“Master, do I really have to?” Rai asked, looking at me with a pleading look on his face. We had been moving as fast as possible for the last three days, since leaving the Bright Hollow, giving us enough of a head-start to continue our journey at a normal pace, meaning I was able to continue with my magical experimentation. After considering what magic I wanted to focus on, I had decided to do the unintuitive thing, continuing to try mastering all forms of magic I currently had access to. Sure, it was unlikely that I would manage to truly master any of them, before the end of the beta but I had a feeling that mastering even one might be impossible.

If there even was such a thing, an end to the understanding of magic within Road to Purgatory, at least when considering the different elements individually. It was an idea I began considering during my consideration, when thinking about the possible non-material aspects of my Ice-Magic, or that was where the train of thought began. What was temperature, what was I manipulating with my Ice-Magic? It was particle motion, but what was between those particles? Air, at its core, was mostly empty, only about a percent of a given volume effectively occupied by matter. The rest, the space in between was void, a perfect vacuum, if only briefly on a tiny scale. When I had crossed the second divide, there had been the experience of feeling the vacuum, the emptiness of space, and its connection to my Darkness-Magic. But what if that emptiness, the perfect vacuum between matter, could be manipulated by my Darkness-Magic? Wouldn’t that allow me to control the temperature of matter with my Darkness-Magic, almost as if it was Ice-Magic? Imagining a possible connection between the two vastly different disciplines of magic made me curious, could there be a connection between all of them? More than just the obvious, like the one between Water and Ice, almost like the Cyclic view of the world the Grandmother had explained to me once? But what did that mean to my own exploration of the Extremes? Was that doomed to failure? Or was there a higher understanding, a level on which the differences between elements and between schools of thought simply faded and everything was just “Magic”? Or a manipulation of the Astral?

Sadly, that concept was something I couldn’t even begin to investigate, simply because there was not enough time, not by a long shot. Which was why I had decided to diversify, to get an understanding of a broad range of magic, maybe even venturing into different disciplines, training my body and incorporating magic into my martial arts, simply so I would have a better starting-point once the official version was released.

Which brought us to the present situation, with Adra, Lenore and myself, looking at Rai, who was trying to get out of his duties. Or, at least what I had decided were his duties for the evening.

“Yes, you have to.” I brushed off his complaint, before continuing. “There is no way Sigmir could do it, simply due to size, and Adra wants to understand, too.” I explained, before raising an eyebrow and asking “You wouldn’t want Adra to be ill-prepared if she is attacked with Death-Magic, would you?”

There was another moment of hesitation, before I could see the fight leaving him and he gave in to the inevitable, moving behind a couple of bushes with the object of the evenings’ studies in hand.

“That was mean.” Adra whispered, while Lenore was simply amused.

“Unless we want to take turns, one studying, the other using that thing, it really is the only way. And there is no way I’d wear that thing voluntarily again, once was more than enough.” I whispered back, shuddering at the memory of wearing the disgusting piece of muddy fabric Rai was changing into. The visible shudder gripping Adra’s body told me that she agreed, at least in practise, if not in principle.

After about a minute later, Rai shuffled back into view and I had to strictly control my face, to keep from laughing out loud. He looked a sight, the normally proud wolfman looking like a kicked puppy, a kicked puppy wearing the rags that had once been a beautiful, white wedding-dress, at least so the story went. I had decided that I wanted to begin my studies by understanding the effect of the Despoiled Bride’s Dress, the garment we had looted from Tzar Bolotnik, back in the swamp. But to do that, I needed to observe the effect from the outside, which meant I couldn’t wear the garment and trigger the effect, which meant I needed a partner. The rags would never fit Sigmir, the comparative size made that simply impossible, and when I had asked Adra, she had quickly made an excuse, deciding that she needed to understand the Death-Magic effect of the dress better and would like to join me on the outside. Which only left Rai, who had sworn to obey me, as my disciple. Thus, the present situation.

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Curiously, or maybe luckily, the point of contention wasn’t that he thought he, a proud and most definitely male, warrior shouldn’t wear a dress, least of all a wedding-dress, that part he didn’t really care about. He had grown up in an arctic frontier-town, where you wore as many layers as necessary to keep warm and putting on multiple layers of pants was a good way to lose mobility, so robes and warm cloaks had always been part and parcel of their outerwear. Similarly, they had no real concept of a ceremonial marriage, they formed lasting couples and had celebrations if one such couple officially formed but nothing like the pomp and ceremony of a western marriage, certainly not with an ornate, expensive, garment that was only worn once. Such traditions were a sign of affluence and wealth, nothing that would form in the frigid forests of his home.

No, he was simply disgusted to wear the magically wet and muddy fabric, especially as it had to be worn on his skin, to allow him to channel Astral Power through it. A sudden shudder ran down my spine, just from remembering the clingy feeling of the muddy fabric, like tiny tendrils trying to drag me into the cold muck of the mire.

“Here goes nothing.” I heard him mutter and focused on Lenore’s sight, so I would get a better picture of the magical effect, while also witnessing the physical effect. A moment after Rai closed his eyes in focus, I could see a strange shimmer emanate from him, my ears picking up on the faint wailing of a tortured soul. While the effect itself was mostly invisible to the mundane eye, Lenore’s sight allowed me to see a lot more, a cloud of Death-Magic blowing out from the dress, while there were distinct shapes within the dress, vaguely reminding me of a runic formation.

Nodding to myself, I closed my eyes, going with Lenore over our respective memories, each of us pointing out parts that the other had missed, before looking back to Rai.

“Thank you. Can you do that again? And how much Astral Power did you use?” I asked, trying to get a baseline regarding the efficiency of the dress’ magical effect.

Rai sighed, before answering my question and closing his eyes again, letting another wave of Death-Magic flow out. We had to repeat the process a few more times, until Rai ran out of Astral Power cutting my studies short.

“Master, can I get out of this dress?” Rai asked, his breathing laboured, one hand pressing against his temple.

“Certainly, I think we are done here,” I told him, amused at the look of relief flooding his face, only to evaporate when I continued, “at least for now.”

He instantly fled behind the bushes he had used to change earlier, as if he was afraid I would change my mind.

“Huh, that was interesting.” Adra muttered, staring at the circle cleared by the repeated use of Death-Magic and the gradient it had caused. The area right where Rai had been standing was completely dead, sterilised to the point that the ground was coarse dust and from there, the destruction turned less severe. Around the circle of dust, the ground was relatively bare, the grass reduced to dust but the earth beneath still healthy and around that, the grass was gradually looking healthier, showing the area of effect quite clearly.

“Indeed. There were multiple components to the spell, all of them quite interesting.” I agreed, before focusing on Lenore. “Do you think we can copy at least parts of that?” I asked, curious what she thought.

“Parts, certainly. I have a few ideas, especially regarding the way the sounds seemed to have both a Death-Magic and a Mind-Magic component.” she replied, sharing a few abstract concepts, allowing me to follow her thought-process without the need for formulated language.

“Interesting.” I muttered, as I studied what she had transmitted. A raven’s call, bringing Death and Despair. Cliche, but somehow still a fun idea.