Despite the fact she said that, I could feel the pain and shame from her.

I really felt bad for recalling those memories, so I quickly wanted to turn my attention back to the main topic.

It was my fault after all.

There’s no time for reminiscing, though.

Okay. So if she was indeed herself, why was my spell pointing towards her? Did I really fuck up?

While I’d really like for it to be the case, the real reason was most likely something completely different.

Something that we’ve been slowly dealing with the whole time.

Merging.

Absorbing one person into another.

Of course that she’d be also under the effect of that thing.

The main question was, who was going to win in the end?

-Let’s not think about that - I said, shaking off. - I think it’s time for us to leave.

-Leave? Leave to where? - asked For.

-Anywhere - I said, shrugging. - Who cares? We can stay in this place, but what for?

-And by that logic, why should we leave? Isn’t this the best place for us to meet him? Won’t he come back to his own palace?

-Probably - I agreed. - But there’s now one problem. We’ve just taken his wife. Not the first time I’ve done that. You think he’s going to be happy about that?

-That’s one more reason for us to stay! To explain what’s going on.

-And besides, that’s just his story, right? - said Kon. - It’s not like you took any of them by force, right?

I sighed.

-One less doesn’t make it any better, you know.

Both of them looked at me confused, but Il had a different opinion.

“I’d like to leave.”

The words…

I can’t say I didn’t want to see them right now, but that didn’t mean that it made me feel good.

Quite the opposite.

-Are you sure? Don’t you want to meet your husband? - asked For. - I am sure we can talk things out.

She shook her head.

“No. Meeting him like that will only make things worse.”

-We cannot stop you… - mumbled For. - But I’d rather stay here… Maybe I’ll finally get to understand something…

-You can do whatever you want - I said after taking a deep breath. - I am going whenever she is. I am not letting Axelrod… I mean, Mike, to get to her before she’s able to properly use that body.

-You think he’s going to attack his own wife!?

-Yes. I agree, my company is not going to help with that regard, but…

-But what? You want to teach her magic or something? - asked For. - Weren’t both of you supposed to be powerful mages from the old times? I feel like she’s far from being defenseless.

-I…

She was right.

I was just trying to make up some kind of argument to continue my travels with her.

And she knew that.

I felt her hand on my shoulder.

“I can stay too. I am sure we can work this out.”

I forced myself to smile.

-I hope so…

With this consensus, we decided to stay. At least for now.

It’s not like we had any better ideas.

First things first though.

After scouting the palace, we decided to leave it. At least for now. If Axelrod was to appear somewhere, it would definitely be there. Be it the throne room or the hidden chamber where the statue was, I’d definitely be better to not be right in his line of sight as soon as he appears.

We would feel his appearance anyway.

So we decided to temporarily make one of the houses close to the palace as the “main base”.

We choose one of the larger ones.

I am not sure who it belonged to, but probably someone wealthy, because it almost looked like a small mansion.

Definitely not from the outside, though.

Honestly, if we weren’t checking all the houses, we’d pass this one for sure.

Outside, it looked just like any other small tree-house that there was abundance of in the area. Inside though, it was larger than any of them.

Definitely belonged to some noble. The main floor consisted of multiple carved, or rather grown, staircases, that were all but one leading down.

Every staircase ended with a closed room the size of the whole house, the biggest one, of course, was on the top floor.

That was the room we seated Il in, while the rest of us took the rooms underground.

Even with the four of us, we were still left with another three rooms remaining, and that was not including the kitchen and a bathroom.

Yes, the house also had those.

I mean, it is a necessity, true, but those were definitely larger and more stocked than in any house I’ve been so far.

The bathroom was more like a pool.

It was the only place I’ve seen that actually contained stone in its structure. Honestly, it looked pretty normal, considering all the tree-houses and furniture made out of living wood.

The small problem was, there was absolutely no sign of water inside.

I mean, obviously. There weren’t any crystals in the vicinity, but whoever was the owner probably just used water magic.

Same witch kitchen.

That one was smaller, it was barely even a room, to be honest. It consisted of one singular hollow slab of stone with an opening on top: a very rudimentary stove.

Plus, the opposite wall was full of shelves. Each filled with herbs. Some of them I knew, some were recognized by For. All of them were pretty normal, all things considering.

I was thinking about maybe cooking something for once, but I scrapped that idea pretty quick: we had different things to worry about.

We planned on staying there for a while. None of us were really sure what we were doing, but in any case we wanted to properly look through the whole place.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

And the first step was the castle-palace-tree.

Sure, we already scouted the city before, but that was barely scratching the surface. Now, since we had time and apparently freedom to do so, we could be a bit more thorough.

At least I wanted it to be the case.

First signs of trouble appeared about two days after.

After a rest, because even though our bodies didn’t need it, after the trek through the desert we decided to let our minds rest.

I am not sure whose idea it was, but it definitely would serve them well to rest a bit, after being a captive for so long.

That included Il.

She was somewhat getting used to her form, bit by bit.

After the first day, she started trying to learn to communicate with us. And I don’t mean just using illusion magic to fashion some letters in the air, I mean actual words.

We briefly were thinking about Kon trying to manipulate her body, but after remembering the issue with my hand, I thought it would be better for her to naturally form her own flesh and instead try something else.

To attempt and talk within her mind.

I mean, it shouldn’t be too hard for her. He already was able to receive it, so it meant that he was at least somewhat compatible.

And of course, I couldn’t forget who she was. “Talented” was an understatement.

It took her less than a day to manage and send a few words towards my own head.

-Hello, Mor.

She definitely did startle me, I didn’t expect her to grasp it so quickly.

The only problem was, she was unable to communicate without a touch.

Good thing that she was also immune to my ability to drain mana, because that would definitely be problematic in the long run.

Speaking of “problematic”.

I managed to find some new clothes for myself. A set of gloves, pants and shoes. All looked like they were made out of some animal leathers, making me look like some wild creature, but at least that way I didn’t have to worry about accidentally draining the surface I was walking on. I didn’t take any shirt with me on purpose, though. I still wanted to regenerate more mana, and having more surface to absorb stuff passively was helpful. It was especially nice when I was in the sun.

The second day I spent mostly in the room next to Il. She was trying to train herself to be able to talk to us from further away, without actual touch. I was just sitting in her room and looking as her smooth face was contorting in the weirdest way possible.

Honestly, I am not sure if she wanted to suddenly grow lips or just was trying to project her thoughts so hard…

Meanwhile, For and Kon were scouring through the castle.

For knew quite a bit about it.

Apparently Axelrod had been inviting her, among some other “nobility”, to some parties or whatever. While she didn’t like them, she attended some of them.

According to her, somewhere in the castle there was something akin to a portal room. While she wasn’t one using it, she heard about people who were permitted to. It could be useful to us, especially if it had any remaining anchors.

Of course, only the two of them would be able to recognize them, so that’s why they were now blindly walking through the chambers, looking for something that we weren’t sure even existed.

And that’s when they also noticed something.

-Mor. We have a problem.

The message was pretty sudden. But, despite the contents, her emotions weren’t really high, she was just a bit tense.

-Enemies?

I quickly extended my senses and tried scouting through the place with my own mind… but found nothing.

-I am not detecting anybody.

-No… I am not sure what it is.

-Explain then.

-The tree… I mean the palace… It looks like it’s burning?

-Burning? What do you mean?! There’s a fire?

I didn’t feel any mana disturbance… If it was a fire, it was not one magical in nature. An accident?

-No… It’s like someone had already burned it. It’s just dark and shriveled… it’s almost charred…

That sounded concerning. I wasn’t sure what to think of it…

-Do you want me to check it out? - I asked.

-Not yet. Let us see that ourselves first.

-Hm. Well, if you are confident…

-I am.

It didn’t even take more than five minutes for her to contact me again.

-I have bad news.

Of course. Why was it always bad news?

-Well, out with it then.

-First, I do know that it’s not a fire.

-How’s that bad news then?

-Let me finish.

-...

-As I was saying, the blackness is not really a burn mark, it’s more like wood drying out.

-Drying out? How’s that work?

-I don’t know - joined in Kon. - I was the one who went a bit further to see, but it looks like the tree isn’t getting enough water or something…

-Enough water? Isn’t there a river flowing right through this whole place?

-Well, yeah - agreed For. - That’s the weird thing. I know it’s still there because we’ve seen it just now.

-Just now? It flows through the palace?

-Yep. We found a path that leads to an underground river. I am pretty sure that’s the same one that flows through the city.

-So the tree should have plenty of water. And yet you’re saying that it’s drying out?

-Uh-uh. It’s even weirder, because it seems to start from the middle. I mean, I only walked up to the place where you collapsed the stairs, but…

-Hold on. I did what?

-Ah, right - realized For. - The place where we found this anomaly was near to the corridor where we found Il.

-Yeah. And it looks like it’s spreading from down there.

-I don’t want to alarm you, but do you think that might just be your fault…? - asked For.

-I…

She had a point.

I definitely did have an accident there, but I found it hard to believe that it’d be so widespread…

-You said that it goes from there? Where does it end then?

-For now it’s about to reach the corridor outside. That’s where we found it…

She went silent for a second.

-Scratch that, it’s already taken a bite out of a piece of the corridor.

-It’s spreading?!

-Seems so. Doesn’t seem that fast, though…

-”Not that fast”? You're kidding me…

-Okay, okay…

-And the epicenter is the broken staircase? Are you sure…?

-Well, I don’t know… - replied Kon. - Want us to check it a bit more?

-If you could. Just be careful.

-Understood.

That was concerning.

Il was also a bit concerned about this sequence of events, after all it was pretty close to where she was found.

And probably she was on to something.

I started thinking back on my fall.

It was technically possible for me to drain it, but if that really was my fault, what was going on with mana?

I focused on my own body and tried to feel every single connection I had.

I felt Kon and For.

Yeah, that’s obvious. Same as with Il.

The duo in the castle was more physically connected to me than anything, thanks to the Origin Crystal, so the link we had was stable and easy to detect.

Il on the other hand… was fresh. Probably thanks to the recent attempts of her to try and connect with our thoughts. And the fact that she was in the same room as me.

Also pretty obvious.

Besides those…

It was strange and faint, but I was pretty sure that I knew what… or rather who it belonged to.

Mike.

Despite the fact that I expected it, being able to notice it so easily still made me shiver.

Did that mean that he was nearby? Nah, couldn’t be.

On top of all that, I also had a feeling that I was connected to a lot more things than just those people, but that was also not a surprise for me.

I was the Origin Crystal. There sure were other people that had it in them.

Like Rob, for example.

But, surprisingly even though he was right next to me, I barely was able to feel his presence.

For the entire duration of our stay here I was not letting him out of my sight, just to be safe and could feel his mana directly.

Yet the connection I had with him was barely there. Even less stable and noticeable than the one I had with Mike.

Curious.

In any case, I wasn’t able to feel anything that resembled a connection that would be in the palace, besides the two of my companions.

Meaning, it was not me that was draining the tree out of mana.

So, what’s going on?

-Err, Mor… I think… The problem is bigger than we thought.

It was For.

-For? I thought Kon was the one who went to scout.

-We both went. I am standing on the stairs. He…

-I am deeper, in the chamber where we arrived… or rather where it used to be.

-It used to be?

-There’s nothing here.