In the face of dozens of functions and declarations we hadn’t seen before, and wondering how we would figure all of it out, it was easy to miss how much of a breakthrough this was. This one, compressed script I had just decoded was about as long as the water source script, and it was just one of many on Shadi’s back. In my fascination I would’ve probably kept decoding one after the other, but luckily Berla pulled me out of my daze and got me to transcribe them first, so we could turn Shadi back around and bind her properly, in case she would still be aggressive when she woke up.

After filling seven sheets of paper with encoded scripts, we fixed her to the bedframe using four handcuffs, the idea being that she hopefully wouldn’t be able to aim any attacks at us that way. Though she might have had a lockpick script for all we know, so she needed to be monitored.

About half an hour later I was sitting on the next bed over, still decoding and reading scripts, with Berla next to me. Fae had already been shooed out of the room by Nym again.

‘Interlocked scripts... Delays... Loops...’ Tomar said, reading with me, ‘This uses all those little things you discovered.’

With Nym approaching Shadi to check on her, I just nodded in response to Tomar’s observation. The Omega programming language I knew from Earth was created more for fun than anything else, and it was rather simplistic. These slightly advanced concepts didn’t exist there, but since they were put into this version of the language, it made sense that they would actually be used somewhere. They just hadn’t been necessary for the ritual and water source scripts.

It was really too bad that I couldn’t focus entirely on this right now, seeing how we had a million other things to think about as well.

“Do you have a plan for when he shows up again yet?” Berla whispered.

“I don’t know how far any plans will get us with him,” I said. “We don’t know what he wants, nor what he meant when he said that. Or why he just disappeared. I think we might have to wait and see what happens.”

Berla was very concerned about Gallas coming back and trying to send me away again, but while that was a possibility, I wasn’t going to let that fear drag me down. We couldn’t do much about it until it happened, so worrying wouldn’t accomplish anything.

What really stuck with me from that encounter, however, aside from him Calling me “master,” was one question he had randomly thrown our direction in response to us freely using mana. “How far along are you?” He made it sound like we were on a path to something. Maybe a destination or goal that could be reached. And based on his perceived level of surprise, we were apparently further along than he expected.

While Galls was enraged after seeing this, he also stopped writing scripts. It might have just been his surprise, but what if we were somehow reaching a point where he couldn’t do anything anymore?

“Please don’t worry too much,” I said. “I think things will turn out fine.”

“Mind or guts?” she asked, wondering if I was just telling myself this, or whether I was feeling it.

“Hm... A bit of both.”

“Tomar,” Nym said, interrupting us.

When I looked at her, she just took a step back from the bed, a determined, but careful expression on her face.

“She’s awake,” she continued.

Confused, my eyes wandered to Shadi, who was still lying on the bed. Her eyes closed and her body unmoving, she didn’t seem awake, but Nym seemed sure, suggesting that the girl was acting.

“Shadi,” I said. “Welcome back.”

Her eyes shot open and her head slowly turned my way. No words left her mouth, she was just staring at me with an emotionless expression.

“Are you alright?” I asked, but no answer came.

Nym stepped closer again.

“Hello, Shadi. You’re in the doctor’s office of the temple. Can you tell me how you’re feeling? Do you have any pain?”

Regardless of what we said or did, she just kept staring at me creepily, even when Nym started examining her again. Her eyes following my every move did start to bother me a little, and stepping away from the bed, I waved the doctor over to the other side of the room, while keeping an eye on Shadi.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“She wasn’t conscious when we brought her in, right?” I quietly asked once we were a safe distance away.

“She was certainly not. Please tell me more about what happened. Did she hit her head as well?”

Both of us glanced over to the girl, staring back at us. Brain damage was one explanation for this behavior and her unresponsiveness, but it didn’t apply to Shadi.

“No, nothing like that. It was a hit to the stomach, and I caught her before she could hit the floor.”

“Physically she seems healthy, but I can’t say anything about her mental state. If her condition doesn’t improve on its own... She might have to be put to rest,” she grumbled.

Right, I thought. That’s what they would’ve done with mentally ill patients.

“Nobody is going to be put to rest anymore,” I said with determination.

Nym’s eyes widened. “Do you mean that?”

“Yes. Lilly and I despise how the previous administration outright killed everyone who was inconvenient or a burden. We’re not going to do that.”

Relief washed over Nym’s face. As a doctor, sending people she couldn’t help anymore away, knowing full well what was going to happen to them, must have been hell for her.

Smiling at me, she just said, “Thank you.”

I nodded in understanding.

There were still a few problems in this town we had yet to address, but there were only so many hours in the day, and some things also slipped our minds. Like telling the doctors that they don’t have to give people death sentences anymore. Though it would’ve gone over our desk if it had happened anyway, and at that point we would’ve obviously cleared it up as well.

“And it’s very possible she’ll be fine,” I said, going back to the topic on hand. “Her behavior was unusual ever since her ritual, but there are things we don’t yet know about this Calling. Maybe this is natural.”

“I must say that it does not look natural,” Nym said, looking at Shadi again.

Walking over to the bed, I stopped in front of it and stared back at her. She had yet to move another muscle, not even having made an attempt to free herself.

What’s going on in your head... I wondered.

I didn’t believe that her behavior was caused by mental illness or brain damage. It was almost certainly because of the ritual and her Calling, or rather the soul that had been merged into her.

First she’s aggressive, then she watches us like a hawk. Actually, is that so weird? She thought she could beat us, but we knocked her out with relative ease. What if she’s waiting for a chance to strike at us with a surprise attack? Or if she’s trying to glean more information about us and what we can do?

Based on what she said in the ritual chamber, she believed we were telling lies about the Sourcerer Calling. That we didn’t want to give it to people, even though what she saw in there should’ve told her otherwise. Before we could get anywhere, we would have to clear this up. We needed her to trust us.

“Let’s start over,” I said. “I’ll assume you’re sound of mind and can understand me, so I ask you to listen carefully. We did not try to hold this Calling back. Actually, we didn’t even know how to give it. The gods gifted it to us, but not with a normal ritual. And when someone was about to get it the normal way before, Gallas appeared and prevented it. They want to have control over who gets it, but our special ritual bypasses their restrictions. You saw that he wasn’t happy, and you should understand that I wanted to avoid that situation. Does that make sense?”

There was still absolutely no reaction from her.

Best poker face I’ve seen in a while. Assuming she is aware of what’s going on around her.

“I believe you are the first ‘natural’ Sourcerer in a while, if not ever. And we would really like to work with you, for the benefit of Alarna and humanity. But if that’s not an option... Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to threaten you, but if you’re just going to go around attacking people, we can’t really let you run around.”

Getting irritated by her continued silence, I thought about things that might get some raise out of her, and my eyes fell on the papers on the other bed. I walked over and picked them up.

“Maybe you would like to talk about scripture sigils? I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but your back is covered in them,” I said, showing her the transcripts.

Finally, a twitch in her eye.

Hm... You don’t like us having seen that? Maybe... Are others not supposed to see your scripts? Are they a Sourcerer’s secret? Granted, I wouldn’t voluntarily show my scripts off either. Actually, could you copy hers onto any mana vessel and they would work? We need to test that. But for now...

“Well, I started decoding them, to learn more about your specific Calling,” I said, holding up an uncompressed script in normal Omega. “It’s pretty interesting, but—”

I stopped when her eyes widened. Her mouth agape, she started speaking at last. “Y-you... did what?”

“I decoded your scripts. You know... so I can read them.”

“That’s not possible!” she exclaimed, taken aback. “The divine scripts can’t be read!”

“I would say it depends. You can do it if you know how to. And then you can also ‘translate’ them into ‘clear text.’”

The term “divine script” was new. Normal people didn’t even know “scripts,” so she had definitely gotten some knowledge with her Calling. And she specifically said the divine variant can’t be read, which presumably meant that she did understand Omega. Not being able to read a compressed script was natural, and I certainly wouldn’t expect knowledge of compression algorithms in this world. Not even in Sourcerers.

“You’re not a Sourcerer then...” she said under her breath.

“I suppose not.”

Of course I knew that already, but why was this her immediate conclusion?