The Glorious Evolution

”Your... brother?”

Levi forgot to close his mouth, letting the shower pour straight into it.

He swallowed, coughed, and turned his face away from the stream... yet even that failed to pull his thoughts past those two words.

Ash’Kral had a brother?

For some reason, the possibility never crossed his mind.

He knew the asshole kept old acquaintances scattered throughout the universe... the Titan alone proved that.

There were enemies too, probably enough to fill a planet, along with former partners unfortunate enough to endure his company.

But a family?

Whenever Levi imagined Ash’Kral’s past, he pictured him roaming alone, pursuing whatever caught his interest and making everyone nearby regret meeting him.

Even his friendship with the Titan seemed to survive mostly through their mutual willingness to tolerate each other’s bullshit.

It was difficult to imagine someone calling him a brother... sharing a home with him, growing up beside him, knowing him before he became the insufferable prick Levi met.

Then again, what did Levi actually know about that part of his life?

Almost nothing.

Levi lowered the hand resting against the wall.

”What happened to him?”

Ash’Kral remained silent... for a moment, Levi thought he might refuse to answer even that.

”He died during the Great Separation War... protecting the Nine Senses Ancestral Tree.”

Levi waited, expecting the explanation to end there.

”A Spear of True Death went straight for her trunk,” Ash’Kral added. ”He swallowed it.”

A sensation like goosebumps crept along Levi’s tongue... as though it still remembered the taste of that spear.

”That dumbass...” Ash’Kral muttered. ”It should have been me...”

Levi struggled to find something to say.

He knew Ash’Kral shared a peculiar relationship with the Nine Senses Ancestral Tree... but his brother died protecting her, and Ash’Kral still carried her seed while wishing he could have taken his place.

There was far more between them than Levi understood.

And that spear...

His thoughts immediately went to the Primordial Tree of Death. If his suspicion was right, it stood among their enemies during the Great Separation War... perhaps even bore responsibility for Nid’harn’s death.

Levi wanted to ask, but Ash’Kral’s last words troubled him more than the spear’s name.

It should have been me.

He waited, hoping Ash’Kral might explain what happened... how he survived, or why he blamed himself for it.

But Ash’Kral offered nothing more.

His gaze rested somewhere past the Titan, and Levi couldn’t bring himself to interrupt whatever memory held him there.

Levi slowly drew his tongue back inside.

Only moments ago, he nearly teased Ash’Kral over the Tree favoring him. Now, the thought made him uncomfortable... Ash’Kral spent the entire explanation looking at an organ that belonged to his dead brother.

As someone with a brother too... Levi couldn’t imagine a life without him in it.

Although Levi wanted to learn more, he also knew what it felt like when someone asked about a loss and expected him to turn it into a conversation.

So, he didn’t press for more... the fact that Ash’Kral shared these details with him was already a big step.

He let the silence last a little longer, then passed a hand through his wet hair.

”This tongue... is it the greatest organ someone can receive for the Sense of Taste?”

Ash’Kral’s attention returned to him, though it took a moment.

”Without a shred of doubt,” Ash’Kral confirmed, his tone unwavering.

”And the little one?” Levi asked as he faced his palm. ”Its tongue changed too.”

Levi didn’t forget the Soulleech Maw’s peculiar inscriptions... they were nothing like his, which drove him to believe that it might have inherited different properties of the same mutation.

As expected...

”It received the same gift, adapted to what it feeds on,” Ash’Kral replied. ”What your tongue does with physical materials, its tongue can do with souls and spiritual substances... their composition, properties, memories, the energies within them, even the Aspects their owners used to wield.”

Levi brought his palm close to his face with a surprised expression.

The Soulleech Maw still slept inside it, apparently convinced that surviving an evolution entitled it to a long holiday.

”It can taste someone’s Aspects?”

Ash’Kral nodded.

”For others... this is useful information in fields like artifact crafting, alchemy, and even array work... but you have the Lantern of the Lost Keeper,” Ash’Kral disclosed. ”If you were to taste a soul before consumption, it would give you all the information necessary to decide whether the soul is worth the trouble of devouring it or not.”

Although Ash’Kral didn’t know much about the Soulleech Maw’s own abilities, he could never forget the capabilities of his brother’s tongue.

When he saw Levi receive Nid’harn’s tongue as a mutation, he knew that it would be nearly impossible for him to unlock all of its effects and properties at his current level.

But then, the Soulleech Maw shared the mutation, which left him assured that the Nine Senses Seed separated the physical and spiritual properties of the tongue between these two to allow Levi access to both at his level.

This kind of thoughtfulness went beyond anything he ever saw from the Nine Senses Seed... if it cared about Levi only as a good host, it would have given him something like the Harmonic Spine.

An amazing mutation, but the Seed wouldn’t go as far as thinking of helping him unlock as many properties as soon as possible.

As expected, Levi was pretty psyched to hear this.

”This is so good... I was always hesitant to devour souls because of their memories.” Levi’s grin widened. ”Now, I can finally choose which ones are worth the hassle.”

Levi flexed his fingers, suddenly eager to wake the Soulleech Maw and test it out.

He kept postponing soul consumption through the Lantern because of the unpredictable memories and emotions that came with it.

He couldn’t forget his first attempt with the wisp inside the Sensebound Pearl.

It began innocently enough... a little blue-skinned boy chasing a wooden ball through his village, sunlight warming his face as a woman called him home.

Then came his wedding. A shy smile, a white ribbon in his bride’s hair, promises beneath an arch of flowers... Levi felt the man’s love for her as though it belonged to him.

And then, he felt everything that followed.

Men pinned him to the ground with his arms shattered while others dragged his wife before him. She reached for him, crying... he struggled with everything he possessed, but his body refused to move.

A heavy thud silenced her.

The helplessness, the grief, the hatred that followed... Levi carried them back into his own body, his heart pounding as though he himself lost her.

The man’s suffering struck far too close to the memories of his parents’ deaths.

Consuming that small wisp strengthened his main soul slightly, but it granted him no Aspect and left him with a life experience he wished never to go through.

That was the part he dreaded each time he considered using the Lantern again, even when he had quite a few Wisp-Bound Artifacts inside Alzhukar’s wallet.

”Figure out the rest on your own, boy. You have the tongues now... use them.”

Just as Levi was about to summon the Soulleech Maw to test it out, Ash’Kral rubbed a hand over his face as he excused himself to his humble abode inside Levi’s Spiritual Leywell.

Normally, Levi would complain about receiving half an explanation.

This time, he simply nodded... he could tell that the tongue’s mutation brought back some memories of Ash’Kral’s late brother.

Although these two were always being assholes to each other, Levi would never cross the line when it came to family... even if it were Ash’Kral’s.

Levi let the connection fall quiet and returned his attention to the shower... though the water did little to wash away the questions gathering in his mind.

The Great Separation War again.

He knew the name... Khu’zan mentioned it before, and the Titan had his own memories of that time.

Yet knowing what people called a war told Levi very little about what actually happened during it.

Now, Ash’Kral’s brother joined the losses tied to it.

The more Levi learned about the ancient past, the more often he ran into that same conflict... as though everything started going to shit around it, and the survivors still struggled through the consequences.

What the hell happened back then?𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂