Connected

Amelia hugged Mark for a long time. She didn't let go until she felt that he stopped crying. She had stopped crying after a few minutes, but Mark was still holding her, so she waited until he was done.

His story had explained where they were, but it didn't explain what everything around them was. No matter how well Mark explained, it would be hard to understand everything from a different dimension.

She was unsure of what they were to do now. Could they even return? Did they need to? Who is Pass? What kind of world is this? Many questions went through her mind. As a way to answer them, she started to talk to Mark.

"Are you okay now?" She asked in a kind and cautious tone.

"*Mm Hmm*, thank you," Mark's eyes cleared up as he spoke and he started to smile a genuinely happy smile, "I feel much better now."

'That's the kind of smile I want to see,' happily though Amelia. "That's good. If you ever want to talk about something, or you just want comforting, don't be afraid to ask me." Mark nodded, so Amelia started to ask her questions, "Now that you're feeling better, could you tell me what's happening? Like what the voice I was hearing is."

"That's Pass," said Mark. "He's the one who helped me. He regrew my limbs and healed my body. He even helped me become stronger."

"So what is he?" She asked.

"He's a parasite. He lives off of and helps me. I think that he connected my soul to yours, which would explain why you can hear him," answered Mark.

"What!? He can connect our souls? What does that even mean," asked Amelia in surprise.

"Well, I think it means that our Mana is connected, and we can probably talk to each other through our souls," Mark proposed his theory.

They both started to check their souls through meditation to test his theory, and to their surprise, they could see each other inside their souls. They could 'see' each other, but instead of bodies, they saw spheres of glowing white light. Without checking, they could somehow feel that the spheres were each other, one representing Amelia and the other Mark.

'Is that you Amelia?' Mark said inside his soul.

'Yes,' replied Amelia, similarly inside her, or more correctly their, soul, 'This is so strange. I can hear you, but there's no one speaking. It's kinda' like… talking to myself, except there is someone else there.'

They both spectated around their soul. In the middle was two spinning vortex, each rotating around the other. It felt strange to both of them to have another person inside their soul. The feeling was hard to describe. It was like the soul was one but two at the same time. They both had control over the soul, yet neither of them did at the same time. Whatever one person did inside the soul would affect the other.

'This is so strange… What did you do Pass?' asked Mark inside his mind to Pass, while Amelia could hear him as well.

[Based upon your emotions and thought, I connected your soul to Amelia's. At this point in time, you either would have came alone or with someone else. If you came alone, then your journey would be the same, alone. However, to come with someone else, you would have to be connected to them in a similar way to how I am connected to you. You clearly didn't want to be seperated from Amelia, and your souls happened to be compatible, so I connected them. I can not reverse this, so your soul will be permanently connected to Amelia's]

'You sure decided a lot of things on your own, didn't you Pass,' said Mark in fake anger.

[Well, I'll be traveling with you as well, and I made the decision based upon how you decide things, so there isn't much difference]

'That's what you think! In my opinion, there is a pretty big difference. Though, luckily, your decision do align with what I would have done,' spoke Mark, still inside his mind. Amelia just listened in on the conversation, fascinated that Mark was able to talk with Pass whenever he wanted inside his soul.

'*sigh*, I'll let it pass, Pass, but please consult me on such things in the future. For that matter, you should consult with Amelia as well. Now could you explain what this connection does, like I asked the first time, instead of explaining why you did?'

[Okay. I connected your souls by forming a pathway in between them. The result, as you've seen, is your souls morphing together. I hadn't expected them to, but it was a result of their unexpected compatibility. This means that you two will share the same Mana, and there may be other strange effects, such as Amelia being able to hear me. If my hypothesis is correct, you both probably share the same innate talents and abilities now that they are connected]

'So our souls are compatible… *giggle*,' thought Amelia. It made her happy, and she didn't care why it did. Her thought wasn't shared with Mark or Pass, as she had purposely meant to keep it to herself.

"What should we do now, Mark," said Amelia out loud to Mark.

"I don't know. When I lived here, I never really learned much about it. I don't know much more about this place than you do, so we should probably "observe are surroundings", as you would put it," said Mark.

[Let me help you then. From when I teleported you back to this dimension, I learned that this dimension and the one Amelia came from our colliding with each other. This made it easier for me to teleport you here, hence why it was more efficient to make you stronger, since this place is safer. Due to the dimensions colliding, there will probably be strange incidents occurring, so be prepared] Pass said, providing them with valuable information.

"Okay, that helps," Amelia finally spoke to Pass. "I'm guessing that your not going to be much help in gathering information," she said as she looked at Mark, "so you can rely on me. Though I may need your help."

"This will be the first time I'll actually learn about my home dimension, but first, we should find clothes that help us blend in a little more," said Mark as he looked at their clothes. While they themselves didn't necessarily stand out, it would help if their clothes didn't have strange designs carved on them.