It was well into the evening when Aris finally stabilized. Strange rune tethers now bound her levitating body. The blood enchantment Laell managed to draw up ‘locked’ her solute in stasis but only partially. From what Laell was able to explain, her body seemed to be struggling to contain the changes to her solute - for some reason that was causing the levitating. She’s hoping the runes would keep her from floating away.

“Whatever she tried to absorb, it’s t-taking over her solute,” Laell said. “Then it thinks her vessel, her body, isn’t s-sufficient to hold it. So it’s trying to es-scape.”

Camaz thought of the swirling mass of smoke with the emerald gemstone ‘eyes’. What on Gaia could that be?

Verne, who had been silent for most of the evening, spoke up. “She told me she killed a Part,” he said quietly.

Both Camaz and Laell stared at him. He glanced between them with uncertainty.

“I didn’t believe her. I thought she was saying things to get a reaction out of me. It’s what Professor Camaz warned us about, but now I’m not so sure.”

Camaz rubbed a hand over his face. For the first time in a very, very long time, he was at a loss as to what to say. The thing that stunned him the most was his instinct told him Aris was telling the truth.

Parts fuck him, what if she was telling the truth?

Entire kingdoms would fall if what she said was true. And there was little to no chance she would lie about something so blasphemous, so catastrophic, because her honesty would be the first thing he wrings out of her if he were to interrogate her. There would be no reason for her to bluff about something like that.

“We’ll need to consider this in the morning,” Camaz muttered. “Both of you need rest.”

“W-what are we going to do?” Laell asked. “We can’t move her like this.”

“She needs to stay here until she gets better then.”

Laell grew quiet for a moment. “Is her life worth the two of ours?” she asked. Verne glanced at her, then looked at Camaz, not refuting her point. “A-and don’t lecture me about duty. Both Verne and I have fulfilled our duties. This will be a suicide mission i-if you don’t have a conclusion in mind.”

Not once have either of them complained during the wretched days of wandering through the forest with the cart. They both did everything he asked of them and more, pushing the limits of their capabilities. Laell single handedly saved them from the Bringers, for Part’s sake. She was right, this wasn’t about duty anymore.

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“I’m sorry.” Camaz felt numb. He had traveled out east to prove something, only to fail not one but four of his students. They had appeased his pride and played his doomed game without questioning him. But he didn’t even know where the mission would end. He had no idea what to do with Aris. “I’ll figure something out by morning, I promise.”

Whether or not Laell believed him or cared, he didn’t know. Both she and Verne were so exhausted they slept seated with their back against the watchtower walls or wedged between two moss covered rocks. Camaz, who owed them everything, kept watch.

He listened for intruders and watched Aris. Her long dark hair hung limp from her head, filthy and clumped. The cheeks not covered in green rock were curved inward to give her a gaunt look. She had not been able to keep much food down on most days.

If she absorbed a Part, this must have been her divine punishment. Camaz clutched his hands together to keep them from shaking. How desperate she must have been to resort to something like that. It was several degrees more severe in perversity from killing a Shade and absorbing it. He long acknowledged she had ambitions to change the world - ambitions that he brushed off. Was he not a Professor? Wasn’t it his job to listen to his students? How could he have failed her so badly that she would go look for a solution like this?

He had fully intended to marinate in self pity until at least Verne woke up, but he found he had to postpone it as another strange glimmer of green caught his eye. The base interior of the watchtower wasn’t massive, but in the blackness of deep night, the torches and campfire didn’t keep out the deep shadows. As Shades still avoided Aris, Camaz was just growing accustomed to not seeing them lurking in dark corners.

So when he saw something in the watchtower, just out of the light of fire, every hair on his body stood on end. He was half a heartbeat away from shouting Verne awake when he realized the green matched the color of the gemstone eyes Aris had.

A stranger stepped out from the shadows. Camaz was equal parts terrified and mesmerized. The stranger made no sound, as if it was a figment of imagination. Was he hallucinating? Dreaming? A pointy female face showed when she got close enough, a slender body dressed in a simple dress one would commonly see at the Heart. She looked almost like a noblewoman with neatly braided dark hair and a poised air about her as she soundlessly stepped around Aris to study her. She then turned to study Camaz with strange eyes.

They were like they were made of green liquid. As if green molten lava swirled inside eye sockets. She smiled airily, eyes cresting softly at the expression.

“Who are you?” Camaz asked cautiously.

“Who do you think I am?” her voice was soft, almost whispering as if not wanting to wake his sleeping students.

“How did you get inside? We barricade exits and holes. You also didn’t make any sound.” He narrowed his eyes at the stranger, taking in her strange eyes.

“Maybe I’m a ghost,” she mused.

“There’s no such thing.”

“No? You have Shades and enchanting circles and monsters but no ghosts?” She smiled again, as if immensely amused at what she just said.

“If you won’t state your business then I would ask you to leave,” Camaz said firmly. He said this in a normal speaking tone hoping to rouse Laell or Verne so they could tell him they could see this woman as well and, no, he hasn’t lost his damn mind.

“My business?” she repeated, looking surprised. Her green swirling liquid eyes glowed as she seemed to contemplate the question she asked herself. “I suppose I’ll have to say my business is in… death.”