Finally, after spending three consecutive nights at the Miller's residence, I found an excuse and managed to return to Hew's cabin. The evening was pleasant, not yet dark, and on a whim, I decided to engage in some physical activity, opting to run through the woods.

The forest surrounding the cabin was relatively old, sprawling over a rocky hill. Massive boulders, partially covered by earth and moss, were entangled among giant roots, resembling huge snakes holding them in place. I ran and leaped from rock to root to another rock. At times, the canopy dipped low, almost touching the ground, prompting me to either bow or choose an alternative path. This revealed small glades or other dark sections of the woods, creating a cathedral-like ambiance. While there were various trees, fir trees dominated from a certain level onward. Wild berries, like occasional punctuation, adorned the glades. I discovered raspberries but tasted only a couple, not wanting to linger in one place and enjoying the continuous flow of my run.

I went barefoot, my skin tough enough not to be bothered. Dressed in only a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, I had no fear of mosquitoes—well, at least until a new mana-eating species would decide to emerge. At level twenty-six in a zero-level area, I felt like Kara, Superman's sister.

It was Wednesday evening, and surprisingly, I hadn't been expelled yet. The lines between friends and foes in school were much clearer now, and strangely, I felt better. Some people displayed a level of hate that shocked me, while others were kind, supportive, and surprisingly warm. There seemed to be almost no middle ground; I was either hated or sympathized with. It appeared that neutrality was lost on me, and the strange thing was that it was for a totally false reason: I wasn't doing what they assumed I was. Oh, well, basically I was worse, so I did not complain.

I did have a stormy meeting with the principal, Brooks, a lawyer, and some teachers, resulting in just some warnings and threats. In the school corridors, I was insulted a couple of times, but not excessively so. The worst had been when I found my bike clipped to the side in the parking lot. I could hardly digest that and it almost brought my blood to a boil, even though the bike hadn't been damaged, and it happened only once.

I decided to ignore it and react only if it happened again. I supposed that I would be able to find out who did that, but I feared that I would not be too kind to them, so it was better not to know for the time being.

At lunch, I was convinced that I would have to eat alone in the cafeteria, but Michael joined me on the first day, then Simon, Daniel, and the handball gang, including Helen.

In class, Constance was the same, as if nothing had happened. She was the one constant I could rely on. She did not ask any questions, knowing that I'd talk as soon as I felt the need to do so.

For Matt and the group, the first shock came when the provider we used to distribute the songs canceled the contract. Just like that, without even a warning. It was not easy to find a new provider, but Tom had found a small company trying to succeed independently with cartoon and book sales that accepted to host our songs.

Frankly speaking, I was shocked by the situation. What on Earth could that service provider find so disturbing about the fact that I had that special license? Oh, well, whatever it was, the boys seemed to be able to find solutions, even if it did impact some of our current revenues.

In the wider world things were not going so well neither.

There were rumors that the situation in the Bounty County was bad. Of course, almost nothing was officially confirmed, but it was said that the area had to be enlarged due to some pollutant spill, and several villages had to be hastily evacuated.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

The mainstream news did not talk about fights, but only about some grave incidents of heavy poisoning. The rumors was that the army had been simply pushed back, and in places where they tried to resist, they had been overrun. However, the invaders did not push further, than a couple of kilometers.

It was difficult to know the truth, the narrative about the zone was one of the most censured things.

For the weekend, Hew had arranged a trip to Dreamland's headquarters. Despite losing some of its appeal after the GPCM (in words: the Great PC Meltdown), Dreamland was currently fighting hard against bankruptcy. They were trying to persuade insurance companies to cover all the costs and maintaining their services. I wasn't entirely sure what this visit would bring, but Hew insisted that it was necessary. Too much was linked to Mephisto's World not to pursue it. The tour included visits to design studios and conversations with software engineers. Perhaps we could find some answers to our many questions.

As it started to get dark, I turned back toward the cabin. A jog through the woods was truly a marvelous thing, and it helped my brain recap the happenings.

Before going to bed, I read more from the transformation book. It was interesting to observe that after repeated 'healing,' the book's rate of decay seemed to have stabilized or decreased significantly. This was good news. It occurred to me that this phenomenon was similar to healing people; they usually needed several extra healing sessions later and some recovery time after major healings. I wondered about the physics behind this—what happened at the atomic level to explain it?

Another surprise awaited me as I discovered that the transformation spell I had learned was just the startup, the beginning of a complete transformation spell. There was much more to it inside the book, but typically for me, I had started practicing after the first success without reading the rest.

The next pages of the book continued to explain how to generate and define a whole image and transform the entire object in one spell, providing some examples. This information was crucial. I was fortunate that what I had done worked and didn't disfigure me. Flo's extensive experience with spells, her ability to translate intent through spells, came naturally to me, complementing the spell effectively.

Well, the fact that I hadn't executed the transformation spell in one go made it impossible for me to reverse the spells with the simple reverse transformation spell described in the next chapter of the book. You could only revert one transformation spell, not a chain of such spells.

This meant that I lost my wings and claws. Okay, I could try to cast new wings and claws, in the same way as I had removed them. For the claws, that was easy, but for the wings, I wasn't so sure if I remembered all the details correctly because I hadn't analyzed them carefully enough before. The need to recreate them didn't cross my mind when I removed them. Those wings weren't simple limbs but very specialized mana conduits. Maybe I'd be able to recreate them, perhaps I'd remember enough details, and they would work as good as new. Or maybe not. I was too tired to try recreating them in the middle of the night, and I would have to revert them tomorrow anyway. The fact was that a full transformation spell for a complex body like mine was hard to master, beyond my current capabilities.

Another unpleasant surprise was seeing that the spell-holograms, or whatever those moving 3-D pictures were, seemed to freeze after some time of study. It wasn't random; the pages I studied most froze, and no matter how much healing I did for them, it didn't change. Something else was happening—perhaps the effect they created was for limited uses, or they were somehow consumed when I read them? Well, whatever the case, it meant that even if I could save the book, its usefulness was limited.

I sighed and looked around. The moon was high in the sky; I was reading outside in the moonlight, surrounded only by the creepy dark woods. I stretched my arms and shoulders, went inside the cabin, left the windows wide open, and went to bed.

I remembered how unwell I was not long ago on a previous night alone in the cabin. Why this sudden change of mood was hard for me to explain, but I was feeling much more confident now. Maybe I was starting to recognize the forest's noises?

I slept very well that night. Well, until that summon came.