A sharp pain rummaged through his mind forcing him to become lucid. He groaned aloud as the pain subsequently faded.

It appeared he was on the move despite having only awakened. His arms were carefully placed around something fleshy although he couldn’t tell what. Who or whatever it was, it was someone large and unmistakably muscular. Even though it was dark, Kiran figured it must’ve been Frederek who he was hanging onto.

Kiran relinquished his grasp and his two feet landed on the dirt ground.

“Kiran?” Frederek said with an elated expression. “Everybody, he’s awakened!”

Numerous people rushed towards him although he still couldn’t see them.

Realizing he couldn’t see them whatsoever, Frederek began digging his hand into a leather satchel. “Here, take some of this,” Frederek said shoving a vial into his hand.

He uncorked it and immediately drank its contents fully. The liquid tasted as bad as every other time he had drank this swill. The back of his tongue burned and his throat along with it. He spotted Lar whose eyebrows were furrowing so intensely, that she was at a real risk of them falling off her face.

“Oh hey,” he said towards her only to receive a slap to his face. At first, he wasn’t sure what had happened to him. He had been slapped of course, but it was truly unexpected. So unexpected in fact, that he knew not what to say to her.

“Lar!” Silvy exclaimed.

“You idiot,” Lar said directly to him specifically. “You absolute idiot!”

His left cheek continued to burn as he questioned what he had done exactly to earn her ire. Clearly, he had done something to irritate her. He simply didn’t know for what reason.

“Am I not worthy of your trust?” she said. “We’ve been companions for all of this time, yet you harbor important things from me still.”

“What—” Her hand came sweeping towards him once more, but right before it hit his face, she left it hovering in the air just an inch away.

“Lar,” Silvy said right behind her.

His dear companion dropped her hand from his face placing it to her side. She then turned from him walking away.

What have I done now? Did I do something crude to her while I was unconscious? That didn’t sound likely. He was too busy experiencing strange dreams and speaking to some strange fellow who had wanted him to become a disciple or something to them. He still had a lot of questions about who exactly that person was, but right now he had a much more important pressing issue to deal with in regards to his companion and everything revolving around their current circumstances.

As for everyone else gathered around him, they all for the most part looked uncomfortable after Lar’s interaction with him. Frederek tried to smile but even his false smile wavered in due time.

“How long was I unconscious?” Kiran said to redirect their focus a little.

“For several days,” Yorais said. “Truthfully speaking, we weren’t so sure you would ever reawaken.”

He was reminded of the pain he experienced before he went unconscious. It was an incredibly unusual sort of pain. It was not strictly speaking physical. It transcended the physical domain creating a harrowing memory that he wanted to forget. I’ve been too cocky with this power I know nothing about. I’m probably lucky to be alive right now. I should’ve taken Yorais’s words of caution more seriously after all.

“Where are we?” he asked as he walked with the rest of them. He spotted Aphelia who was with them as well. That’s right. She somehow found her way to our group right before I passed out. He would have to thank her for helping them out back there in the cave when she otherwise didn’t have to.

“Somewhere nearer to Valak,” Frederek stated, “but we’re still several weeks away from making it back there. We also don’t have a guide which will make returning there more difficult for us. I’m sure eventually we’ll make it there, but we’ll have to take great care so we don’t end up lost.”

He eyed Lar who didn’t even look over in his direction. She just walked ahead without an interest in further interaction with him.

“Can we talk for a moment?” he said to her telepathically.

For a moment there was no response. But then she answered telepathically. “No.”

An upset Lar is no good. I’m going to have to fix this before it gets out of hand.

* * *

When everyone got tired enough, they found themselves resting with their backs to a cliff. Since his sight-enhancing potion had worn off, he couldn’t see anything beyond the fire that lit their makeshift camp.

Yorais came to sit by his side as he looked over at Lar who was lying down on her side facing away from him. He had tried to talk to her numerous times today, but she wasn’t interested at all in speaking no matter how many attempts he made. At a certain point, it wasn’t worth attempting any further.

I can’t fix things between us if she won’t even speak to me or listen to what I have to say. All he could do was sigh in defeat.

“She’ll come around,” Yorais said. “She just needs a little bit of time to herself.”

“If you say so.”

“I know so.”

Since she was so confident he just had to ask her a follow-up question. “Do you know what’s gotten her so mad at me?”

Smoke lifted from the burning fire. Mostly everyone else besides the two of them were asleep. Although Aphelia was also awake at this hour wandering around the perimeter of their camp keeping a lookout.

Yorais began to cross her arms beneath her bosom. “Lar is quite upset that you didn’t tell her about that power of yours that deals with souls.” That’s the reason then? How do I explain to her something I don’t even understand myself? Right after he thought that, he couldn’t help but admit to himself, that he was just coming up with excuses. He had kept this important thing about himself from her undoubtedly. “You see Kiran, when a human and a familiar bond their souls together, the idea of harboring secrets from each other is not seen in a positive light.”

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While he did keep some things to himself, Lar kept plenty of secrets from him. Somehow, however, he wasn’t particularly irked or angry at her for doing that.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Yorais said as if she had just read his mind. “This particular secret you kept from her is much more troubling due to the nature of it. Familiars take souls very seriously.”

“Even human souls?”

“Yes. Though our two kinds waged a cataclysmic war against each other, familiars never dared toy with the sanctity of their opposition’s souls back then or even now. Many of them during those days of our past hated us, but even then, they never went so far as to destroy what makes us who we are. Sadly, our own kind—or at least many of us back then—did not care about the sanctity of souls whether it be human or familiar. They were only wishing to exterminate the familiars from the entirety of our planet. If doing so meant destroying their very essence therefore denying their souls an opportunity to return to the root, then so be it. They had not a care for such a thing.”

Yorais’s claim that familiars didn’t participate in utilizing such power for themselves made him wonder whether this claim was true. Before he could challenge her on this particular question, he felt it necessary to pursue another instead.

“What exactly is this root you speak of?” He had heard of it before but he couldn’t exactly recall when that was.

“The root, as we call it,” Yorais said, “is a place where it is believed that our souls go to after we pass away. When we die, our souls dissipate from our bodies and thus return to the root.”

“Do you believe that’s what happens?”

Her gaze left him and went over to the burning fire. “I wish I knew for absolute certainty. I would like to think that we live on in some capacity beyond this one we are given. You are proof in some capacity I suppose, that death does not have to be the end. Your soul returned to our mortal plane of existence, so evidence at least leans towards the idea of the root being real.”

When he tried to recall anything from between the time of his initial death from his past life to the time he awakened, there was nothing there to recall. If his soul had gone to this root or whatever it could conceivably be, there was nothing there for him to draw upon much like many of his lost memories.

“These subjects are always so difficult to wrap our minds around.” Yorais uncrossed her arms and pressed her fingertips onto the ground as they sat together by the lively fire. “There are always multiple explanations and possibilities that could explain the actual underlying process. But sadly, we can only speculate and have our amusing theories over our understanding of reality no matter how confident we are.”

As Aphelia walked around the camp, Yorais got her attention as she gestured for her to come to them.

“Aphelia,” Yorais said.

“Yes?”

“Why don’t you have a seat with us.”

“Oh, sure.”

Even though she was not serving Lady Meredith at this point—which he was still curious about—she maintained a professional demeanor with every action she took. The way she sat down. The way she placed her hands together in her lap. Even with the way she spoke or the tiny inflections made on her face. It was all done in a way expected of a prized servant devoted to a powerful lady.

“How are you feeling now Kiran?” she asked kindly.

“I’m doing a lot better.”

“I’m glad.”

“I am curious,” he said. “Why did you help us back there at the cave?”

“For the same reason I didn’t tell them about you stumbling in there initially. I knew what would happen to you and I did not believe you were deserving of such a cruel fate by my mother and sister’s hands. I also feel deeply in my heart, that my sister Alanora is never going to come back from her eternal slumber and that they’re both delaying the inevitable by having her remain there on that altar. I fear that they cannot give her up no matter how much it must cost everyone as a result of it.”

They were paying a high price and so many lives had been lost already because of it. To pay such a high price only to end up with nothing in return, was a hard hole to dig yourself out of. He imagined that early on Lady Meredith would’ve possibly been able to be persuaded to put a stop to this madness, but since so much time had passed since then, the idea of not going through all the way to the end at this point was unlikely.

“Aphelia wishes to right the wrongs of her mother by helping our efforts,” Yorais went on to say.

“That’s right,” she said. The fire did a good job of revealing the soft features of her face as she looked at him.

As the three of them sat there while everyone else rested, a familiar helpful friend of his began to make an appearance.

The butterfly flew around Aphelia as she remained unaware of their presence. They came up to him and flew around all over the place.

Yorais appeared to notice his gaze going all over the place. “They’ve returned haven’t they?”

He nodded his head.

“Can you see or perceive this butterfly in any way?” he asked.

From his perspective, the butterfly flew over towards Aphelia once more and hovered right in front of her. The orb surrounding them lightly touched her chest causing Aphelia’s palm to spread out around where it touched.

“I think I might actually perceive something.”

“They’re right beside where your palm is.”

“They are?” Her eyes widened as she failed to see them with her own eyes. She spread out her arm and hand. The butterfly hovered above where her hand was and lightly touched it. “This presence feels familiar to me,” she softly said. “But I cannot pinpoint what it is exactly. How is it Kiran that you can perceive them but we can’t?”

“I don’t have the faintest clue.”

“Kiran’s an anomaly,” Yorais said. “It’s best to get used to odd things swarming around him at all times.”

“It certainly seems that way,” Aphelia said with a smile as the butterfly flew off disappearing from his sight once more. She pulled her arm back and looked around unable to see them whatsoever.

She’s the only one to perceive them in some capacity. While she only slightly perceives the butterfly, that’s still something. Aphelia wasn’t entirely normal though either now that he thought about it. She had used magic somehow when others couldn’t in this domain. “I’ve just been reminded to ask. Is there a reason why you’re able to use magic?”

“It has to do with my existence.”

“Oh?”

“This is going to sound really strange and unbelievable.” Then it’s a good thing I’m willing to entertain all kinds of ideas. “My sister Evelyn and I woke up one day on the altar beside our sister Alanora. Come to think of it, I suppose us referring to ourselves as sisters is a bit unusual as well. While the three of us all look alike, we were not born together.”

“No kidding?”

“I know it sounds very unbelievable.”

“You don’t have to worry about what we might think,” Yorais said in a kind and supportive way. “Our world is an unusual place full of strange things happening all the time.”

“That’s true,” she said with a slight tug of her skirt, “but I’ve never been able to quite make sense of it myself. Neither I nor Evelyn know why we exist. We just one day woke up together and Lady Meredith eventually found us in that cave choosing to have us serve her.” Looking exactly like her daughter certainly played a major role.

Her existence was rather unusual. He couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it other than that his understanding of reality itself was greatly limited.

Given what little I understand of that altar, it’s not working the way it’s supposed to. And from what Lady Meredith said to us, it’s been something their family has used for many regenerations to heal their bodies and rejuvenate them. Except this time around, it’s not working for Alanora. If there was one thing he knew, it was that when messing around with arcane roots, all sorts of strange things were bound to occur.

“What exactly are our plans from here on out?”

“Well,” Yorais said. “First we return to Valak. We’ll then assess the overall situation with all of the information we’ve gained. Then I assume Lucias will want to immediately begin a process for removing Alanora from the altar so that we can restore this domain to the way it ought to be.”