I smiled with a bit of greed as the announcer now servant opened the vault of the arena’s management. Glittering piles of gold and silver with a few platinum coins thrown in among the occasional jewels, but what interested me more were the ledgers carefully placed on one of the shelves. Meticulous record keeping was a must after all and I could get quite a few juicy bits of information from them if they were done well enough.

“Here you are master.” The announcer said as he bowed a little to me. The servant type thrall had a bit to be desired when it came to their intelligence. They were more along the intelligence of those really stupid people you sometimes saw and wondered if they ever forgot to breathe at times but their loyalty made my word law for them so I guessed it evened itself out a bit.

I had decided not to make the first servant a void touched type, instead deciding to see how they performed normally. I’d have to compare the two types of vampiric thralls I could now make and find which suited what role the best.

Normal vampiric thralls for example would work for mass strikes where damage was maximized while the void touched variety was much more surgical in that it wouldn’t spread from the area I decided to have them strike. Like a surgical missile strike compared to the areal bombardment that the normal thralls were.

Another difference between the thralls and servants was that the servants had only a small haunch to their backs while the thralls were almost on all fours like animals. Their arms almost dragging along the floor as they aimlessly wandered in a small circle now that they’d been placed into the animal pens of the arena for storage. I ordered them into hibernation and left them there to all curl up in a mass that looked like a hatchery more than what I had expected with how they all went down into fetal positions on the ground. All of them huddled up into one corner in the largest animal cage that Trolgar had occupied.

I’d ended up spending six of the twenty two corralled prisoners to fully slake my vampiric thirst, those I’d had put aside as material since I’d only ruin the bodies if I tried vampiric conversion on them. Of the sixteen left I turned four into servants and the rest into void touched thralls. The servants were now moving through the bodies that had all been dragged into the arena and were being separated from their belongings. Vashanesh sorting through what was valuable or usable and what we would either toss of find some other use for.

I looked at the vampiric conversion slots I had for the thralls I could make. I could have a maximum of eighty thralls and twenty servants. These slots wouldn’t increase until I was the next rank in the noble class but to gain access to the other types I had to increase the skills rank.

I could sort of understand it in a maximum that a vampire baron could field of vampiric conversions with only the type being dependant on how much the skill was cultivated but it still annoyed me. The raise undead skills from the necromancer class all increased their slots with mastery instead of being dependant on the necromancer. I guessed it was how the system used for it to whatever balance it was trying for. The undead I made seemed to be constrained with giving me a slot every skill level with an extra given every time I ranked the skill up. With how easy basic ranked skills were to rank up it was easy to get ten or so slots with another ten added when upgrading to advanced rank. I figured that the numbers would quickly snowball the higher ranked I managed to get the skill.

If németh was to be believed the Master rank gave eighty slots to use with every level giving an extra eight. All of this was cumulative so fielding an army of five hundred minor skeletons would be possible with the right ranks and skill combinations.

I had suspected it but this really had nailed home the lacklustre education I had gotten on how classes and skills worked while serving Aona.

Apparently once you get a class out of the equivalent of a skills advanced rank you could gain a talent tree even. That would explain why my party had been so freakishly powerful with varied skills during the war, it made me even more wary of facing them head on as I was now. I need to get to an equivalent or higher level than them to be certain of my victory over them. I wouldn’t give them any chances to escape from me, even if I’d be stronger physically than them at the same level.

I wanted total domination of the fight or better yet the strength to take the fight right out of them. I had to cultivate patience and forethought within myself. I had to quit being rash and think things through before acting. Veta was that type of grindstone I’d use to sharpen myself up a bit before I’d leave for the journey north and it’s conquest as a few of the others.

With a thought I sent a command for the announcer to go and fetch me the ledgers as I made my way to the single office in the arena for its management. I wasn’t missing much when it came to funds and the like but I required more resources in actual material both for building and for necromancy. With that I poured over the office to look for a large enough paper and I began to draw up the cavern and it’s insides with the help of the information I got from the spiders still surrounding the caverns insides.

I’d want the shanty town converted into a keep where their arena would be repurposed for a training hall. The undead both myself and Morice created could learn and were given basic understanding of any martial skills the raiser might have. That made mine more dangerous as it brought to bear the experience for war and fighting that I’d built up while human was added to them.

I also had a few experiments to do with seeing if Morice and I pitted our minions against one another if they’d gain any experience from it or it would just be looked upon like team killing or something.

Just because I intended to close this cavern off for the most part didn’t mean I’d skimp on any defences that might come in handy just in case. I groaned as I realized I’d have to have a way to access the sewers for the scavengers to clean it out of any material already there and any that might appear later. It would also allow my spiders an easier way to navigate to specific spots in the city unseen.

“Hmm a gatehouse perhaps?” I muttered aloud only to hear a clearing of several ghostly throats and looked up to see Vashanesh standing in the door with the servant behind him holding the ledgers. “Ah, come in. I was just going over the inside of the cavern and seeing if I couldn’t make this place defensible while also having access to many things such as forges, labs and the like we might need for the future.” I said with a smile and Vashanesh entered the room.

“Forges and labs? Will we be staying here for long enough?” Vashanesh asked me curiously as he sat down in one of the two seats opposite the desk I sat at.

“Well we’ll stay here for at least five years or so, why not? Besides if we can manage this place well enough perhaps it could be a staging area if we ever are forced into a war with Alocia.” I said with a predatory smile.

“Oh? You expect that to be the case?” Vashanesh asked with curiosity but a dangerous sort of murderous glee was clearly an undercurrent in it. I guessed some of my own blood thirst went to my minions as well.

“No but one can’t be too careful. If I can manage to get the shadow gate skill to work I might be able to have several active bases within major cities around the continent all accessible to one another through a gate network. I know Imerith used to have a gate network that connected all the old capitals on the continent but one or more of the nations back then used them as points of invasion so it’s fallen out of practice. The rulers feel they are more threat than use with how they worked both ways. On the other hand we could possibly make the gates so hostile to the living only the dead can use them.” I answered before my thoughts sent me into musings for the future. I had to learn more about the history of Imerith, there might be a few things I could learn from or adopt to my own purposes.

“An interesting idea. So you want to turn this into a fortified outpost that we can still forge arms, armour and any equipment we might need along with areas to create more undead? I’m intrigued by the gate network but don’t you think you need to be at a very high level to manage the magic for that?” Vashanesh began his devious mind working in my muttering to any idea he might have in his own head.

“I suppose I’ll have to. Then again I’m going to be the vice-headmaster of the royal academy of magic. I’m sure we’ll be able to gain access to some or any of the magic we might need. I’m sure that with the help of Selma’s gift for language any particular tomes or scrolls that I’d need to learn a new language for would be easier.” I replied to his question though I supposed I could also ask the council for help during the times I went to sleep.

I’m sure they might be able to help me read through ancient tomes I might find, which reminded me since I couldn’t access any spatial rings I might have on me while I was training with them I hadn’t gotten a chance to really go over my spoils from Nyrunth’s hoard.

I’d have to wait to do that as I looked at Vashanesh, his lower set of hands were on his knee with one leg crossed over the other while the upper set was in a thinking posture. The left hands forearm on top of the lower set with the hand holding onto the elbow of the right that was gripping onto his pointed chin. “Yes I suppose the position has more merit than I initially anticipated. Perhaps we could use your new spiders to allow those minions here to learn from the lessons in the academy as well?” His question intrigued me.

“That’s an interesting idea. We’d have to figure out how to somehow remote view what they are seeing though. Perhaps some sort of screen showing what the spider is seeing? We’d have to make extensive facilities here to facilitate this and if we are to do something I’d say we do it right anyway.” I said with a smile and I got the distinct impression Vashanesh was mirroring that smile despite his lack of ability to emote.

“Anyway, did we get anything interesting from the spoils?” I asked to change the topic, I’d already been here for most of the day and I wanted to lie down in a proper bed. I knew I could trust Vashanesh and the Ushabti to keep things in line and begin the work here in my absence.

“Not much, a few storage bags of low capacity, an amulet that we can use to keep a few bodies fresh as well as a few storage rings to do the same while we can strip the bodies of bones and keep those in the pouches. There were also quite a good bit of coin and mundane items of value but no other magically inclined items other than storage ones were found.” He reported and I nodded with a smile.

Pointing at the map I’d made of the cavern I spoke again. “See if you can’t close off the cavern from the sewers while still allowing for the run-off to happen. Then once that is settled work that engineer class for everything it’s worth to create a fortified compound along with repurposing the arena into a training facility. If you can manage it by all means expand the cavern if needed. Make a list of the resources you will require and we’ll use the funds we’ve found here to that purpose first then we’ll see. Prioritise the defensive outer structure and make sure to leave designated places for a good sized forge and labs for differing fields of study.”

With Vashanesh’s nod of understanding I stood and walked out of the office. I made my way out of the cavern and into the catacombs that connected my borrowed manor and the sewers. I felt the slick sheen of dirt come away as I went fully nude and tossed the boar hide to the side. The smell had seeped into it so it was soiled beyond any use.

Once inside the manor I had the maid spirits draw me a bath as most of those in the manor were asleep by now. Outside I saw that night had fallen over the city and I rubbed my fingers against my eyes. How long had I been down there awake?

I sank into the hot water in the bathtub and let out a groan of pleasure as the heat seeped into my aching muscles. I sent out my senses and just managed to cover the entire manor. Touching upon the people inside the manor. Morice slept laid over a desk as Abhorash moved to pick him up and put him into his own room, Bau and Gandas sleeping in the servant quarters provided to them. In one of the guest rooms I noted that Freyja was sleeping and I grew suspicious about her intentions, though perhaps she just wanted to enjoy a bit of the luxury Astarune could offer.

What surprised me the most was finding Akasha still awake and meditating on her bed. I finished scrubbing myself entirely clean and dressed in a simple robe and a long skirt that reached down to my feet allowing for easy movement. I hoped with it’s ability to loosen enough I might use it as clothing while transforming, though I wouldn’t be doing that now.

I made my way quietly to her door and knocked ever so gently. Then opened the door and smiled at the look of excitement that came upon her face as she saw in the gentle light of the candle I held in my free hand. I quickly put a finger to my lips and beckoned her to come to me and she soon was in my arms held up with one while hers looped around my neck.

“Father.” She whispered happily and half snuggled into my neck. “Were have you been? I’ve missed you.” She half hissed into my neck, wiggling in excitement.

“I see. I’m sorry little glutton, I had a task that the emperor asked me to do for him.” I said in amusement as I moved into her room and blew out the candle to place on a cupboard next to the door. With a flick of my hand I conjured up a few small blue candle flames for Akasha to see by. Her eyes grew wide and she let out a small exclamation of wonder and I smiled.

I walked with her in my arms and the candle flames following as I took her back to her bed and tucked her in. “You still have to sleep you know. You can’t stay up meditating all night now can you?” I said with a calm and gentle tone.

She pouted at me. “Can’t I sleep with you?” She asked a bit petulantly at me and I chuckled at her.

“No, no. I’m a bit tired of waking up with your heel in my face.” I said teasingly and laughed lightly at the harrumph she let out in response. “I promise I’ll be here tomorrow, I’ll even cook breakfast.” I said with a soft smile and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Sleep well my little glutton. I’ll watch over you while you sleep so rest easy.” I said while I put my hand out to the side and placed a few very simple yet hard to detect alarm spells around the doors and windows of the room.

I softly sang her a few of the lullaby’s I could remember that my grandmother had sang to me. I used Icelandic songs but most of them made me realize just how gloomy the lullaby’s of Iceland are. Then again wasn’t that sort of true about most old lullaby’s?

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

By the time I noticed she’d fallen asleep I was on my sixth lullaby and I quietly made my way out of the room allowing the blue candle flames to dim to nothing.

I yawned myself and chuckled low to myself. I made my way to the master bedroom and set an alarm to just five minutes before daybreak. Then as I wrapped myself up in the sheets on the soft mattress I let out a contented sigh and quickly I fell asleep.

Only to wake up as the soft beep from the alarm spell went off. I groaned as I got up and waved my hand to dismiss the spell, well at least this was a lot easier to deal with than traditional alarm clock. I felt barely rested but still more refreshed than when I went to bed.

I made a point to pencil in a good afternoon nap just to catch up a bit with what sleep I needed. I got up and got dressed then left my room still half holding in a yawn. On my way to the kitchen I set up small alarms in all the rooms for the others to wake up in time once I’d started cooking.

I decided on a hearty breakfast for them of scrambled eggs mixed in with some wild herbs for spices, sausages, bacon and some buttered toast. Followed by good old fashioned Icelandic pancakes with jam and cream for desert. The first to come down were Freyja and Akasha most likely drawn in by the smell as I had left all doors open to allow for just that.

I was whistling a song called Piparkökusongurinn, essentially a song about making ginger bread it had the entire recipe in a song format but the tune was very upbeat and catchy to me.

I turned around as I was whipping up the cream and noticed the look both were sending me. “What?” I asked with a raised eyebrow as I finished putting on the final touches with a cold touch spell against the bowl to get the whipped cream fluffy and cool.

“What… happened to you?” Freyja asked and with a further curious look from me she elaborated. “I mean your a lot taller than last I saw you, your ears have changed a bit and your face...” She paused.

“Is a lot more predatory than before.” Morice said looking at me angrily. “It’s more clear that you are a predator in an animal sense, it’s how you move and carry yourself now.” He said before he punched my shoulder.

“I thought you were dead.” He said in a tone that made it clear he was holding himself back.

I chuckled a little.

“This isn’t funny Vlad!” Morice raised his voice a little as his anger bubble more to the surface.

“Yes, I suppose it isn’t for you. I take it my phylactery was destroyed then?” At his nod I sighed. “I’ve lost the liche’s gift ability. I’ve been… changed.” I started then noted the ‘duh’ expression on both Freyja and Morice.

“I’ve become… something. I’m not sure what I’ve become.” I said as I raised my hand and showed them the scaly carapace that I grew on my arm. The two’s eyes widened.

“I’ve gained the title of Void dragon… so I guess I’m some sort of dragonic being of the void now. Heck this isn’t the only form I have now.” I said with frustrated grimace. I had wanted to be sure what changes I’d gone through before actually going through this conversation. Then I noted the look of fear on Morice and Akasha’s faces while Freyja just looked confused.

“If you didn’t know I am the heir to the sovereign of the void. Do you think that was just in name?” I asked and Morice was a bit startled that I asked him so straight forwardly. However before we could continued Bau and Gandas walked in and both gasped at looking at me.

“A dragon elf?” Bau gasped and I was now the one to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

“What’s a dragon elf?” I asked and gestured for everyone to sit down and have some food.

While we ate Bau explained that dragon elves were apparently a very rare variant of elves that had come into existence by the hands of elven mages wishing to create a more magically talented elf. In the end they had managed to create dragon elves through their experiments but the variant had been sterile and thought extinct as the experiments were dropped because they couldn’t figure out how to fix the sterility.

I asked her why she knew so much only to find out she originally came from Nomgolir and elven history is taught in public schools there. She’d spent almost two centuries there before moving to Veta. She remembered the dragon elves because she’d studied it a bit more out of curiosity than most of her school mates.

Conversation ended quite quickly when everyone had gotten some bites of the food and I smiled at seeing them enjoy it. Then came the squeals of joy from the children when the pancakes were given at the end. I couldn’t help but laugh as most of them didn’t know how to eat the pancakes and I showed them. I spread jam over it then adding a bit of whipped cream on top I rolled it up into a cylinder and raised it up to take a bite. The moan of pleasure from Freyja made both me and Morice look at her askance.

“Wha?” She asked us with her mouth half full still holding the pancake in front of her mouth for a new bite.

Both me and Morice ended up just chuckling while shaking our heads. By the end of breakfast we retired to the patio and I enjoyed the sun while I reclined in a lounging chair. I told Morice everything that happened while I was away and by the end of my tale he just sat there staring at me.

“You're making that a habit.” I said with an amused grin.

“Can you blame me? That’s rather hard to believe but I know that its true just from looking at your face.” He said sighing and slumping a bit into his chair. “So what do we do now?” He finally asked me and I thought for a bit.

“You should seek out Vashanesh and find out what he needs for the outposts construction. I recommend wearing clothing you’d want to burn afterwards though the stench is foul down there. I can have one of the new Ushabti come down to the catacombs to lead you to him. There is a lot of work to be done but I feel if we manage it well enough we’ll have a good place to learn our craft in peace.” I said with a slightly sly smile, one soon mirrored by Morice.

“Thankfully I can come back here to bathe before I’d go to get what he requires. I must admit our class does have the perk of free labour added to it.” Morice said and I couldn’t help but laugh with him. He soon left and I relaxed in the sun with a nice cup of tea.

A flapping of wings announced the arrival of both Ashes and Dust. I opened my eye to look at them and noted that Ashes carried a letter in her beak. “What’s this?” I asked as I took the letter and began to open it.

“Apparently the emperor thinks he can just summon you like some dog.” Dust grumbled and I gave him an amused look as I opened the letter. It was very formally worded but boiled down to an invitation to attend court. Apparently there was an issue raised this morning that required my attention as it pertained to the cavern. I smiled as I had a quick mental conversation with Vashanesh and he reported he could manage to disguise the cavern as if it had collapsed with a bit of time.

“Don’t worry, I’m rather certain this is related to me so I should make an appearance. Besides it should turn out to be interesting.” I said chuckling low as I smiled a toothy grin.

“I think I know now why he asked us to find those spiders.” Ashes said as she looked over at Dust who appeared to have an epiphany and looked from her to me.

“So those names you asked us to get you?” He asked and I nodded still smiling ear to ear.

“Blackmail is such an ugly word don’t you think?” I said as my wide grin turned to a predatory one. “Humans in such high positions never realize that a simple slip up can bring them down in the end. They must think they can use what happened in the cavern as a front to some attack and thereby somehow direct attention away from what they were doing there. Most likely through a proxy to keep themselves hidden from scrutiny.” I further elaborated what I was thinking those nobles would do. I’d be rather surprised if they actually brought this to the emperors attention themselves.

It would show a level of backbone or confidence in their position I had a hard time believing they would have. After all they had ran at the first chance they noticed they were in danger, some had left a guard or two behind even to be slaughtered with the rest in the arena.

I had wanted to hunt them down when I saw them flee without their own men in tow only thinking of themselves but I’d let them go for this. It wasn’t like my opinion of humanity in general could get any lower. No I concerned myself with those rare gems, the actually decent people. They were so rare these day’s and even rarer were the ones in a seat of power with the wit and cunning to keep the position while still staying decent like what I suspected the emperor was.

I’d seen it when I helped the royal couple with her unborn child, there had been such genuine relief and affection between the two. However that also made it clear to me that I couldn’t start any trouble that might end with him having to choose between me and his empire. I’d lose in that choice every time no matter what I did for him because he was a decent man he would put his people before much besides his own family.

I sighed and looked at my new character sheet and stared hard at the voidmancer class. I hadn’t chosen to upgrade shadowmancer into it as the last skill I got from shadowmancer was the shadow gate skill. As far as I had figured out shadow gate was a much better teleport to use to travel and the like. It was directly tied to how far I could fully extend my mana senses to find shadows, something the skill extended the range of to only shadows.

Combat wise I would rely on wraith step, it worked usually by line of sight but I had managed to tie it to my close range mana senses which would allow me to step back without looking. I could also halfway control the positioning of my body when I came out the other end of the step but the shadow gate was like walking through a door.

My current ranges were around 500 meters for the gate while the step was around 20 meters now as well. The other reason for my hesitance on picking voidmancer was also my rather rapid growth in power over such a short period of time.

I could now most likely tear through another physically focused warrior up to around level 100 while being effectively at around level 50 myself. I could use magic for utility and even that number up to maybe 110 but I knew that I couldn’t be the only hidden monster around.

Through conversations with the council the reincarnation theme for those brought here from earth wasn’t the only such phenomenon on Astarune. There are also the reborn of which I now somehow qualify to be. These reborn are heroes or villains of great power from many of the legends and stories that the people hold. Their combat prowess is more often than not leagues above what their level should say as they have much more experience than most to begin with and can therefore fine tune themselves and get rid of bad habits earlier.

While there are maybe around 200 people from earth running around at a given time, either summoned, reincarnated or brought over by accident the reborn are a lot fewer. The most running around at a given time had been 10 and that had been during a time of great upheaval such as the necromantic wars that ravaged the continent around the time Voidstrider had been murdered by Aona.

Now I might be the only one but I felt fate wouldn’t be that kind. She was the worst of bitches and everyone alive knew it. We just never really looked up at the sky and vented our frustrations to fate, not that she’d listen in the first place.

Then again should I really be denying myself more power? If I judged by my titles alone I was inexorably tied to the void itself. If I was a physical powerhouse then I needed my magic to be able to do three things when it came to combat. Utility, anti-magic as well as countermeasures to unexpected situations. I’d really need to learn all I could about magic and the different spells available to me. I knew the ritual magics aimed at raising or even empowering the undead I wasn’t fully able to get working just yet due my mana as well. I needed to sort of cultivate mana into my own body and using it till exhaustion to work it like a muscle. That way it gets stronger, denser and purer for my use.

Anyone with the mana at my disposal would normally be able to cast up to ninth class magic once but with my method I could just about manage fourth class magic. It was the main weakness of my method of casting that I’d really come across, if I wanted to be of use in a war as both commander and combatant I needed magic reserves the likes of which the continent hadn’t seen for a long time.

I closed my eyes and sank into myself, feeling my physical and spiritual body around me. I felt the small pinpricks I’d come to realize were the tiny specks acting as seeds for cores in a cultivation sense then came the even tinier ones scattered around my body that were the meridians.

When I first became aware of these cores inside me there was one where my heart was, that is now gone and replaced by what I now think of as my divine core. The imprint of divinity that has taken the shape of a black hole like I’d seen pictures of. A black pit with a ring of orange around it.

I was a bit annoyed as it was a bit too edge lord for me, I had a hole instead of my heart. I scoffed at the idea but I also got the sense it was sort of symbolic in a way. Not that I had a hole for a heart but that the heart is often used to represent a link to the persons soul in away so this might simply be the world showing me that I was on the path of a void deity with the strongest representation of a void I could think of.

I’d tried to send a thread of mana towards it but it had just sucked it up with no noticeable changes. Instead I looked up and raised a finger. Ashes and Dust realizing my mind had drifted away from our conversation and were busy grooming one another now. Around my finger I began to gather the mana and spiritual refuse in the air.

I could see it try to combine but something was missing that prevented them from doing so. I decided to try a few variety's of ways to try and mix them. I grew frustrated the more it failed time and time again. After half an hour and about fifty different methods I tried to mix the two later I was sighing while twirling my finger in circles while spiralling the energies around it.

Just as I was about to quit I got a jolt of energy that ran through my body. If mana was like caffeine this one was like getting adrenaline injected into your vein. Was this chi? Had I been wrong all along? I continued to spiral the two energies together compressing more and more the lower I went on the small tornado of energy now coming out of my finger.

I was rather surprised as I’d tried to compress the two energies together with force but to think they needed to be mixed like this and compressed. I smiled as I continued and felt the energy spread through my body.

I looked inside and found the energy slowing down just a bit as it passed by where I had cores. One in my brain, one at the base of my neck in the spine, my divine core in my chest, another just bellow my spleen, one just between my groin and navel, then two in my thighs and another two in my biceps. All of this added up to nine cores that I could choose to start with but I didn’t know what to do.

I hadn’t gotten enough time to read through the cultivation manuals O’Malley had provided me nor what the two cultivators had with them.

Instead I gathered just a bit more to allow it to permeate my spiritual body before I stopped. I then decided to bite the bullet and spent what I needed to upgrade to the voidmancer class and the rest to increase the numbers of skeletons I could field along with others that had been stuck for too long. I went wide eyed when I got the notification of the two new skills that netted me.

Skill gained! Basic lesser voidling summoning lvl. 1

This skill allows the user to detect and open the fault lines in the fabric of reality and pull out the lowest of those born of the void. Be warned if anything other than a lesser voidling is pulled out the summoner will not hold any authority or command over it.

Skill gained! Basic Mark of the void (Passive / enabled.) lvl. 1

This skill will mark the user as one of the voidborn to other voidborn. It also allows them to project the unnatural aura of those born of the void at will.

My awareness grew and I saw these small distortions in the air, like stretch marks in the fabric of reality. It was strange to actually realize what the hell the skill was telling me as the thinking behind it was so alien I had a hard time digesting it.

I reached out and touched one of these marks in the fabric of the world and felt resistance when instinct helped with the skill. I was amazed, it was like I’d just touched a mirror clear pond that acted both like actual fabric and water at the same time. With the small following ripples that came as I gently ran my finger along it before touch was broken and I couldn’t touch it once more.

Both Ashes and Dust were now staring at me with open beaks. I stared back at them then down at the finger that had touched upon reality itself and rubbed it with my thumb. “This isn’t normal. What the hell is going on?” I muttered to myself as I thought on what just happened and what exactly I was now. I certainly wasn’t an elf and I was far from human now.

I felt a little shiver run down my spine and for the first time since coming to Veta I actually felt in over my head and it scared me.