'Finding Tekrakathune would be a terrible idea. As soon as I’d announce his rediscovery to the Library of Fates, every Awakened in the realm would know about it too, including every demon in the prison, and the gods of this realm.'

"Well, we'd just have to free the guy beforehand, then ask for his aid in escaping, or maybe just hide in a corner and wait for the dust to settle when he goes to town on the dicks that imprisoned us. Either way, I want to see what makes for a god in this world," Ori said. He knew that Freya, despite her words to the contrary, was far more invested in finding this missing god than her words suggested. It wasn't just the sunk cost of half a lifetime searching, the vanity of leaving behind a legacy, or even her calling that compelled her to leave her family behind.

She also wanted to live.

In finding the missing god and announcing the discovery to the Library of Fates, she would receive an accolade, one significant enough that it would come with enough Peritia to essentially level her up, raising her rank from Lesser to Nascent, while changing her race from Sprite to Pixie. And she did indeed need this evolution. She was already old for a Sprite, and with the abuse and predation suffered during the second half of her life, her Lifeforce, the vital energy that fuelled her semi-corporeal existence, and her Mana that empowered her spells and rituals, had been severely crippled. Upon evolution, one's body is remade, all grievous wounds and signs of ageing reversed broken Mana channels and pools restored and then expanded, with many aspects of a person going through changes that allow them to be either a whole magnitude smarter, stronger, faster or better able to use magic, depending on aspects such as class bonuses and who the individual invested their Peritia.

'Ori, stop and think, really think about this plan. If he is here, and that is not for certain, announcing it to the Library of Fates would start a war with god-like entities we could not hope to survive. There would be nowhere to hide when those who would throw mountains as we would throw stones come to blows. Also, my evolution won’t be instant; as soon as I accept the accolade, I must hibernate for a time, breaking our bond and leaving you in the dark. It would be one thing if you could use mana, but my attempt to unlock your Mana pool didn't work.'

“Wait, what? It didn’t work? But I’m sure I felt… something, something different.”

“Do you feel an energy in your Mana Nexus? You should be able to grasp it, a warmth in your mind that you can draw from and bring out—”

“No, it’s like… The opposite? A cold? Like there’s a hole in my mind? Does that make sense?”

‘I don’t know. Do you know of any family members in your line having the same feeling? Or being able to use magic?”

“Magic? No, there’s no magic where I’m from.”

“No magic? At all? In your entire town?”

“What? No, I mean no magic at all. Like, In the entire world, entire… realm. No Mana or life force or spells or rituals, just good old physics, biology, chemistry and a whole load of maths. Anyone claiming they can use magic in my world is a trickster or a fraud. Though with these demons, multiple dimensions and magic butterflies, who’s to say what’s real or not real anymore?”

Freya, ignoring his quip on magical butterflies, was in silent contemplation for a long while before she asked, ‘Then what about all those artefacts, those tablets and things you called eye-fooans?’

“Mobile Phone.” Ori said, reaching into his pocket to retrieve his smashed-up iPhone, raising it to his face, the cracked screen lit up with today's date and time, which was roughly a day later than the last time he had checked, along with a ‘no service’ warning that hit Ori harder than he expected it would. Freya flew out of him as he held the device up. “See? No Mana or magic, just electronics and clever engineering.”

‘An entire realm of mortals, and such advanced mana-less artificing,’ she said, awed as his thumb flicked through the interface. On a whim, he took a selfie, capturing an image of Freya and himself in the dim light of the cavern. He turned the device off, realising that the next opportunity to recharge his phone might be a long time from now, if ever. ‘I have so many questions. You must permit me one day to walk your dreams so that I can understand. But… for now…’ She sighed. ‘...we must focus on the topic at hand.’

Ori frowned. “Yeah, so my magic? Can’t you tell if I’ve got some or not?”

‘I can’t access any Mana from you. It’s like you're a nihiling stone. I have never heard of anything like this before. All mortals should have some mana, if even just a whisp, perhaps in my weakened state I wasn’t able to unlock yours properly.’ Freya wondered.

“So I can’t use magic?”

‘No, not like this. Maybe if we found a way to unlock your Mana properly… or perhaps with some research on your condition I could—’

“I need something now, if not magic— I mean, everyone's so strong, fast too, and as you said, I’m mortal, the lowest rank of them all, level zero in a game where I can’t level up until you upgrade. I need an equaliser.”

“This is not a game, Ori. But… yes, I understand your predicament. Maybe we can get a small measure of what you seek if you are lucky. Through captivity, I have taken many dream walks in the minds of demons—”

“Dream walk?” Ori asked, interest piqued. “You mean the creepy spell that lets you voyeuristically watch other people's dreams? But what does that even have to do with being a researcher? Just what kind of pervy research did you undertake?”

‘You are such a boy.’ Freya lamented. ‘I am an Aurora Sprite, with an Aurora affinity which has a full dream aspect. With my knowledge, you should know, affinities and classes are the greatest influences on what spell constellations you might have access to. And with my dream aspect, I was fortunate enough to be able to choose a spell that has been invaluable in my endeavours.’

“But seriously though, you can just invade someone's dreams, yeah? Violate private thoughts without consent?”

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‘If they are infernals? Without hesitation. Otherwise,’ Freya sighed as if suddenly exhausted. ‘No, I could, but I wouldn’t, or at least I haven’t, not directly. The way I used to use the spell… It can be used in a goal-orientated way, a way that allows me to ignore the details of individuals and sift through a population's unconsciousness, like panning for gold in a river. In this case, dream walking allowed me to know the whereabouts of key locations… But…’

“But what?”

‘It’ll be difficult, and first, we’ll need to get something to help fix your leg.’

“What about one of your rituals, Healing Sleep? That sounds like it should help?” Ori said hopefully, though Freya wasn’t so sure.

‘That ritual uses some of the target's Mana to assist with the healing. With the state of how your Mana is, I do not think it would be wise to risk it.’

“Why? Can’t we just try it? What’s the worst that could happen?”

“That you could go into a sleep from which you do not wake? I really don’t know because I haven’t heard of a being with no Mana whatsoever. No, you need artefacts pre-saturated with mana, ones even a mortal without a Mana Nexus could use. You need a Wand, and I know precisely where to find them.’

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“I thought you said that this armoury wasn’t far?” Ori groaned.

‘For someone with wings, the distance is trivial, mere moments of travel time. For a flightless invalid such as the person I’ve somehow managed to become familiar to, apparently, it takes hours it seems.’ Freya sighed dramatically. As she spoke, something caught his attention, he had noticed it before but had pushed it to the back of his mind, but as he hobbled along the terrace overlooking a bottomless abyss, focusing on such details was preferable to, for example, working out just how far he would fall if he stumbled. It was in the way Freya had said hours, except Ori knew that the word itself wasn’t actually in English, nor did it precisely mean the same period of time. Beyond the fact that he had known he had not been speaking English ever since meeting Freya, by the way, he often caught himself forming awkward mouth shapes for words he knew shouldn’t have been so hard to speak, with the realisation that he also understood the meaning of non or partially analogous words, this mystery was now too difficult to ignore.

"Freya, what language am I speaking to you in?"

'I was wondering when you'd bring this up. We are currently speaking Fealish, one of many tongues of the wild Fae… And now I’m speaking Vespasian, the formal language of this realm, Twilight. Since we've met, I have switched languages seven times, with you not even noticing this peculiarity until now.'

"I thought being able to understand you was your doing? Like one of your spells or something?"

'This would certainly fall under the "or something" category. But this is not my doing.'

"You're the one who said I didn't have any magic, so it's not me."

'Perhaps, I would have to request your full page from the Library of Fates using a powerful divination ritual to be sure, but I suspect that the demon who brought you here had gifted you with a boon. I noticed something strange about you; there was a taint on your skin. It was why I didn't trust you before, I thought that you were some infernal minion sent to torment me. But I think it's a boon. If memory serves me correctly, and with the features you've displayed so far, the specific boon would likely be Boon of the Succubus, A Thousand Tongues.'

Ori frowned. The fact that Mel happened to be a succubus was both unsurprising and disappointing in a 'how could I have been such a dumbass?' style of self-recrimination. In a way, that realisation seemed to overshadow the fact that he could somehow understand multiple languages or that there were even things such as magical boons. There was silence for long moments as he processed it all, working his way through to the more relevant questions.

"And this boon lets me speak different languages?"

'Yes.'

"Why?"

‘Why does it do what it does? Boons such as those usually require significant expenditures of Peritia, Amounts high enough for mortals or Awakened to advance several times over. As for why she gifted it to you? I don’t know. Their perversions can be twisted and labyrinthine in their complexity, though it’s not unheard of for such demons to keep chosen pets. All I know is that such a boon would cost a hefty amount of Peritia and would not be given so likely.”

“But why? I know for a fact I would have ended up as her plaything in the end. It’s just, why go through all this effort, crossing worlds or dimensions, Why send us all the way here? What’s all of this for? Only to hurt and murder us?”

‘Power.’ Freya whispered.

“I… don’t get it?”

‘This far down into Ghigrerchiax, Ori, are those that they want to break slowly because we have an abundance of something they want—’

“But what could I have that they want?” Ori grunted.

‘Some will say knowledge is power, might is right, or that wisdom always wins. But everything I have learned about magic suggests that Will is the most fundamental aspect of power, Will drives endurance, hardens bones, fortifies minds, empowers mana, and it can forge realms from dust. And if one’s will is so important, what if you could take someone else’s? Steal it piece by piece? Drain the wills of countless multitudes compounding your ability to generate power, to shape reality itself? This is the way of infernals, an entire society built around the structured acquisition of wills, through pain and torture, yes, but just as often through deals, often ones that seem fair and equitable on the surface, while they erode and devour your soul one exchange at a time.’ Freya said as her voice became increasingly fervent and clipped, it was as many words as he had heard from her at once as if some of the fire and passion lost from her until now, had returned. However, when she continued, she was once again subdued. ‘Ori, you have killed infernals so perhaps you may understand. How did it feel?’

Ori fought from instantly replying. He wanted to say it felt good, great even, that he had survived against impossible odds and was one step closer to life, that he had WON, they had lost, that they were evil and that they had to die and he would kill and kill as many of them as it took to be free.

“You’re saying I shouldn’t be happy to be alive?”

‘Don’t lie Ori, you are not good at it.’

“Fine. It felt good killing them. It felt good to beat them, like a massive rush. I’ve never killed anything before, but I didn’t think it would feel like this.” Ori said

‘It isn’t supposed to, killing sentients, not for most people. This is also part of how they win, how they gain power even when they are slain. Because if they can make you strong enough in your hate, you’ll eventually become like them without even realising it. So be mindful of your lack of remorse, and ensure it doesn’t erode your will—your sense of who you are, more importantly, who you want to be.’

A large part of him relished the idea of being a demon-slaying avenging avatar of righteousness, in the moment it felt right, the energy of it had propelled him hundreds of yards on a broken leg.

But it was a million miles away from the Ori of just a couple of days ago, the local lad made good, that was just about to finish his MSc in Optics and Photonics at one of the biggest universities in the city. The Ori that had successfully old school asked out a pretty receptionist, empowered by modest hopes and mundane dreams. The two visions seemed to waver in his mind, or at least his understanding of it was no longer the same as what it once was, he was too afraid to think much beyond his current predicament, but the knowledge that all this was out here, that demons and sprites, and magic and terraces with pools of blue lava…

No, he could never, truly go back to his old ignorance satisfied in the illusion of safety and familiarity of just a few days ago. However, while a clear vision of the type of person he wanted to be seemed out of reach, he did want this strange but amazing new friend to get back to her family.

Upon examining this alternative purpose and, taking in Freya’s advice, comparing it with the desire to kill, he realised just how different the motivations made him feel, how one was angry and small, and the other gave him hope, reinforcing itself and repairing his resolve.