Haashi Morgania, the reason why mages existed. The Creator of the Primeval Sea.

Even when Velvet had dived on its surface, she still didn’t understand much about the Primeval Sea. Only witches, who had sunk in it, and who got closer to the bottom, did; and that caused them to start eating mages.

The Primeval Sea’s influence, and by extension, Haashi’s, could also be considered the voice of corruption who tried to speak to Velvet, and to any mage who got close to losing control, tempting them to take the last step into the abyss.

Haashi Morgania.

Just by knowing Her name, her body went numb, as her Esca came alive, blinking and looking side to side.

One blink, the feeling of the eye rolling to look left, up and right. Another blink, left, right.

It’s too dark to see anything except the Chained Man, but that’s for me; I don’t know if it would be the same for the thing behind the Esca. She remained motionless and in silence, until the Esca stopped moving and went back to normal.

Even so, she made sure to wait some seconds more, until she had the certainty that it was over.

Closing and opening her hand slowly, she pushed down the uncomfortable feeling of a part of her own body escaping her control and acting on its own.

Frenese didn’t do or say anything, but she felt the devil’s attention on her.

“Hmm…” She said to herself, before looking towards Frenese. “I got it. You can leave now." Touching Frenese's chain, she made him disappear from the dream, not giving him any chance to speak.

The same way I brought him here, I can push him out... She was lucky that repeating the things she did to bring him here worked to bring him out, because if not, she might have spoken too soon.

As a knowledge mage, she knew the chances of that working were fifty percent, but, if she won that gamble, Frenese would believe that she had more control over the dream that she really had.

The reason she wanted Frenese to believe in her abilities was simple. It would make him more cooperative. His goal was freedom, but devils were prideful, so, if Velvet acted too naive and clueless, he might refuse to cooperate without employing the pact.

There was a difference between a person having a sword without knowing how to use it, and a person having a sword, knowing some techniques, but not knowing the sword's origins.

Both were still dangerous, carrying a weapon, but one was more than the other.

Now, she had shown him some control, kicking him out of the dream without hesitation.

It’s so unfortunate that he isn’t a knowledge devil… if Hyde's obsession with the dream is something to go for, any knowledge devil would become cooperative just with a glance.

She sighted, still pondering.

That being said, Frenese being here means that if I chain someone, I can bring them here, say Andras’ name and make them lose control.

I wonder if the actual chains would do something. They've remained pretty quiet since that day.

Velvet looked around, expecting the chains to come out just to prove her wrong, but nothing else happened. She didn’t try to call them out, anyway.

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Since no more ‘surprises’ appeared, she now had two options. Say the Deriliam's name to see if she got something, or wait until she dealt with Tristan’s and the Arhontissan mages issues.

Can I take another close loss of control? That was the biggest issue. The more she tested the limits, the easiest she could sink in the future.

Like slowly erasing a barrier, the day would come when nothing stopped her transformation, making her a witch.

That fear was one of the things preventing her from saying the name. The other one was a hypothesis.

The hypothesis of Frenese testing her. As he had said, there were eleven Deriliams, with each one being the Creator of at least one species.

Of nine options, he chose to give her the name of the Mother of Witches, something dangerous for Velvet to know, seen in the Esca’s reaction.

Velvet had told him previously about how saying Andras’ name almost made her lose control completely, so his choice in the name given did matter. And he chose the Deriliam Velvet was mostly under.

Is he testing my patience? To see if I’m so eager to discover the Chained Man’s identity that I would die to get answers?

She was sure that saying Haashi’s name would straight up kill her.

Frenese, you clever bastard… no wonder he had been so eager to tell me the name. Really, a devil is always a devil.

If she were to die from saying that name, the Devil’s Deal wouldn’t be triggered, since Frenese didn’t tempt her to use it, simply giving it to her.

As if he had given her a loaded revolver, and she had proceeded to shoot her own head. Frenese might have given her the gun, but she was the one who pressed the trigger pointing at herself.

I cannot use this name. She decided, regretfully backing down.

“Did you see that?” She spoke to the Chained Man, who didn’t react at all. “I offer him a chance for freedom and he tries to kill me.”

“I only asked him for a teensy bit of power and knowledge, I swear. Devils will be devils, I guess.”

“But you will be nice, right? Primordial Devil or something else, you will behave nicely if I reach you, right?”

Velvet nodded, as if the motionless, inexpressive, silent reaction was actually a mutual conversation.

“See? I knew you would be reasonable!” She laughed towards the void.

“Haha.. ha. Ejem.” Finally stopping playing, she took a deep breath, waiting for the dream and night to pass.

…

It was morning when she woke up, stretching on her bed, allowing herself a few seconds of laziness.

“It’s done.” Hyde ‘greeted’ her, sensing she was awake.

“Mmm?” She asked, her eyes still closed, the time to get out of bed closer and closer.

Hyde didn’t answer, choosing instead to come out of his pocket dimension. Velvet opened an eye out of curiosity, feeling him crawling from her ear, to her neck, shoulder and stopping at the center of her chest, staring at her.

Velvet wasn’t scared of bugs, but a fist-sized spider walking all over her gave her goosebumps nonetheless. Hyde wasn’t a hairy spider, but, like all spiders, his legs were sticky, to crawl over walls and other places.

Suddenly, Hyde clicked his front legs, as ten small spider silk figurines appeared from thin air, hanging from the ceiling by a thin thread.

The scene with Velvet on the bed and the figurines hanging felt like she was a baby on a crib, and Hyde had hanged one of those mobile things to pacify babies.

He did that on purpose. She decided, proceeding to trap Hyde under her hand, caging him.

Even so, it didn’t take long for Velvet to know what was done. Hyde had digested Frenese’s blood, advancing as a demon.

When she dropped the bloody chalice on her head, part of it was to make the liquid cross Hyde’s pocket dimension, allowing him to collect enough blood.

Unlike Velvet, who used it all at once to seal the book, Hyde had the opportunity to store it and use it in a more resourceful way.

Of course, Hyde was also smaller than her, so he didn’t need to drink the same quantity.

Even so, back to the present, that worked great for her. With Hyde being stronger now, she won an ally who was always next to her.

And two knowledge beings always thought more than one.

As she rejoiced, Hyde slid his front legs through the space between her fingers, pressing his head against the ‘cage bars’, tickling her skin. “Stop dozing off, we have stuff to do.”