For the next couple of days, Jayde would train in the mornings and in the afternoons she spent her time making herself a second set of clothing. She estimated that she had enough leather to make at least seven or eight sets of leather clothes for herself. She also made herself a backpack as well as a scabbard and belt for her dagger.

It was on her fifth day that Jayde ran into quite a dilemma. She wanted to practice using the bow she had found, but she did not have a straw dummy to use for target practice. Looking around she couldn't find anything that she could use to make a dummy.

She needed something sturdy enough to stand upright, but soft enough not to break her arrows, as Jayde had no way to replace any of the broken arrowheads.

Staring at the wall of the cave, while trying to think of a solution, Jayde noticed something weird about the shadows reflected on the wall.

Picking up the oil lamp, Jayde walked closer to the wall to inspect it. Looking closer Jayde could make out that a portion of the wall was slightly different from the rest. Carefully reaching out she touched the wall.

Suddenly her hand disappeared into the wall. Shocked Jayde leaped backward. Flustered Jayde looking down at her hand. Thank god my hand is still there, Jayde thought. What the fuck, this is unscientific, a person body part is not supposed to disappear inside a solid wall.

Starring at the wall for a full minute, Jayde was brimming with curiosity. Approaching the weird wall again, Jayde gingerly poked the wall with her finger, which disappeared, quickly withdrawing her finger, Jayde inspect her hand to make sure her finger was still there.

After assuring herself that everything was fine, Jayde poked the wall a couple of times, each time her finger disappeared and reappeared when she withdrew it.

Feeling a bit more confident Jayde then put her left hand into the wall (she was still a bit dubious about the wall, so she didn't want to risk her right hand), after having her hand reappear, she did this again a couple of times.

What the hell is up with this wall, she thought.

Taking a step back, Jayde contemplated whether she should try to step into the wall, she was really curious about what was on the other side.

"But what happens if I get stuck in the wall," she mumbled to herself, just as she was about to give up on the whole idea, as the thought of being trapped inside the wall was really disturbing.

"It's a ward", Isha said telepathically communicating with Jayde.

"Isha you finally awake," Jayde cried happily.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Hmm," Isha confirmed.

"Have you recovered? And what do you mean by it's a ward?" Jayde asked.

Feeling a strange warm feeling, upon hearing his contractor questioned him about his recovery, Isha answered happily.

"I have recovered about eighty percent of my energy — a ward is a defensive spell, it prevents people, spells or beasts from entering the protected area."

"Oh!"

Jayde thought about the ward for a couple of seconds. It was similar to shields and holographic technology from the Federation she thought, but the Federation was still trying to combine the two techniques. What a marvel, she thought shaking her while admiring the ingenious wall.

"Then why can I enter?" she asked.

"You must have an item on you that opens the ward, that is the reason you were able to move your hand through the ward," replied Isha.

Thinking about the information that Isha had just given her, looking down Jayde inspected the items on her, Jayde tried to think about what she on her that could open the ward, noticing the ring of her thumb, she raised her hand and looked at it carefully.

"It must be this ring, that I found by the old man," she said.

"Ring?"

Although Isha couldn't see per se, he could sense things through Jayde.

"That is a spatial ring, and it should be linked to the ward," he informed Jayde.

Jayde raised her eyebrow and asked "Spatial ring?"

There was no information on spatial rings in Jayde memory.

Isha was really surprised about how ignorant Jayde was about Doha, even though he realized that she didn't grow up on Doha, but surely the previous host should have had some knowledge.

Grumbling to himself about how much knowledge had been lost over the thousands of years that he had been locked away, he explained to Jayde that spatial rings were artifacts from the Upper Realm and that each spatial ring had a separate dimension space available, which could be used to store items.

He further went on to explain that spatial rings were separated into common, rare and divine artifacts. A common spatial ring could have anything from a couple of cubic meters square to hundreds of cubic meters square of storage space, it could only stockpile inanimate items. On the other hand, rare spatial rings could store simple living things such as plants, but not animals — animal bodies were too complex to be stored and lastly, divine spatial rings which were, in essence, a small world.

Jayde tried to imagine a ring the size on her thumb having a whole world in it, but it was inconceivable to her. Really this new world was amazing, sometimes she really wondered if she wasn't just dreaming, the contrast of this world was incredible. On the one hand, their technology was primitive, but on the other hand, they could create separate dimensional spaces that the Federation could only theorize about.

"So how do I access this spatial ring," she inquired.

"You can't at the moment, it takes magic to bind the ring to you," Isha replied.

"And I still need to recover more energy before lifting the first layer of your seal, but you can walk through the ward and have a look what it on the other side."

Disappointed that she couldn't access the ring yet, Jayde nevertheless was quite happy to explore what was behind the ward, being stuck in this cave for nearly a week had started to get to her, she was sick and tired of just looking at the flat rock walls all day.

Walking up to the ward, Jayde took a deep breath and without hesitating stepped through the ward.

✽✽✽

© 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved