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Hector focused his mind, felt his soul there, and pushed it into the iron. “Garovel,” he said. “Come here for a second.”

The reaper floated over, and Hector poked him with the tip of the blade. Garovel flinched. ‘Hey. Careful with that thing.’

“Aha. It really works...”

‘Congratulations. Now stop stabbing me.’

“Stay there for a minute. There’s something else I need to try.” He scooted away and sat on his bed.

‘How did I become your guinea pig?’

“Just don’t move...”

‘I liked it better when you were terrified of hurting me.’

He tossed the dagger. It phased through the reaper with no effect. “Bah...”

‘Hmm.’

“So... I can focus the iron with imaginary strength like it’s an extension of my body... but only if I’m touching it, apparently...”

‘I see. You wanna be able to focus iron at a distance, the same way that you can create it at a distance.’

“Yeah. Then I could throw things that’ll hurt reapers. Or trap them in cages, maybe.”

‘You and I aren’t synced enough, but that’s definitely possible.’

“Good to know at least... because if I can’t do that, then... I don’t know how I’ll ever manage to catch an enemy reaper. You guys always stay out of reach... and even when you do get close, you’re so damn quick...”

‘True. That was the whole problem in Sescoria. But it’ll be a while before you can pull that off. Projecting your soul will require significantly more control than you currently have.’

“And you said before... there’s no way to speed up the syncing process?”

‘Correct.’

He practiced with iron a while longer, until he heard his mother return. She showed him how to change a diaper, and he made sure the children were fed before putting them back to bed.