For a minute or two, I simply observed the invisible entity with my Soul Sight. It wasn’t idle, thrashing around, causing gusts of air to blast against the walls and redistribute the air within the crystal cage I had created. The crystal-lined earth all around it was easily strong enough to withstand the blasts, though I could see that a bit of dirt was already falling, indicating that its thrashing around had some effects. Not a whole lot, and none on the salt-coated stone I had used to seal the tunnels, but the current cage wouldn’t hold the entity forever. Not that it needed to, I had no plans to simply leave the thing in there, at least not without trying a few things to see if I could either bind or destroy it. Either would be okay with me, though binding it sounded a lot more interesting, if that was possible. I would have to try, but luckily, it seemed as if I had at least some time for that, at least if I could secure it in a better cage.
Obviously, this was my first and biggest priority, making sure that this entity was bound and would remain bound in location and unable to affect the world around its cage. Otherwise, we might find out just how powerful and dangerous this being could be. After all, almost any creature was at its most dangerous when it was cornered.
Given that the crystals seemed to work just fine to contain it, I started to work on them. They were still infused with my Astral Power, so that was exactly where I started to assert my influence. First, I began to pump more Astral Power through the lingering link, allowing me to control them once again, just like I had when I trapped the entity for the first time. Then, I started to shrink the box the spirit was currently trapped in, quite literally letting the walls close in on it, a small part of me wondering just how the creature must feel at the moment. A being of air, trapped underground with walls of unforgiving stone and sharp, apparently inherently inimical to its existence, crystals closing in on it. But that voice was a small, quiet one, though I did consider keeping the cage somewhat large and not trying to make it as small as possible.
As I was shrinking the space the creature had, I could feel some of the air escape through gaps in the crystal, making me realise that the cage wasn’t as perfect as I had thought, though, in hindsight, the fact that I had felt the air move before was already evidence of that. However, it seemed that the crystal structures I had woven throughout its structure were enough to stop it, even if the cage wasn’t wholly air-tight. A curious realisation, as the creature I was trying to cage seemed to be completely formless, but given that the imperfect cage managed to hold it, that didn’t seem to be the case. Maybe there was some sort of core structure somewhere within it, or the crystals were radiating something keeping the creature from getting too close; more testing would be required if I wanted to know the details.
With the walls trapping the spirit into an area roughly two metres on each side, I paused for a moment and decided to try something slightly differently. I already knew how to use Wind Magic to augment my voice; it was a fairly simple trick to reverse the magic I usually used to trap sound and keep myself concealed, and I decided to see if that might work here. Additionally, I channelled a little Mind Magic into my voice, as I would when trying magically command other people, something I could do but rarely did, as it was usually too obvious. It wasn’t as if I could command people not to notice that their actions were compelled, and loss of personal liberty was something people had feared since long before the change happened.
“Stop,” I could feel my voice echo in the enclosed space, not due to excessive volume, I had only spoken normally, but thanks to the magic I had imbued into it. The effect was quite intriguing; the entity briefly did just that, freeze in place before moving frantically once more, making me wonder if my attempt had any effect at all.
“Can you understand me?” I asked, my voice again augmented with magic, though the Mind Magic aimed to keep it calm instead of trying to enhance the message I sent.
The effect was slightly strange; the spirit froze again for a moment before starting to move again, though now, it wasn’t as frantic any longer, its amorphous form stretching and twisting in an almost rhythmic fashion. It looked almost as if it was dancing, or it was simply acting as the wind did when confined in a small space, I couldn’t really tell. But it didn’t look as if it was trying to break through the crystal cage I had confined it in.
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“Fascinating,” I had to admit to myself, before considering what to do with this particular bit of information. I briefly considered Observe-ing the entity but decided against it, simply because I didn’t know if it would notice despite any efforts to conceal the skill’s effect. I already knew just how uncomfortable the effect could be and didn’t want to destroy what progress I might have made just now.
“If you understand me, can you move to the ceiling?” I asked, trying to establish a way to express positive or negative answers and open communications up that way. Sadly, while the entity briefly paused again, its movements didn’t change all that much, and it didn't move as directed.
“So, you realise that I’m speaking a language, or that I’m trying to communicate, but you have no idea what I’m saying,” I muttered, this time without channelling Wind or Mind Magic, simply speaking to myself. As expected, the entity didn’t react now, confirming that the communication was based on the channelled magic, not the words I was saying.
With the communication based on channelled magic, I considered my next step. There was no understanding on the entity’s part, only a vague awareness that I was speaking something, making me think it might be closer to a dog or cat than a human. Smart enough to realise I was saying something and possibly connect the noise I was making to learned behaviour, but expecting intelligent conversation would be foolish.
However, that didn’t mean I couldn’t try something different. Suppose the communication was purely based on magic and Astral Power, which was a little odd, as the entity didn’t seem to have any Astral Power of its own. In that case, there might be ways to communicate without speaking, bypassing the need for a shared language.
With that in mind, I decided on a small, somewhat simple test and possibly give the entity something to react to. Namely, I channelled some Astral Power through the crystals, allowing me to form a thin layer of Ice within the enclosure around the spirit. I even managed to mix in a bit of Air Magic into the Ice, causing it to let out small puffs of frigid air. The trapped spirit reacted in an incredibly surprising manner as soon as the cold air entered its cage. It started to dance around again, bouncing around in its cage in a manner I could only link to excitement. A few moments later, it suddenly converged on the small amount of Ice I had conjured into the cage, almost like a pouncing animal.
Through my lingering connection to the conjured Ice, I suddenly felt the spirit when it also connected to the Ice. Its nature was completely alien and primal, primitive even, but there were multiple parts I could relate to and could empathise with. As I tried gently pushing and prodding the newly established connection, I realised I could do more than just sense the spirit, I could pour more of my power into it.
Out of curiosity, I did just that, letting a small trickle of Astral Power flow into it, consciously limiting the flow to Wind and Ice, though after a moment of consideration, I also added a bit of Mind and Soul Magic to the mix, just to see what would happen.
At first, nothing much happened, though I could feel my awareness of the entity expand a little, not tremendously so, just a bit. Curious how far I could push this, I continued to channel power, slowly increasing the flow until a torrent of power was blazing through the connection, expanding my awareness of the spirit and, as I suddenly realised, tying it to myself. I could still feel the Astral Power I had channelled into it, just as I could feel other magical constructs of mine, but now, that Astral Power was mixing into the natural essence of the spirit.
Curiously, while I could feel a bit of apprehension through the link, I could also feel the spirit’s excitement, making me wonder just what was happening. Then, all of a sudden, the spirit completely condensed down, disappearing into the small lump of Ice I had conjured, reshaping it in the process. Now, instead of a roughly fist-sized irregularly shaped lump of Ice, the crystal cage I had conjured now contained a small figurine shaped into a familiar form, and a few blue boxes appeared before me. The first couple were only the expected increases in my skill level, primarily Mind and Soul Magic, but the last was something else. Something that made me blink in disbelief for a moment.
