That exchange went pretty smoothly, I must admit. I never expected that I'd ever return to my old job but guess the universe had different plans.

The room I was given was on the floor below his office. It wasn’t anything special, just a regular bedroom with some plain furniture and empty shelves, but that was good enough for me. Only thing I requested was a bit of paper again, and, just to be on the safe side, a couple of mana fruit. He gave it to me in the span of minutes - I guess Kon being frozen in the basement was a good motivator.

This time I did not intend to try and experiment with spells and incantations. Despite what I told them, I was slightly worried about Kon and the whole prospect of him being separated from his own body. I only had myself to compare, really, but I couldn’t just help and noticed that the longer it was from the time of the “merge”, the less I felt the memories appear. Lately, even in the midst of discussions, I expected that at least something would’ve triggered a flashback, or something, but nothing happened. That’s why I was not optimistic about this idea and tried to think of something that could’ve helped me - hence the request for the names.

But let’s be real, I just made most of that up. I just wanted to give him something to do while I could focus in peace. While it was true that one of those names could’ve brought up some buried memory of the entity, I was doubting that.

But, be it the situation with Kon or not, I still wanted to somehow try and learn more about the presence. I still firmly believed that it was still there. Especially after I learned that both Kon and Jack felt something that was not me inside me.

With that in mind, I started the first session of my meditations, which I expected would soon start occupying my whole days and nights.

At first I thought that, even though the entity was pretty silent lately, I’d be able to get something pretty easily. I was not exactly mistaken.

During the first hour I managed to again recall my memories of the MIRE and explosion of that crystal, and once more I’ve started seeing the multiple-perspective version of events.

That was a good start. Even though that also came with an annoying side effect that I thought I already got rid of: headaches.

Although this time they were not immediate. I could watch, or rather remember, a full memory before even the slightest hints of pain started appearing, but that was only true for the first attempt. If I tried to recall even more information, the pain would intensify. In the beginning I thought that it was not a big deal, judging by the minor migraine that I started having after the first one, I assumed that I’d be able to watch tens of memories, if you can even quantify those this way.

But I was wrong.

First day I already gave up after the third attempt. After seeing both explosions, the second one twice, I felt like my head was about to split in two and decided to take a break.

For the reference, the names of my old colleagues were enough to trigger those again.

After my headache was gone it was already night and Jack visited me, asking if I had any luck. I did not tell him exactly what I saw, but just assured that my method is indeed working, although with side effects. He recommended that the next time I get a headache like that, I either should try and expel some mana or try recovering it. From his experience headaches like this were the indication of someone’s mana flow being disrupted,

It was not the worst advice in the world, so I said I would.

During the night, I attempted again to see more of the memoriesl. This time what I remembered was me… or rather the presence, traveling on the road from the capital to Kalkano… or the other way around. To be honest, it was probably both, because the memory was a bit jumbled for some reason. It had multiple perspectives, including the most recent one, mine. I did not learn much, besides that I indeed chose a bit of a roundabout way to get to that port town, but nothing that would be helpful right now.

After that, the headache came right back. It was not as head-splitting as after the last one, but also not as mild as the first I had here, so I decided that I should stop for the night and instead tried Jack's method, so I unwrapped my hand.

That was a massive mistake.

I barely even managed to touch the fruit when I realized that.

First of all, the headache did not let out even a little bit, instead it got worse. To the point that I was seeing only white. For a second I felt like the time when I used the flight spell and when it started using my own body as a fuel for the magic, so I quickly patted myself, trying to check if that was happening again, but nope. I could not find anything wrong with my body from outside, so I laid down on the bed, waiting for the pain to pass.

That took a long while. I wanted to just sleep it through, but besides the fact that I was not able to sleep because of the crystal body, the pain would definitely prevent that to begin with.

It only started fading only after the sunrise. I could tell, because when I finally was able to see again, the sun was shining through the green membrane of my window, brightening the room.

I reached towards the desk, to go and turn off the small crystal that during the night I used as a lamp - the light crystals were pretty abundant in this mansion - but I realized that it was already turned off and it was not it that was brightening the room.

I mean, I probably should’ve just realized that earlier, but it was me who was giving off the light.

I was not going to stay like this for the, well, however long it was going to take, so I promptly made my way downstairs and outside. I went as far as it was possible from the wooden walls of the mansion and tried to clear out my mind.

That did not exactly work. I still felt the echoes of the pain bounce around my skull, along with the scraps of memories from the night. The fact that I was overcharged a bit definitely did not help that.

I wanted to somehow get rid of the mana I had a bit too much of, but also not destroy anything, or at least nothing particularly important, so after confirming that I was far enough from everything, I started casting some small spells.

Or at least that was my intention. I wanted to slowly try and get rid of the overflow by just casting some random spells. Last time I wanted to do that I created a zone of darkness, which was not exactly dangerous, but I did have to clean up after myself. Before I did not want to use any elemental spells in fear of destroying things, but if I was to be careful…

-Elvu, umilvu ip usc.

A water orb. Easy, small, not dangerous hopefully. Should be fine, right?

Well, it sort of was. What I wanted to create was a orb that was maybe the size of a tennis ball and to start from there, but almost immediately I felt the mana surge within me and the spell began to swell.

At first it looked like I somewhat had everything under control. While the orb did not start far off from the intended size - it was about the size of a basketball, it instantly started growing. A bit too fast for my liking. Two seconds was enough for it to be the size of a human and it quickly was about to start swallowing some smaller trees .

Of course I stopped supplying the mana when the size got bigger than me, but that did not mean that the shape stopped growing. I could tell that the spell still was absorbing mana from me anyway - the quickly fading glow of my body was the clear indicator.

The good thing was that that also made my head a lot clearer. But that was most likely not thanks to the fact that I got rid of the excess mana. It was just because, since the ball of water was so big - it also started absorbing me and soon I was standing in the middle of the large water bubble, the size of a large tree, like some strange fish in a spherical aquarium.

I probably should’ve been more startled than I was, but I was just standing there, waiting, seeing how large the spell was going to be.

The answer was, apparently not that much larger. When the orb started touching the canopy of trees above, it already slowed its pace, and stopped before it started peeking through it.

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Amusing.

Creating that large of a ball is not exactly a stealthy action you know. So I was absolutely not surprised that right when the spell stopped growing, Jack bursted out of the mansion, running towards me.

-...!

I could see him saying something, but thanks to being underwater I could not understand a thing.

-What?

I wanted to ask, but instead of a sound, nothing came out of my mouth. Only water.

Right. Usually when you speak, you need to have air for that…

That also proved problematic.

“No big deal. I can just walk out.” - I thought to myself.

But that’s where the problem was. When I started moving, the great ball of water followed me.

Even though I have stopped supplying mana for the spell, I apparently did not break it completely. That was the one upside - or in this case, downside - of my favorite orb spells: when you cast them, they always stick to you, no matter what, that is unless you specifically choose to toss it away.

Usually it’s not the problem. Be it a ball of flames or anything else elemental, the sizes of those spells are not exactly big, and the orbs are not really any heavier than you’d be able to lift on your own. Especially if you are just converting mana to the elements you need - then they don’t weigh anything at all, just a little bit of concentration and you’re done.

But I can’t really lift a ball of this size with my hand, right?

I mean, sure, I tried focusing and moving this strange body of water this way, but nope. Just as with the fire shield I conjured a long time ago, the element was stuck to me.

Last time it was a bit more helpful…

And so, I found myself in a bit of a pickle. I was now stuck in a massive ball of water that was following me whenever I started moving. I was not able to just dismiss and toss it , because it was straight up too heavy for me. To boot, now I had a slightly panicked Jack that was observing this with a worried expression, clearly visible in his magical presence.

If that was not enough, right behind him was Vendi, who came out running not long later after he started yelling something.

They both were shouting something to me, but to no avail, I still could not understand a word. I tried gesturing towards them that I am fine, waving towards them.

I did forget that they were not exactly seeing me clearly right now. The ball of water was not exactly calm, especially after I took a couple of steps in their direction. The rippling waves were bouncing around the whole thing, distorting my image to them. I couldn’t really tell what they exactly were seeing, but it was not an assurance, that I am certain of.

Neither of them also knew that I was able to breathe underwater, or rather I did not need to breathe at all, so I assume that they had to be even more concerned as well.

To be honest, that was not the worst thing in the world. Thanks to this small mishap, I was pretty certain, even if I had a good idea beforehand already, that neither of them wanted me dead.

In any case, I was left with only one option: try casting without speaking a word.

You’re gonna probably say, hey, what’s the problem with that? It’s as easy as it gets, right?

Well, not always.

You see, the spells, as already proven by the trio of Vendi, Kon and Jack do not just get influenced by the words you speak. They always take from our subconsciousness, or a stream of thoughts, sometimes both.

That is particularly useful with more complicated spells, especially if you try to cast one as a group. In that case, every single person can try and manipulate the effects in different ways, essentially splitting the responsibilities between multiple people.

For example, you have three people. First one creates a source of fire. Second one manipulates the shape of it. The third one protects the three from actually getting burned.

Each of those tasks, on their own, is as easy as it gets, but the result can be as complicated as a flaming dragon on which you can fly through the sky without getting burned.

Why that in particular? Well that’s one of the spells I have seen a trio of highschoolers once pull off during a festival, a long while ago. They did burn a lot of decorations though.

Of course you could pull off that on your own, but only if you were proficient enough. Usually it’s not something that’s easy, because saying one thing out loud and thinking about something completely else at the same time is not simple. You essentially need to be good at dividing your attention.

Hopefully, that would not be required here. I wouldn’t have to talk, just think, so wouldn't it be exactly the same as the regular spell?

I thought that would be the case, after all it was not the first time that I would’ve had to cast a spell without uttering a word. It always is a lot more draining though.

That’s why I had mixed feelings about that.

The knowledge I had was from before the time I had the crystalized body, meaning my mana capacity was completely different. It meant that I would most likely be fine.

On the other hand, it was not a small spell I was dealing with, so I couldn’t be so sure about that.

Also, the question was, how exactly do I get rid of the water?

I couldn’t just try and levitate it away - can you even imagine how heavy that thing was?

Boil it away? Hell no! Imagine how much heat I would have to produce to boil the thing, ha to vaporize it? Impossible. And if you add the fact that I was not alone here, I would most likely have to learn how to do that “ritual of death and life” or whatever, because there was no chance Jack and Vendi would’ve understood what's going on soon enough and get away in time..

So, the opposite solution - freeze the thing.

-Elwu nemwesnoho em hmedou.

The idea was to turn myself into the one giant ice block and then either just use force and crush the ice, or just slowly melt myself out.

It worked, but a tiny bit too well I am afraid.

At first, it seemed like everything was nice and dandy, with a blinding flash-freeze, the water surrounding me condensed and encased me into a thick layer of frost. It was also, surprisingly, painful. I did not expect that the cold would’ve hurt me, it didn’t last time, but nonetheless I immediately started wiggling around, to not let me trap me completely and make myself a bit of room to work with. It sort of worked. Before the layer was too hard for me to crack, I made myself maybe a ten or centimeters of room to work with.

That’s where the positive things ended though.

Even during my wiggling I couldn’t help but notice that the spell was burning through the mana with tremendous rate. It was actually pretty scary. I instantly wanted to break it and as soon as possible get out of this icy prison, but, again, even though I stopped fueling the spell, I couldn’t help but notice that I was CONSIDERABLY weaker.

Actually, I was so weak in fact that I could even compare that to the time where I woke up under the avalanche of rocks under Kalkano.

There was also the fact that I was painfully aware of - there was a good chance that the freezing spell did not stop going, getting hooked to something, just as the illusion spell I left behind.

A bit worried I quickly summoned a fire orb. I was so weak that I even was fearing that it might not come out and after it did I expected to feel a sharp pain somewhere, from my own body being consumed as a fuel for the spell, but no such thing happened. I was still good.

Somewhat reassured, I dumped more mana into the spell and started burning the path out.

It took me more time than expected. The flames were hot, but the ice was thick and resistant. That is also when I realized that something has changed.

I no longer was able to see Jack and Vendi.

And it was not because the ice was blocking my vision. Well, it was, the ice was not crystal clear as the last time my frost spell went haywire, but that was not what I meant.

All this time I’ve been unconsciously seeing the auras, or flames of mana, of other beings: people, plants, whatever, you name it. But now, my vision is absolutely normal. It was so normal that I first did not notice at all.

Somewhere deep in my consciousness, I had that sinking feeling that it was not that I was not that I stopped seeing them - it was just that they were no longer there. Or at least not… conscious.

But, to my relief, that quickly got cleared up as, the more room I made, the more I started seeing again. Small flames started popping up in front of my eyes. First Jack, then Vendi, then some sparks of… similar size? Wait, that did not look right.

First of all, they were a lot weaker. So weak in fact that I again started thinking that I might have knocked them out. But then, I took another look and realized that something was weird.

Besides the bunch of presences I was feeling right in front of me, I also noticed an absolute mass of them above me, a bit more behind me.

That made me stop for a second and I made me think again.

What exactly was I seeing?

I hesitated. The people that were surrounding me, because that definitely was what was happening, suddenly started running away. I could not sense their emotions exactly, but they looked confused.

That also made me notice that the area I was able to sense has gotten a lot smaller, because soon the flames of the runners disappeared from my field of view, instead replaced by two larger ones that were coming from the exact same way the others were running towards.

There was no mistaking it. The two coming were a lot more powerful and I suspected that those two were the actual Vendi and Jack.

A bit reassured, I started melting the ice again, and from the other side I started hearing some banging. It also came along with a change in mana of the two. An obvious indication that they were doing something. Soon I noticed that the ice started cracking in front of me and, in front of me a bunch of vines sprouted, bursting through the ice.

Even though I was not using a lot of fire, they got burned instantly anyway, backing off and slamming into the side of the opening, cracking even more ice.