When Shawn saw the letters formed from sparks, he sharply turned toward Tom and asked gravely.
"How confident are you?"
"Fifty-fifty."
"Those aren't great odds. So why?"
"Because he's sensed me too. He even tried to establish a connection through Divine Sense. An awakened Fragment Soul and the main soul can sense each other. If I wait any longer, there'll be too many variables."
Tom wrote calmly, but a ruthless gleam shone in his eyes.
The self and the other self-which was the true self? It was a deeply philosophical question.
Tom would never be content to remain a false Dark Lord born from a Fragment Soul. Naturally, he was determined to destroy the main soul.
Voldemort's original, profoundly selfish nature had made this inevitable, even if they were all Fragment Souls of the same whole.
Shawn sighed, considered it for a moment, then spoke.
"Wait another week. Watch my Magic Touring Performances first. In the meantime, I'll find time to prepare ten playing cards loaded with spells for you to carry for protection."
The mountain breeze lifted the hair over Tom's forehead, revealing an almost imperceptible flicker of warmth in his dark eyes.
Tom quickly turned his head aside, murmured, "All right," and left by Apparition.
Shawn missed that little detail and remained quietly on the hill, letting the wind wash over him.
He considered Tom's plan to go to Albania and find Voldemort.
There were advantages and disadvantages to it.
"Forget it. Let him go. I'll have to play the Dark Lord again next."
In the end, that was the only decision Shawn could make.
Although Tom was a puppet he had created, with Soul Shackles erasing any thoughts that might harm him and ingrained subconscious impulses gradually turning Tom into a loyal subordinate, that was not the