Once they got out from the mental ward, they went back to the patient’s bedrooms, waiting for the nurses to make Velvet a final checkup.

Creftalia remained in the room for a while, until Velvet’s silence got too much to bear, and she excused herself, saying she was feeling better and was going back to the others.

Velvet didn’t answer, lost in thought. The nurse’s checkup had made her notice something.

First, Hyde had moved his pocket dimension to her ear. A good thing, since her hat and clothes were gone. She notified him of her awakening, but Hyde seemed to be busy or sleeping, not giving her an answer. She didn’t worry too much though, feeling him alive.

Second, killing Vina and the others had consequences. She hadn’t noticed at first, blaming it on Creftalia’s jumpy behavior, but mages and nurses avoided her. When they walked down the hallways, people moved thoughtlessly out of her proximity, avoiding getting close. Kartal had mentioned it, calling it cross-corruption. The ailment of a blood-soaked Esca.

And third, her blood-soaked Esca in question had opened more. Now it was half open.

She had reached Cornelius’ and Iren Doyle’s level.

No, that comparison was incorrect.

Velvet was sure she had surpassed them. Not that it mattered in the grand scheme of things, but it was something.

She could now summon twenty paper figurines, and their reach had extended to five hundred meters. Not only that, the figurines had obtained a new ability: ‘Comprehension Display’.

Any magic skill she had previously seen, could be copied in a figurine. It was still affected by the potency loss from diverging Paradigms, but now she didn’t need to know the whole process behind it.

As long as she had knowledge about what the spell did, it could be copied in a figurine. For example: Igern’s ice weapons. She knew what they did, but didn’t know the spell. But now, she could convert one paper figurine into an ice sword at any time. Same with any other spell she had knowledge of.

Another new ability was: ‘Wayback record’. She had seen that one used by other mages, and she herself had used the weakest version of it to ‘discover’ Iren Doyle’s murderer. By looking at the aftermath of a spell, murder, formation… She could know how they came to be.

For example: the wraith left by Agorn Krischa. Now, she knew how it was made, and the torture methods and spells used on it. She could now make a wraith herself. Not that she was going to, but she could.

She also got an increase in the potency of her charms, but that was normal.

Steps coming towards the room she was in caught her attention.

Checking the sound, she uncovered the person’s stature, weight and mannerisms.

Ceres opened the door, not bothering to knock.

“Coming to pick me up? Were you forced to?” Velvet greeted him, sitting on the bed’s edge.

Ceres sighed. “For better or worse, and, in case you’ve forgotten, I’m your Selector, not Kartal.”

“I don’t forget stuff. Did you bring me a change of clothes? What about my things?” She started pestering him upon seeing the paper bag he was carrying.

“Yes, yes, where are your manners? Quit poking me.” Ceres gave her the bag.

Velvet looked inside: a plain beige dress, some underwear, a white hose and short boots for dressing. Her containers were also inside, and-

“Go change first, if any garment is not the right size, blame Tristan.”

Velvet stared at him in silence. Ceres stared back at her.

“What?”

“Get out?”

Ceres blinked. “True.” He then stepped out and closed the door, letting Velvet change.

…

Velvet opened the door to the corridor, now dressed, and watched Ceres in silence, who was leaning against the opposing wall.

“You wouldn’t have stopped me from checking the containers unless something weird was inside them.”

“Guess.”

Velvet brazed herself, and started checking the containers: Agorn’s former pets, the feathered spider, the fire salamander-

“Huh,” She said, seeing the three pets she pulled out back inside a container. “I thought they ran away.”

“They did, but escaping a pocket dimension isn’t easy. They simply got caught again.”

Velvet imagined the official mages running behind the Space-leaping toad, just for it to teleport.

Probably they simply used magic, but she hoped the toad made them work.

Next, the Strangler Humming Figs. Just glimpsing at them made Velvet’s head hurt, remembering their song, but she didn’t need to look at them too much to see the mutation they suffered.

Their branches had become red, and, every now and then, something wormed its way under the tree bark, its appearance similar to Frenese’s leech-like tendrils.

And, in the last container, was Frenese’s Book.

Velvet paled, her blood running cold. Why was it here? Why was Ceres giving it to her?

“Why… why is the book here?”

Scratching his head, he spoke. “After hours of finger-pointing and shifting blame, the only thing those idiots agreed on was that the book couldn’t go back to the Tarius. But everyone wanted it, and also wanted no one else to have it.” Ceres paused, letting Velvet make her own conclusions. “In the end, the Director decided that the one who sealed it was the new owner. And none of them dared to argue against her choice.”

Velvet kept looking at the book. “This is going to make me a target.” She muttered, her brain working on a solution. “Can I rent it to the Mergifari? I won’t ask for much money.”

She didn’t want to sell it, but if she rented it, Frenese’s Book could be kept in the Mergifari’s treasury, not bringing unwanted attention towards her.

Ceres clicked his tongue. “I don’t recommend doing that. Ha- Wait. Udulluay.” He called for the owl, who appeared from the walls, landing on Ceres’ head.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Velvet flinched, wary. She knew Udulluay wasn’t Frenese, but both were devils. Alas, Ceres needed him to conceal the traces of their conversation.

“You’re going to make me bald, I swear.” Holding the owl like a sandwich, he continued. “Hasdrubal wanted to check the book at all costs. And not for the devil.”

The chains. Velvet had noticed them, tightly wrapped around the book, pitch dark in color.

No, that wasn’t correct. It’s not that the chains were black, but that they were… empty. Devoid of material, the light inside the container didn’t affect them, it just disappeared. Gone.

Velvet pressed her lips. “I cannot keep the book. Someone tried to kill me just for teaming up with Kartal, imagine what would happen if I kept it. I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep.”

“You’re thinking about it from the wrong angle.” Ceres said. “What did I say? These big fools not only didn’t want the Tarius from having the book, they also didn’t accept anyone except themselves as the new owner.”

Velvet smiled, an incredulous, frantic smile. “Y-you cannot be for real.”

Ceres’ plan is fucking insane! Velvet shouted in her mind. Does he want me to willingly be targeted by everyone?! And just hope that their pride and greed benefits me?

“...”

“...”

“Will… will that work?”

“Guess.”

“Ceres…” Velvet sighed.

“It won’t work forever. I'll give it two months at maximum.” He admitted, uninterested in giving false hope to her.

“And after that, what?”

“Leave the Mergifari. Use the time you have to learn anti-tracking and concealment spells, then disappear from here. Don’t come back until you have at least two Escas.”

Velvet stared at him in silence. She didn’t like that plan, but she really didn’t have alternatives.

Giving Frenese’s book to the Mergifari would withdraw the attention over her, but Hasdrubal might pay her a ‘visit’.

Keeping the book would make the enemy mages fall in a standstill, but, if she slipped, she might get caught.

Leaving the Mergifari right now would leave her defenseless, and any mage could simply follow her outside.

Ceres' plan was dangerous, but was the less dangerous one.

“Alright.” She said with resignation.

…

Dianthus pressed his head against his bed's soft cushions.

He had won. Not only first place in the Opening, but against the prophecy too.

Some mages had died, but it was inevitable.

"Was it now? Really?" The voice accompanying him said.

"Hm? What do you… Wait. When did you get back?" He hadn't heard the voice after dreaming the prophecy, and he hadn't called for it.

Why didn't I…?

No, he simply hadn't noticed the voice was gone. Not until it now.

Oh no.

"So you realized now?"

No no no no.

Like an invisible fog being lifted, he started to think. To really think.

Those deaths were evitable. He didn't need a reason to 'accidentally' encounter some Idir mages and beat them before they summoned shit.

He could've prevented all of that in ten minutes. Why did he search for Velvet...?

A bad, bad feeling crept over his back. "Where were you? Why didn't I realize you were gone?"

The voice had been with him almost all his life. How could he not notice its absence?

A sigh crossed his mind. "Didn’t I warn you? Or do you just assume that because He didn’t do anything, He hadn’t done anything?"

“I am immune to mind control.”

“And yet, you forgot my whole existence.”

Dianthus clicked his tongue, forcing himself to remember when he started to forget. The night before the Opening? No, the truth was that the same moment the prophecy started, he forgot.

The moment Lothrigern kicked Velvet out… For some reason, he got so obsessed with it, wanting to test if Lothrigern would react in some way if he were to mess up his plans. Unfortunately, Dianthus trying to mess up his plan was Lothrigern's 'plan'.

“Yes, that exact moment. You thought about him, and he showed up in your dream. The one you saw was the real deal, even if just for a moment.”

“Can he do that?”

“You should feel lucky that he can't show up in your mind just by thinking of His name.”

“Why didn’t you warn me?”

“Because he barely touched you. What he actually did was use you as a bridge to get me. All the time you spent devil-hunting with that girl, Lothrigern was chasing my true body.”

Dianthus fell silent. He had been used like an idiot, without even realizing it.

“Didn’t you want to poke the psychopathic father of the fae? So? How does it feel?” The voice provoked him, mocking his previous prideful demeanor.

“What about Velvet? She got it pretty nice, for someone marked by him.”

“Don’t be so sure. No one Lothrigern sets his eyes upon has a good ending.” The voice sighed, before correcting himself. “No. That’s wrong. The longer Lothrigern remains just waiting, the more sure I become about that girl not having a problem.”

“And, instead, being a problem in the making.”

…

Velvet was back in her hut, the first thing she did being: throwing herself on the bed, face down.

"You slept for three whole days, don't fall asleep again." Hyde said. He had gone back from his 'slumber', and made a more in depth description of what happened after the Opening.

From Creftalia’s and Ceres’ information, she still lacked to know what happened during the time she lost consciousness and before the Director showed up.

For example, the formation under Frenese's formation. The one she didn't have time to dig.

If the official mages 'cleaned' up the scene, surely they saw it.

"Someone came before the Mergifari's Director." Hyde said. "They used a concealment spell, so I don't know their appearance. But they dug out part of the formation. The center, actually."

Frenese's book was impossible to open with just the energy of fourteen novice mages. That meant the magic used had come from another place. The underfloor formation probably had a core, a core used to supply magic.

"Don't beat yourself over not having found out. The formation center was filled with traps, I saw the person removing them, and we didn't have the time to undo them back then."

"What was the core?" She asked, not interested in blaming herself. She did all she could have possibly done.

"I don't know what it was with precision, but it looked like a human, dead premature baby with horns. It felt demonic, but also human."

Velvet pressed her lips. "A mage's failed experiment? Even if dead, a human and demon baby hybrid could..." She didn't finish the sentence.

Be useful as material was what she almost said.

With an exasperated sigh, Velvet sat up. "It's not fair. How can someone defend themselves against mages with zero scruples? No, you know what? I can do so too." She got up and jumped, shaking the sadness out of her. "Udulluay."

The devil owl appeared, landing on top of the black staff he always summoned when Ceres wasn't close. "You called for Udulluay?”

"Can you stay around a few minutes?"

"Udulluay can."

"Thanks." Velvet said, before touching her string of containers.

With a thud, Frenese's Book fell on her bed, chained.

Velvet took a deep breath, before moving her hands to touch the chains.

Originally, the chains wrapped the book to completion, not letting a single hair out. But, once Velvet touched them, the chains moved away, allowing her to touch the covers.

Like when she talked with Hyde, she pushed some thoughts inside.

"Frenese. I know you can hear me."

She did not, but the devil didn't need to know that.

"How many years have you been sealed? One hundred? Two hundred? It doesn't matter."

"I'm offering you a deal. Fulfill it, and I'll let you return to hell, free."

End of Book I. Surface Collapse.