust to higher capacities over time. I've only just begun to experience this, but if the magic you have is above a certain level, then your soul will slowly begin to enlarge itself so that it will become comfortable again. This process happens very, very slowly, but it does happen. It's like training your muscles or a skill."
"Can your capacity expand infinitely?" August wondered.
"I don't know. I only just started. I don't know how long it was between the point of my awakening and yours, but I don't think I've been here too much longer than you have been. Judging by the state of the corpses, this battlefield isn't extremely old, and if we assume that I was put here immediately after it concluded, I've only had a few weeks to experiment. I don't know why it took you so long to revive, but it's likely related to the differences in our vessels."
August began pondering now, saying, "You'd think that a biological vessel would be more appropriate for housing a soul, but maybe not. Maybe it took less time for your mind to form because your physical mind, your brain, is probably made out of metal, a simple thing, while mine isn't."
"That's possible," Damon replied. They both contemplated this in silence for a moment. "I was going to say that I might not have a physical brain and that I might just be a spirit, but that's ridiculous because the brain is what produces thoughts."
"I wonder how your brain works without biological chemicals. Maybe that's why you don't have any emotions... I wonder..."
"What?"
"Well, we know it's possible to transplant souls into new vessels, so it should be possible to transplant you into another one, one capable of feeling emotions. That should solve your lack of them."
"I thought the same thing."
"You didn't try it already, did you?."
"No, not yet. I don't know how to move souls yet, much less associate them with new vessels. For that, I need to know how physical brains and souls communicate."
"Right, I suppose you would."
They sat in silence, contemplating various possibilities. August was trying to absorb it all, extrapolate possible repurcussions, and figure out what they should do next while Damon experimented with new magical theories. After a while of silence, thought, discussion, and argument, they drafted a plan.
First, they would stay here while waiting for August to recover. Neither of them knew what more activity would do to his body, and neither wanted to risk it. Then, while waiting for his recovery, August would try to make contact with his soul.
If he could do that, then they would first try to expand his soul. Assuming that it could only expand at a fixed rate, it would be best to start that first. Time would work against them otherwise. The rest of his magical education would come after that.
After he was healed of his illnesses, they would move out and try to find more information about this world. Information is always useful. You'd be better off blind than without any information. They had two options here: they could come into contact with the scavengers that occasionally appeared or they could try to find another society.
If they planned to come into contact with the scavengers, then they would be better off knowing their language, but they had no leads here. Damon had suggested that August's brain might harbor memories that belonged to the previous host, but August had already denied it, claiming that there were none.
Because they didn't know the language and didn't know how else to approach the scavengers without alarming them, they ruled that out. It's typically best not to trick heavily armed men into thinking that you're a potential threat. August was supposed to be dead, after all.
So, that left exploring until they found some other form of civilization as the only option. Here, they had another two options: they could find the scavengers' civilization, or they could find the surface. August was the same species as the scavengers, so they decided that it would be best to avoid them, once again, just in case somebody recognized him.
That left exploring until they found another underground civilization or the surface as their best bet. The surface would be best, but another civilization would be fine, too. From there, they would learn the language, gather information, and hopefully get supplies, such as food and water.
With that, August decided to get some rest. Although he had only been awake for a short while, they agreed that sleep would accelerate his recovery more than anything else.
As August lay down on the freezing pebbles again, he closed his eyes. Closing his eyes only for nothing to change bothered him, but it was still a bedtime ritual he adhered to. He rubbed his hands together, trying to warm himself up, even if only by a lilliputian amount.
The bare flesh only tore itself apart with the friction because of its poor condition. August grimaced and cried tears of pain and self-pity, holding his wounded hands to his rocky chin curling his knees to his chest. Everything here was hostile, even his own body, even himself. He had even cut himself on one of the sharper rocks sprouting from his thigh during the arguments, exhortations, and curses earlier. Incest had inadvertently become a popular topic when they talked because of the curses they used.