We managed to get out of the fog.

It took us a while, far longer than the way in had taken, and none of us was eager to speak. I could feel that the experience had changed us all, had changed me. Before, when I had thought about power and powerful beings, I had mostly thought of the Grandmother, the way she seemed to be a fathomless being, able to change the world at a whim. But that mysterious power, even with the allure of the unknown, it paled before the bound Titan and the Eagle feasting on its flesh. Just seeing them from a distance was enough to cause us to quiver in fear, like a rabbit before the snake, stunned and unable to act.

Somehow, I felt glad to see the sun again, despite my habitual dislike. Just being free of the oppressive mist made me cheer up, especially knowing that we would be able to get far away from the monsters it hid. Without communicating, all of us started to speed up, not quite running but compared to our normal travelling-speed it was clearly faster. Fast enough that I noticed my stamina slowly dropping, not at the same rate it would when jogging or running, but there was a drop.

After a short moment of consideration, I instantly created a set of Blood Runes on my legs, channelling power into them to keep them active. It was a curious way of casting, the instant burst of Power needed to project the runes in an instant, only to switch to the controlled, careful way of feeding Astral Power into them to keep them active over a longer period of time, there was a bit of a whiplash. But if I had wanted to cast normally, I would have had to stop, something I wasn’t quite willing to do. There was an unpleasant sensation between my shoulderblades, a shiver that didn’t seem to go away. I felt watched, stalked, as if I was the prey of some unseen predator.

The feeling made me turn, to look back at the shrouded valley, part of me expecting the eagle we had seen earlier to burst out of the fog, diving to tear us apart, but there was nothing, nothing I could see. Which didn’t help me feel relief, if anything, it strengthened the feeling of persecution, feeding into my vigilance. Or maybe it was paranoia. But then, there were people out to get me, so i couldn’t be, could it?

“Do you know what that was?” Rai asked, having noticed me look back.

“Maybe.” I replied, glancing over my shoulder again, “At least I think I do, I just cannot be certain.”

“There is a myth, a legend I once heard, that speaks of a Titan who went against the Olympian Gods, stole a power from them and gave it away.” I began, not mentioning any names, as I had once been told that Names had power.

“Later, said TItan was caught and punished. His punishment was to be bound in the mountains, with an eagle feasting on his liver, his immortal body keeping him alive, regenerating only to be tortured again. An eternal punishment for an immortal being.” I finished, getting solem looks from Sigmir and Rai. Adra, on the other hand, looked pensive.

“I’ve heard that story, even if it went a little different.” She told us, her voice distant.

“That long ago, Magic was the domain of the Gods, given to the Mortals using something called the Astral Chalice. But that Titan, he wanted the power of the Astral Chalice for himself and tried to steal it. He was discovered before he could get his hands on the Chalice and a fight broke out, a fight that shook the World, and in the fighting, the Astral Chalice shattered, flooding the World with its power. The raw power inundated the world, causing havoc and destruction, throwing the World into untold Chaos.” At this point, Adra stopped, looking back over her shoulder, just as I had done a little earlier, shaking her head after a moment.

“As punishment for his crime, the Gods chained him to the power he had unleashed, never to find peace until the World was no longer suffering for his deed.” she finished, leaving me wondering about the truth. Her version, it didn’t ring true for me, but other than my intuition, I had nothing to base that on. Maybe, one day in the future, I would be able to find out.

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There was little talk after that, none of us felt safe or comfortable, instead, we spent the rest of the day hurrying away from the valley holding the titan. Over time, I lost count how often I looked back or nervously tried to spot danger, to the point that when danger arrived, none of us really noticed. Maybe it was because we had been fearing a giant eagle swooping down from the sky to tear us apart, or a similarly sized Titan running up from behind and turning us to burning mush, so the appearance of a single tiger, intent on turning us into a late afternoon-snack was simply overlooked.

Regardless of the reason, when a three meter long tiger, tall enough to look Sigmir in the eyes was flying towards you, you noticed. Especially when said tiger was clad in a swirly aura and had both, claws and fangs, bared towards us. The constant vigilance must have taken a toll on us, making our reaction a little sluggish, all of us simply scrambling to dodge, instead of using the fact that the stupid cat was in the air, and thus on a fixed trajectory, to welcome it with something pointy.

Before we could get our bearings, the tiger let out a bone-shaking roar, making me stumble. I could feel the magic within the roar, pressing into my brain, making my movement sluggish and unsteady. The tiger showed no hesitation in exploiting the opening it had created, instantly pouncing towards the physically least imposing member of our party - Me.

Time slowed to a crawl as Bullet Time activated, the world lost colour as my focus narrowed to the tiger coming towards me. There was no way to dodge, no way to escape, just not enough time. Astral Power surged out of me in a desperate bid to stop the attack, Ice Magic blooming in front of me. It was as simple a spell as could be, just a chunk of Ice, no worries about shape or anything, just something to stop the massive claws from tearing me apart.

I felt Lenore’s sight join my own, as a counter-blow shot out from the tiger, razor-sharp winds surging into the block of ice I had just created, turning the hastily created barrier into a rain of icicles, leaving it an open path to me.

Somewhere, I could hear Sigmir’s angry roar, but far away, so far, too far. I felt Bullet Time fade away, a part of my mind accepting that I was about to die. Almost as if the world was snapping back into focus, I could feel it speeding back up, the tiger pouncing towards me, when I felt a comfortable sensation. Shadows, covering me, cradling me in their embrace. Shadows, they were connected, weren’t they?

For a moment, I felt myself in two places at once, in many places at once, my mind trying to make sense of the experience, as confusing as it was. But maybe there was no need to understand, maybe I just had to accept it. Following my feelings, it was something I had heard before, even if I had never been able to understand. Maybe now, I could understand. To follow my feelings.

To go home.

Darkness swallowed me up and the world turned topsy-turvy, as if gravity was somewhere in a corner, softly crying while I was a bouncy-ball, getting bounced this way and that way, time stretching as a moment turned into seconds and what felt like hours, at least until the world returned, my mind still bouncing around in my skull, making me glad that the ground beneath wasn’t trying to dodge me, or I might have failed to hit it. How embarrassing would it be, to fail to hit the ground when falling?

It felt as if I had just opened my eyes after blinking, or maybe the world had blinked and I had somehow managed to keep my eyes open during that moment of darkness. But however it worked, the scenery in front of me had changed, instead of a tiger pouncing at me, I was now seeing Sigmir’s back, as she was cloaked in a shining, crimson aura and a furious shout, without a need for words, came from her throat, echoing through the mountains.

My focus, just moments earlier concentrated on the tiger, snapped to her and it was as if I was able to count the hairs on her arms and I felt amusement bubbling in, somewhere deep within me, my mind not quite keeping up. There were many hairs, almost forming a silver pelt, so much looking like Ylva’s pelt. And Sigmir’s hands, they looked less like hands and more like claws, her fingernails elongated and glowing with a silvery-blue light. I knew that light, it was the light of Ice-Magic.

While my mind was struggling to catch up with my body, Sigmir was pouncing towards the tiger, without even taking out a weapon, she crashed into it. Two powerful beasts, fighting for supremacy, savage and brutal, without techniques.

Closing my eyes in an attempt to get rid of the vertigo, I focused on Sigmir, on knowing where she was. How couldn’t I know where my home was, so why would I need to see her? No, I knew where she was, I would always know, so I could cast magic on her, I was sure of it.

Stretching out one hand, I let it flicker through the familiar motions of creating runes, just a simple spell to boost Sigmir’s strength, nothing complicated, but it was about the limit I could contribute to the battle.

Once the spell was cast, I let myself sink back down, simply lying there, happy that the ground seemed to be quite stable and that gravity was pulling me towards it, as it should be.