“I hope she’s going to be okay,” Davis said as he carefully placed Tora on the only piece of furniture left inside this large meeting room.

“She will be fine. She passed out before her mind could register anything,” Veles replied. “In fact, she had it easier than you did.”

Silence descended. There was nothing further said from Davis’s side, and Veles perfectly well understood why.

Getting entangled in his killing intent could leave a person in several different states. And in Davis’s case, he got lucky, he only experienced a mild illusion that would probably make him shaken by Veles’s presence. Nothing some time couldn’t cure…

The bigger problem was the fact that there was barely anything that could force Veles to release his killing intent. During his long life, he’d faced so many challenges that the whole concept of bloodlust when intending to end someone’s life had lost its meaning. He wasn’t ‘concealing’ it or anything, he just killed so much pest that the intent behind taking someone’s life had long become just another meaningless chore.

In some way. The age and different experiences were capable of doing that to the person…

So, he genuinely was surprised when he felt the need to end whoever was trying to mess with him behind the scenes…

Why was he affected so strongly? Veles truly had no clue. The part of it could be because he disliked the idea of someone using him as a pawn, or perhaps, it just reminded him of the time he learned that all his childhood was a perfectly crafted lie brewed by his mother… Or it could be anything else, he didn’t know, nor did he care much. The only important thing was to take matters into his own hands and start taking things seriously.

He’d known ever since Olivia released him that someone or something was having its hand in it. He even told her that he never believed in coincidences, which he firmly endorsed. Many times in his long life people or some ‘higher beings’ were trying to play him for their own gain. However, never once did he allow it.

Which was why he would disregard all restrictions he put on himself… Said restrictions were supposed to allow him a new and refreshing start, without all the nonsense he had to deal with when his curse was the main part of his life. He’d planned to take it easy and not attract the attention of certain ‘things’. Unfortunately, it would seem like he had to throw all his plans out of the window.

So, he took action immediately. All furniture was stored inside his storage, literally everything, from tables and carpets, all the way to chandeliers. And once everything was cleared, he took a large ceramic basin filled with black ink from his storage ring and started drawing with a couple of brushes he supported using telekinesis—he currently had no patience for precise work.

Since his hands weren’t busy and his concentration wasn’t entirely focused on controlling brushes, he had leisure to check on Tora. She lay there on the couch, as he took a small cloth and wiped traces of blood smeared on her cheeks.

“I can imagine how annoying she will be when everything settles down,” Veles commented after he’d cleaned her up and briefly touched her forehead.

“…” Davis, ever observant, looked like he wanted to ask something, but was debating with himself if he should.

“Come on, spit it out,”

“You look angry,” Davis commented, “Totally different than what happened to that librarian. I honestly never thought I would see you like this.”

Veles sighed, “It just piled up. Ever since Olivia released me, I felt like I was not in control. Every plan I made, every step I took, everything always leads to some kind of unavoidable conflict I never planned for.” He then shrugged, “Sure I enticed some of them, but it seems that everything I do always blows out of proportion.”

“Like the world wants to kill us, huh?” Davis said.

Veles side-eyed him. This guy… He had a smart head on his shoulders. Unfortunately, this time, he was wrong.

“No, it’s worse. It’s like the world wants to use us for someone’s else benefit.”

Instead of saying anything, Davis stared at his face, waiting for an explanation.

“Look, I’ve been the victim of something similar many times. So, I will explain it as short as possible.” Veles then started, “You probably heard how those fate-wielding classes can see possible futures and sometimes influence how certain events are going to play out. In our case, we are likely entangled in someone’s else scheme to boost a certain person to power. Specifically, someone is making us a stepping stone for a specific person. I’ve seen this scenario many times, and trust me it’s much worse than someone trying to kill us. Tough, I’m sure, whoever wanted to achieve this had paid a steep price.”

“They sure did,” Zunna’s teacher, or Frea as Davis had once mentioned when Veles was getting rid of the furniture inside this room, commented. She walked inside with the shy catkin girl Zunna closely following behind. “I’ve been attacked by fate wielders twice in my life. Both times their methods were sinister and unpredictable, capable of causing harm not just to me but also to people around me. But like you said, they paid a dire price for their attempts.”

Not surprised by her appearance, Veles asked, “Let me guess, you were part of a massive accident and it happened while you were young?”

“Yes. At the age of eleven, I was swept in an avalanche in the region known for never having one,” she answered. “I survived for two days under snow until my tribesmen found me. After that, shamans from my mother’s side noticed traces of foreigner mana targeting me, which led to the Seer of a certain noble family that doesn’t exist anymore.”

“That’s… They can do that?” Davis asked, “Doesn’t that mean there is someone out there capable of killing without even seeing my face once?”

Before Veles could reply, Frea beat him to it, “Yes, sure. But getting paranoid over something like that is pointless. It’s no different than getting stabbed in the middle of a crowded street by a stranger. It's unpredictable but it’s like every other barrier in life that you must overcome. It isn’t worth focusing on.”

She nailed it perfectly.

“More importantly,” Frea continued, “There are much more dangerous things out there,” she briefly glared at Veles, “Like Sorcerers with unique abilities that can curse people in most vile manners and Psychics capable of brutally twisting minds of others…”

There was a brief moment of silence before Veles coughed and ignored her last remark aimed at him, “Anyway, what I’m doing right now is going to fix this problem. Wake up Tora, it would be for the best if she participated too.”

Davis only nodded, then fiddled with his own storage ring before taking a small vial with the intention of giving it to Tora.

“What are you planning to do?” Frea asked. She’d already scanned the insane number of sharp-edged runes covering the whole floor while brushes kept working tenaciously to finish the walls too.

“I assume you know the basics of how Lines of Fate work?” Veles answered with another question.

“I do,” Frea placed her hand on the shoulders of quiet and confused Zunna, “Just to let you know, we are going to participate in whatever you are doing here.”

That… Something was wrong. Veles was sure of it. Did she really want to join them? He quickly glanced around the room and saw the result of his messy work… The whole place basically screamed ‘sacrifice ritual’, and she wanted to join this?

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“Sure,” Veles replied with a smile. Not really sure what else to say, his eyes matched Zunna’s, “Long time no see. I hope my gift found you well.”

Zunna gave her all to avoid eye contact while bowing gently, “It helped a lot, Sir Veles. I managed to become Sage with extraordinary grimoire, and it was all thanks to you.”

“No need to thank me for anything. I had an ulterior motive when giving those items to you and I think your teacher has already explained what’s going on here.”

“Mhm, yes I do know a gist of it.” Zunna cutely bobbed her head, “Nonetheless, thank you very much. You have no idea what it means to form a grimoire with those materials… No matter your intentions I will be forever thankful to you.”

“Yeah, let’s keep it at that,” Veles said with his hand signaling her to stop. “The more you say the more dangerous a particular gaze grows…”

If a stare could kill, Frea would’ve killed him a thousand times over during his exchange with Zunna. So, he wisely stopped her from spewing more thanks.

“Back to the issue at hand,” Frea said, “What are you planning on doing here?”

“Since you know how lines of fate work, I will keep it simple. This ritual here is capable of cutting the said lines and then immediately reattaching them. Thus, giving those pesky fate wielders a very nice surprise.”

Frea nudged her glasses and stared into the air before asking, “Are you suggesting suicide?” Yet despite the bizarre question, she showed no surprise at all because, yes, her guess was almost on point.

“No, but close, what this ritual is supposed to accomplish is something called Karmic Death. In the eyes of Diviners, we will appear as newborns without any significant past and unpredictable future, and let’s say if they tried to dig into what’s wrong, something interesting will happen…”

“Is there a backlash from participating in this?” Frea inquired.

“No, at least not for you. There will be a couple of things I must do, but that’s all.”

“Hmm,” Frea nodded, “I wonder if this is better than my precautions against the fate wavers.”

“Ma-Teacher, you can use such spells?” Zunna asked in surprise. Her question and overall behavior suggested that this student-teacher relationship wasn’t as deep as Veles taught.

“I had to learn them. You know how many people covet my knowledge,” Frea simply stated. She was still battle-ready, same as the first time Veles had seen her. And well, she wouldn’t stop glaring at him, “I’m willing to entertain whatever you are doing here just to confirm one suspicion that was bugging me. If by any chance I sense something malicious in play, your life is over.”

“Okay. It wouldn’t change the result much anyway. As long as one person participates it's enough. More people will make the effect wider, nothing more than that.”

“Hmm, interesting… I would like to hear more details but you seem to be in a rush.” Frea then pointed at Tora who was already awake, silently listening to their conversation.

“Uhm, yeah,” Veles replied. Then his focus switched to Tora and Davis, “Let’s start right away. After we get over it, we can sit down and talk about… well everything.”

“Sure,” Davis agreed as he stood up. While Tora gave a simple nod, she appeared deep in taught, but willing to get this over with.

“Great!” Veles clapped, “This is a simple and fast ritual. However, there is a strict set of rules you must follow! See the circles in each corner of the room? That’s where are you going to stand.”

He pointed at every corner of the room, there amidst the numerous runic drawings covering both floor and walls stood circles that screamed ‘stand in me’. “You will stand there while facing the corner. You must face the corner, and no matter what, you must never look behind you!”

Everyone looked at him in doubt, but he wasn’t going to entertain anything else, “As I said, you cannot under any condition look behind you. You will feel a certain presence and the most important thing will be to ignore it. Do not, by any circumstance move your gaze from the corner of the room, am I clear?”

“We should listen to him,” Frea added, “If the result of ritual is as he explained, we all are going to experience a great boon after it.”

It was funny how everyone would rather listen to Frea than him since they immediately threw all doubt away. It somehow left a bitter taste as he watched everyone find a way to their own corner.

Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t very trustworthy, was he? Should probably work on that…

Nonetheless, he too prepared himself. His designated place was in the middle of the room and since all those drawn runes weren’t some overly complex mechanisms, he poured a bit of his mana into connected runic combinations coloring the floor beneath his feet, which triggered the ritual immediately.

There was no sound or some mythical change in the atmosphere. The only glaring change that occurred was the absence of color. The whole room had lost its luster, becoming just a combination of gray, black, and white, even if one looked through the window, it would be the same.

The following change triggered the runes drawn everywhere, they burst into black smoke and then collided with the bodies of everyone, forming a semi-transparent bubble around them.

Veles then saw how thin lines started forming on top of said bubble. They slowly came into existence, and as the second passed, a group of four said lines connected him with the rest inside the room, while numerous thin others extended beyond, seemingly reaching far away into nothingness.

The lines connected to these four should represent how deep their relationship was, or more accurately, they were simply called; Karmic Lines. Veles was certain everyone here saw them too, but were unable to check since he’d explicitly told them not to look away from the corner. However, what surprised him was the thickness of said lines…

The rule was, how much two know each other, the thicker the line. In this case, he’d expected to share the thickest one with Davis, since he’d known the guy for quite some time and they shared a number of experiences before reaching here. Yet, he was wrong, very wrong in fact… The three times thicker line he shared was one with Frea…

How? Veles could only come up with one assumption… She knew more about him than he and Davis knew about each other combined. It was both creepy and intriguing considering he’d met her for the first time barely an hour ago…

“Hey, hey!” Tora suddenly yelled, “Something is breathing down my neck!”

“Ignore it!” Veles yelled back. He had an idea about what was disturbing her. He couldn’t see the same lines as they did and couldn’t spot the ‘things’ behind everyone’s back. He knew what they were, not their shape or purpose, and he wasn’t going to provide an explanation right now.

“I assume everyone can see this single thick line going from your chest?” He asked and once everyone had confirmed it, he continued. “Just imagine severing it, circle a bit of mana through your body and it should be done.”

“Done,” Davis was first to reply, and from his voice, Veles could hear clear traces of panic.

Luckily, everyone finished in a matter of seconds. He also, had his own severed thus the whole ritual was completed…

This specific line was entirely different than the Karmic Lines. Like he’d told Frea, they would sever their Line of Fate and this one was exactly it. If Karmic Lines represented the connection between two people, the Line of Fate represented the connection with life, or as some people like to say, a connection between past and future self. It was a rather complex topic Veles knew a lot about, and unfortunately, he was never thrilled to share such knowledge.

Since everything was done, he released a gust of mana through his clap that erased all extra runes, thus canceling the ritual for good.

“That went well…” Veles commented as he observed everyone having a different reaction.

“Went well?” Davis protested. “Something thin kept groping my legs and my back! If things didn’t end fast, who knows how far it would reach.”

“It appears you had it worse, the only thing I felt was something breathing down my neck…” Tora chimed in with the comment.

Amused by their banter, Veles looked at Zunna who listened to their exchange.

Noticing his questioning gaze, Zunna just tilted her head in confusion, “I felt nothing…”

“Oh, that’s rare,” commented Veles.

“Is it supposed to signify something?” Zunna asked, despite her shyness, she appeared to have never had a problem asking about something she was curious about.

“It does.” Instead of Veles replying, Frea’s voice reached everyone…

She was rubbing her neck. The stoic expression on her face wasn’t able to hide her anxiousness, “This noose around my neck, I’ve felt it once before…”

Her hazel eyes matched Veles’s, “A concept capable of severing Lines of Fate with such ease, I never thought I would experience it again. But I guess this just confirms the stories about you.”

Stories about him? Well, that couldn’t be good…

“You see, I became Sage because I was always fascinated with wonders of magic,” she continued, her steps slowly taking her closer to Veles, “I always had a gift for the enchanting physical strength of myself and others. Many believed I would become an Enchanter or perhaps a Warrior capable of casting extraordinary buffs. But no, my strive to read all those mythical stories forced me on a path of Sage.”

She was already in front of him, facing him unflinchingly as her golden grimoire danced to her left. “I explored the unknown, collected stories and books, dove into dangerous dungeons and explored their vast knowledge of ancient civilizations. But then…”

Her grimoire stood open, and from it, she took an old withered brown book. “I found this story. It described the life of a mage, or rather, it described his life under the tutelage of a certain person…”

She showed him the barely visible name of the book and it read: ‘Disciple of Sapphirine Ash’. It was the title Veles was familiar with…

She took another book and then continued, “But imagine, in the entirely different dungeon, I found a story that has the very same character as in the previous one. It made me very intrigued because the same person appeared in totally different eras and perhaps different worlds than the previous story…”

Well, shit. She got him intrigued too, albeit for an entirely different reason.

“Then there were two more texts describing the same person,” she added before tossing these two books back into her grimoire.

“I must say. It’s a pleasure meeting an actual Immortal,” she extended her hand for a handshake, “Despite our unnatural meeting, I hope you would share your extraordinary stories with me, Sir Veles.”

In a very strange way, Veles wished he could just run away. However, maybe, just maybe. Things weren’t as bad as his brain urged him to think.

“Yeah, sure…” He replied then accepted her handshake. Hopefully, his instincts about this were wrong…