“Morgana?... Morgana?!” I heard Adra call from outside, so Sigmir and I quickly left the bear’s cave and joined her.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, curious. She had wanted to dig around in the bear and while I had taken some time before going into the cave, it hadn’t been that long.

“We found something. You will want to look at that - I’m sure of it.” Adra told me, before turning and walking back towards the carcass.

Doing my best to ignore the unpleasant sensation of Fire Astral Power in the air, I followed after, interested in what they had found that fast. When we got to the bear, they had shifted him and started cutting into its pelt, starting at the middle of its chest but not progressed from there.

“Look at that and tell me what you think.” Adra told me, gesturing to their cut.

So, she wanted to avoid telling me their conclusions, to see if I arrive at them on my own?

Taking out one of my ice-blades, I shifted the bloody fur a little to let me see, while stretching my magical senses out again, focusing on the wound and the area around it. I noticed some scar-tissue but mostly the smell of burned flesh and the unpleasant smoky, burned smell and taste of Fire-Magic.

Lenore had retreated to her Hallow while we were in the bear’s cave and she was the one noticing what was going on.

“Those scars, they have a pattern.” she told me, and I looked closer again. And she was right, the scars seemed to be a cut that had been sutured close afterwards. But who on earth would operate on a bear the size of a van?! Calling such an undertaking madness was an understatement of the first order, even with some sort of sleep-spell or drugs, I thought it was more than a little insane.

But, with the scar-tissue as a guide, I looked deeper, at the ribs below and noticed that there was something there, still softly emanating magic. I had missed it before, my scan too superficial and the escaping energies too powerful, blinding me to the subtle fluctuations.

“Someone operated on the bear.” I said out loud, so that Adra and Kelgorn could hear me. “Some sort of mage, by the looks of it, but I can’t tell more. Could you cut the ribcage free?” I continued, not wanting to use my Ice-blade more than necessary, knowing that the lingering Fire Astral Power would slowly damage it. Even I was feeling a little stung by it, so I moved back, to let Kelgorn and Adra work.

They carefully peeled the charred flesh away, sometimes hissing when the lingering heat burned them, until after some time, maybe half an hour, the ribcage was visible, startling white in a gory, bloody wound.

With some support from Lenore, I was able to use her vision and what we saw was a mess. From deeper in the body came a pulsing, glimmering light, like a flickering light bulb set behind a thick curtain or deep under water. Filtering out the light as best as we could, guessing that it was the magic crystal Adra was looking for, we focused on the ribs. There, we saw that the magic I had noticed before, someone had carved strange sigils, greatly different from the runes I knew and used, into the bones before closing the bear back up.

The most startling thing, at least to me, was that the sigils pulsed in tune with the light from deeper within the body.

“Do you think the crystal is linked to the runes? I mean, the runes are quite likely an experiment but to what purpose?” I asked Lenore who was studying the magic before us just as intently.

“Most likely, yes. But why would its own magic kill it? Unless the crystal deeper within it was placed there by a magician and then linked to the runes?” Lenore started to ponder and I felt a shiver run down my spine, despite, or maybe because, the stifling Fire Astral Power still swirling around us.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Do you think that’s possible?!” I asked, trying to conceptualise such an experiment. Using an outside power-source, drawing power in and strengthening the wielder? It sounded interesting but it had to be an early attempt, the way it had failed.

“Cut the crystal out as fast as you can, it’s deeper in the chest.” I told the others before calling for Sigmir, to help them chop through the ribcage before retreating to a safe distance. Sigmir heard the urgency in my voice and instantly pulled out her axe and started on the ribs. Every strike caused sparks to fly and I wondered if we should even stay. If it was an experiment, wasn’t the evaluation and maybe recovery of the experiment part of things?

If so, a mage with most likely much more power than me and an rather insane mind might be on his way here. I had no desire to meet that mage, not unless I had an army or two at my side, with their own magicians.

The only reason I didn’t press to immediately flee was that I had not seen any magical links connecting to the bear or felt any kind of signal, so I deemed the risk acceptable.

As I was trying to think of possible risks the rib cage gave a last spark and the magic linked to it started to fade, allowing Sigmir to quickly chop through the physical material, laying open the flesh below. All three of them started to carve, a red light now even visible to normal sight, without Lenore’s vision and moments later, I was driven back by a burst of Fire Astral Power.

I retreated even further, until I no longer took damage from the sheer presence and Lenore left her Hallow after a short consultation, accepting that Kelgorn would see her in return for getting a good look at the crystal they had found.

Lenore shared her sight with me, now looking through her own eyes, and there were sigils carved into the red, ruby-like gem, just like those in the ribs. The magic was complex, not as blindingly complex as the single glance I had gotten of the Grandmother’s magic grove or the magic roadway but far, far beyond anything I could hope to understand.

Trying to understand what it was supposed to do or how it was supposed to work was impossible, neither Lenore or I had even the slightest idea where to start. Even identifying the different types of magic involved was complicated, Fire was obvious, it served as base, quite possibly linked to the sun. But there was also a different undertone, vaguely reminding me of Blood but not as fluid, more rigid. Lenore thought it might be some sort of Bone-magic. Another thing mixed in was, according to Lenore, similar to the Death-Magic she innately used, with me guessing that it might be a derivative of Necromancy.

All in all, it scared the hell out of me.

“Do you think some insane mage crafted that crystal to forcibly elevate the bear above the first Divide?” I asked Lenore, trying to keep the terror at bay as my mind followed a logical path that I really disliked.

“I… don’t know. It could be and fits what we have seen.” Lenore answered, hesitatingly.

“Most animals here have a frost-affinity, right? Do you think it was some sort of experiment to bestow fire-affinity on something with frost-affinity?” I continued and Lenore followed my train of thought.

She agreed with me about getting the hell out of the area - maybe even discarding the quests all together, not going back to Kolyug. After all, if it was some sort of experiment to combine fire and frost, frost-magic was carved into my very soul, I already had a magic core within me, right where the bear had its core installed, only that mine was natural. Wouldn’t that make me an even better test-subject? Maybe, but no matter how you sliced it, having a guinea-pig that came back after dying was useful. I had no desire to be that guinea-pig.

“Do you think Kelgorn is in on it?” I asked Lenore, panic slowly rising within me. It was paranoid, but what if Kelgorn was a spy, sent to get an assessment of the experiment?

“No, I don’t think so.” Lenore kept calm, even as I wondered if she would lend me her power to make sure he wouldn’t betray us. It wouldn’t be too hard, we had access to his mind, a single blast of Lenore’s Death Magic and the problem would be solved.

Lenore spoke, her voice eerily similar to mine but not quite.

“Sigmir, gather your sweetheart. She’s having a minor meltdown. Adra, grab that thing if you can and then we should get away from here, the magically charged atmosphere is getting to her.”

Moments later, as I was considering if I could gather enough magic on my own, by holding onto what I was regenerating, Sigmir gathered me in her arms and gave me a strong kiss, breaking off my subconscious mutterings and bringing me back to the present.

“Thanks, love. Let’s get away from here, fast. Back to Kolyug, but carefully.”