"Welcome back." I looked up at the looming shadow.

'Yeah…' I looked around and everything was still in place, but it was strange.

My body looked and felt like normal, 'Want to tell me why you 'helped' me?' It strutted across the stage while I sat on one of the seats.

"Because it was necessary."

'Don't waste my damn time.'

"Alright, alright, I had to make you an enemy of the Twilight Knight." I had already figured it out, the Twilight Knight probably hadn't planned to attack us. From Archibald's and other folks' descriptions, she was a fair and understanding person.

But she was also calculating and didn't like getting her hands dirty, I had deduced that from her response to the news of a break-in.

'The bowmen were only there as a precaution for me, a man who went on a rampage. Not to mention that the Twilight Knight could have cut us down if she pleased when she first met us, instead of luring us into her office.' The shadow nodded along.

'And as you said, I'm guessing he did it because it's a necessary evil.' The shadow stopped nodding along.

'Now, mind telling me who you are?'

"Hahaha, how did you know!?" It let out a disturbing laugh that resounded around the void.

I stood up from the seat, 'You did a somewhat decent job and imitating his tone but you aren't attached to my shadow.' I walked up to the stage and stared up at it, it exaggeratedly hit its head.

'Speak, fraud.' It had no facial features but I could tell it was looking into my eyes.

"You indeed are an interesting existence, seems like this will be worth my time." Cracks started to show on the shadow and beams of light started to shine through.

"Uh oh, seems like my time is running out! It was fun talking to you, dear Sebastian. But I'll be taking my leave now!" I grabbed at its wrist and it was actually touchable.

'Who are you?' It looked back at me and a shiny black mask appeared, a mask similar to the other one's mask.

It was a face contorted into a sad expression, but it was very off-putting much like the other one. It looked like it was forced to put on that sad face.

"A secret admirer, dear." It tried to pull away but I refused to let go.

"Dear me, you sure are persistent!" It teased and soon the parts of the shadow started to fall apart, revealing a blinding light.

'Enough, tell me who you are or-' Before I could finish, it jumped into me and disappeared into my body.

I felt around hoping it didn't do something weird, thankfully, everything felt normal.

"And that was that." I look at the many expressions that surround the campfire.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"That's no good…" my master seemed stressed, "All I can say for now is that it should be fine for now."

She stood up and carried the snake, who tried to resist but to no avail by the back of her robe, "Tomorrow morning, we'll discuss this in full. For now, get some rest." She then grabbed the unconscious Archibald and left.

"Aren't you going to stop her?" Pandres sat beside me and looked as my master went off into the woods.

"No point, she'd keep going and I'd just waste my breath and energy on nothing." I stood up, I strangely felt very refreshed even though I've only slept for an hour or something close to that.

"Get some sleep, Pandres. I'll watch over till morning." She didn't look too good, if I'm being honest.

"You sure?" I nodded and she smiled softly and went into the makeshift tent.

I was now left all alone, at least that's what I would've liked, "Come on out already, creep." I said in a low voice.

My shadow then extended, "Why didn't you call me out when your master was here?" I closed my eyes and steadied my breathing.

"I've learned that keeping my cards close to my chest is almost always the correct choice." I was now conscious of all the mana in me.

"What are you doing?" I ignored him and gathered the mana in my body and channeled it into my right eye.

"The curse, it's not as suffocating as it used to be." My mana storage had increased, I opened my right eye and saw the world differently than before.

"Strange." He looked curious.

I looked at the shadow and understood how the spell worked, I could even trace the mana to the direction of the user.

Then my legs started getting weak and the world started spinning, "My mana reserves are still too small to use it like before…" I sat back down on a log and covered my right eye with my hand.

"Shadow pervert, tell me, who was that fraud?" I expected an answer right away, but I was met with the rhythmic sounds of crickets.

"…it's not the right time…"

"Speak."

"…you shouldn't involve yourself with-"

"Speak or I go west." Nothing more than a bluff.

"H-How?!" This was a gamble, if he was able to read my thoughts then I'd be in a bad situation, but now I had leverage and knew…

"You can read my thoughts, correct?"

"Yes." Should've guessed it.

"I'll be transparent with you, If you followed the mana trail then you would indeed find my physical body."

"You? Transparent? Don't make me laugh."

"What do I have to do you get you to trust me?" Nothing. Nothing you could do or say could make me trust you or maybe…

"Y'know what? Go on, tell me then, why you set us up. Were you the one who sent my master here, if so then how did you know things would end up the way they did? Did you send that snake here to cause trouble? Did you orchestrate this whole thing? Are you the same being as that 'secret admirer'? Why do you refuse to speak?" I didn't expect to get an answer.

I got a strange feeling, "...keep your ears open, I won't repeat this." I uncovered my right eye and looked around and we were inside a barrier, all outside sounds ceased.

"If I didn't, Pandres would have died. I was indeed the one who sent your master here, I was able to predict it from experience, and I will expand on this later. No, that was not me, they sent her here. No. No. Because they could always be listening in."

Pandres would have died? Predicted from experience? I had some questions but this was the first I had to ask "Who is 'they'?"

"'They' are the thing you met, they are the most dangerous and difficult existence." The magic barrier was weakening, it was as if it was getting torn at from the outside.

"What did you mean by experience?"

"We happen to have a some history."

"How do I get rid of them?"

"You can't, once they are attracted to you then it's over, which is why you need to lay low."

"Is Pandres in danger?"

"If she keeps on going on this path then without a doubt, it'll only end with her tragic demise and possibly yours too."

"Wait… they said they were your secret admirer, correct?" I nodded and the barrier started to shake even more violently.

"Really… that makes things more difficult…"

"Then you're the one who needs to leave Pandres."

"Really now? What do you have to say about that, Pandres?" I say and look up at the tree beside us.

"Don't think so, still haven't gotten my money's worth." She looked down at us with a tired smile.

"H-How did she hear… how didn't I notice?!" I pointed to my shadow that stretched below the barrier and up the tree.

"Your little spell isn't all that difficult to understand." The barrier collapsed and now we were out in the open.

"Seeing how nothing is going to change, mind telling us-" The fire got put out and the shadow disappeared and with it the mana trail.

"Coward." I chuckled and closed my right eye which felt as if it was going to explode.

She jumped down gracefully, "he can read your thoughts, how did he not notice?"

I ask for her hand, "I just didn't think about it." She places her hand on mine and I press it against my eye.

The curse's burden had lessened but still, I needed more mana, "mind if I steal some of your mana?"

"Go for it, but you'll have to handle all the hard stuff tomorrow." With her agreement, I started to slowly transfer the mana from her hand to my eye.

My eye is a bit special, by gathering mana into it, I can see the world as it is, and I can understand things with a single glance. You may think it's a blessing but it's more of a cursed eye than a blessed one, due to how it sucks the mana out of me. If I mismanaged my use of it, I could lose my eye.

"That should be enough, I only took enough mana to keep it from rotting from overexertion." She looked into my left eye.

"Does the other one have any cool powers?" She was up close and even in the darkness of the night I could see her dark eye bags.

"Fortunately, it's only the right one." I backed away and looked at the moon which was nearing the end of its shift "You're still tired, go get sleep while you still can. We have a very busy day ahead of us." She looked up and then at me for a moment and then went back.

I looked up again expecting to see the same calming sight as always but instead, I saw a different view, an almost starless night sky. It looked like an abyss with only a single star looking down at the world.

'So she also felt it…'

As I stared at it, the feeling of being watched got stronger. It was strange, I felt as if I had met eyes with a star.