The morning didn't let me wait for too long, and as planned part of the soldiers soon went towards Barlaine with most of the baggage and the wounded.

Everything that remained was packed up soon enough and the entire vicinity evacuated. A few stone plates protected a tiny room close by that was just large enough for me to sit in and I could also look out. If I wished I could quickly close that hole.

Of course these precautions were completely unnecessary for me, but no one else knew that I could do this from a distance.

Once everything and everyone except myself was out of range, I went on to finish my job. There was no longer any particular method I knew to follow and I just started cutting apart every single connection that I came across. A few parts began to overload and released their energy, but the sheer size and material of the monolith were able to absorb the outbursts.

After half a day almost nothing but single isolated parts remained inside. It seemed like a huge waste, but I released the energy that they contained one after the other. There was no method to it and the fact that the destruction process so far had only been followed by minor eruptions let me get bolder. Soon I just plunged through part after part without any holding back. Sometimes the released energy would activate close by parts and those lost their form as well.

I went at it very quickly now, so the released energy began to reach great amounts. It quickly dissipated into the surroundings, but the monolith itself also absorbed large parts, not as anchor, but as container. Some was lost in a heating process, but most just stuck to the material.

The day was getting late when I had finally taken everything apart. The monolith was only loaded with unfocused energy now. Without intent or structure I could move around larger quantities more easily than before. It pained me to give up such a huge battery, but I would be happy once I was done with it.

To have some last bit of fun with it I drifted right into the center of the monolith. I reached out with my mind and pulled the freely available energy to me. Just a little amount was enough to charge me up completely. I was overflowing with mana and if my mind let up what exceeded my natural capacity would drift away from me again.

I pulled on more, only slowly as to not knock myself out, but the steady increase was still almost overwhelming. My insides were filled out with far greater amounts of power than ever before. This was the feeling. I could weave spells an entire magnitude greater than before right now. I would have been able to wreak havoc on the beasts with this much power and I didn't even hold all of the available energy here. It would be so great to be able to hold such a capacity at all times. Then how exhilarating would it have to be if you had an aura like Majal or even Parangante? Definitely something to work to if my life was going to be as long as I feared it would be.

Sadly I remembered that if my aura was this focused, my actions might also be more visible and I believed that at least Prince Nelantis had the capacity to perceive it, though I couldn't say how much he would make out. I was still cloaking myself and that would reduce the visibility of what I did, but with such large amounts of energy I couldn't reach my usual nearly invisible aura.

Still charged up I took a look outside and indeed he was inspecting the monolith. It was no real problem if he only perceived the general flow of energy , but I didn't want him to recognize my humanoid form in the center. It is also weird to take on other forms and I wasn't in the mood to concentrate on that. As long as the outer layers of my overflowing aura had an approximately round shape I shouldn't be visible to him.

I took one last quick look at him. His own aura was so much weaker than my current one. If only I could just rid myself of him, it would not be difficult right now. Still I didn't want to kill someone, just because he was a bit annoying. With this kind of aura I would not have to worry about him overpowering me, at least not by himself.

I shifted my gaze back to the monolith itself. It was time to finish this. I grabbed large quantities of energy and simply pushed them out. It seemed that while I was supercharged myself, I could also move around greater quantities of energy more easily.

Sorceress has increased to level 14.

Soon the surrounding energies thinned out and without the pressure of saturation, the outer layers of my aura began to escape my grasp. With concentration I could still keep it together, but without the abundant surrounding energy as cover I decided to slowly let it go as the work proceeded.

When the energy density had almost become irrelevant, my aura was also back to normal. I didn't exactly feel weak or drained, but I was disappointed and felt small. Slowly I drifted back into my body and sat around for a while, feeling a sense of loss.

Afterwards I got up with the usual troubles and made my way out of the bunker. The entire group of soldiers stood ready behind Prince Nelantis and Captain Ravon.

Prince Nelantis: "It is finished?" I nodded. "The energy flow was very impressive, I could watch it leave the monolith." Then he turned around and said: "Take it down."

A few of the soldiers were holding axes and went over to the monolith which was now nothing more than a normal building. Then they began to cut it down like a tree. I took a closer look at one of the axes and recognized the intent of sharpness and stability on it.

I didn't actually get to see its final destruction. This last step wasn't exactly necessary, but it might make a possible rebuilding just a bit more difficult.

Soon I was awkwardly sitting on a horse and left with most of the remaining forces. There was a kind of ominous feeling in the air that was mostly caused by our fear of retribution. It was already late evening, but we still planned to make the entire way back to town in one go.

It wasn't a problem for me to stay up this long, and with active energy- and good eyesight even the night didn't pose any real issue. It was the riding that I had trouble with.

After only a short while I was sore, and I had to pay enough attention on staying seated and dodging branches that I had no time to do anything else.

Fortunately Arienne and Tarvek were still part of this group and I had some company to pass the time with. Everyone else from the remaining adventurers and town guard had left with the first group.

The topics weren't about any important matters as Arienne and I never got to talk in private. Some time late into the night we caught up with the other group. They had made camp as the entire distance must have been too much for some of them. When we arrived they were already in the process of packing up.

I was just enjoying a few moments on the safety of the ground, when Captain Windon approached me. Was I ever going to get a break?

“Excuse me Miss Shalyne, do you have a moment? Faria woke up, but she is going crazy. Can you take another look at her?”

I followed after him to find the tall woman I had treated before lying on the ground crying. She looked up to me and asked while sobbing:

“Was it you who treated me? I remember things I had almost forgotten. It hurts just to think about it. Can you stop it again? I can't bear remembering all of it.”

I felt a tinge of guilt. My guess was that repairing some parts of her brain might have activated memories she had almost forgotten and were now as fresh as back then. I didn't know what kind of memories they were, but there was no chance that I still remembered all the parts I had fixed, nor their location. And even then I didn't know what might have contributed to her waking up, and what to to her current state of mind.

“I am sorry, I can take a short look, but you will have to deal with this on your own. My current guess is they are some of your old memories, that are more active than they have been before. I can only do damage to you if I try to do anything about it.”

She spoke half to herself: “I thought I had gotten over all this, but it is still there, just like it was back then. This is too much, please take it away.”

Sadly I shook my head. The woman had returned to sobbing and Captain Windon stared into the ground. I decided against searching through her brain again and quietly made myself scarce. In a way I knew I had done the best I could, but it hurt to have it turn out this way. When everything was packed up and we continued on, I was glad that my mind was occupied with riding.

The time I had been active now was very long, but because the exertions were of different kinds, I was able to bear it. But after all that happened I did wish for some time on my own. The sun rose up, and we still continued until we finally arrived in Barlaine in the afternoon.

We stopped at the same place we had started from.

Richard pulled together all the adventurers and told them that the reward would be available at the guild. Nobody seemed too joyful about it.

I hadn't exactly been part of them for this mission, so I wanted to ask someone how I would get my payment. Even after the long trip I wanted to finish this business to avoid further involvement if possible.

Prince Nelantis hadn't been anywhere in sight for a while and since Lieutenant Kite wasn't around since he was sent off with his message, I chose to approach Captain Ravon. He simply directed me to the town hall. Hopefully there would be no delays in receiving the money. Since it was independent of the subjugation force I decided that it could wait for one more day.

For now I just wanted to avoid further involvement in any dangerous missions and get back to a peaceful work schedule and some alone time.

There was one final meetup with the few people I knew.

Brinnia: "I won't participate in any more missions from now on. Please don't look for me, I don't want to be reminded again."

Richard: "Are you sure you won't change your mind after some time? Without you I wouldn't even have survived. You made an important difference out there."

Brinnia: "I will not change my mind. Look for someone else if you want to keep risking your head."

Arienne: "Death is something you have to deal with at times. Life goes on."

Brinnia: "That's easy for you to say! You always just keep blabbering on as if it doesn't even concern you. All of you elves don't even care. I am done here."

Brinnia stormed off and didn't even turn around when Richard called after her. When he saw that it was fruitless he turned back to the rest of us.

"She took it badly, so please don't be offended. It really is a lot to deal with. I will try talking to her in a bit, perhaps she will change her mind after all. What do you all intend to do from now on?"

Tarvek: "Sooner or later I will look for other places, but as long as I am around I will continue to do missions. Just ask me then."

Arienne: "You know I mostly do high level missions. You can invite me if you want to do something like that."

Me: "I want to avoid any more danger. I will just go back to my job at the enchanting shop."

Richard: "I would really enjoy having you as part of my parties. I failed to thank you for your part in saving me. I am truly in your debt. If you come along as backup, I would feel much better."

Me: "I m sorry, I prefer the safety of the town."

Richard: "I suppose this is it then, I wish all of you the best. See you around.

Oh yes, Shalyne you are hurt badly as well, do you need help getting somewhere?"

Arienne: "Look out for yourself, you are also just recovering. I will escort her home."

We split up and Arienne lent me a shoulder to support me on the way back. Those last few meters through the city grew almost unbearably long after being active for this long.

Arienne's eyes had trouble staying up once we passed the threshold into my room. We both dropped into a chair and just sat around for a few minutes. I was physically exhausted, while Arienne seemed to have more trouble with sleepiness.

Me: "It's not very large, but if it is too far for you we can somehow squeeze together and share the bed."

"Thank you, but I just needed a moment. Staying up this long isn't that bad yet. And I also don't swing that way."

"I wasn't...", but she just loudly laughed as she made her way out of the door. I suppose the distance to her own place wasn't too long.

First I just laid down in bed and enjoyed the idling. And this time I was really able to do so a comparatively long time. It would really be nice to doze a bit and let time pass this way. But my mind always remained wide awake. I stared at the empty ceiling in the little light the night provided.

I was still in a relaxed mood and wanted to pass the time with idle thoughts and not immediately get back to the more difficult tasks that would await me sooner or later.

I thought up my Status.

Shalyne

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Class: Sorceress Level 14, Warrior Level 9, Hunter Level 1, Priestess Level 10

Profession: Enchanter Level 6, Scribe Level 16, Gardener,

Herbalist Level 2

Stats:

Strength: 15

Dexterity: 19

Vitality: 27

Endurance: 25

Intelligence: 121

Health: 203/270

Mana: 1210/1210

Mana Regeneration: 12.10 mana/minute

I had grown quite a bit in my stats. Looking at it there was a complete imbalance towards mana though. I still considered myself within the range of the physical abilities of humans on earth, but was steadily growing in my capacity for spells.

Right now that was fine with me. I could utilize that in very different ways and wasn't depending on much physical work. I had begun to observe a slowing of getting additional levels though. While a wide range of mana classes that increased my intelligence stat were available to me through my senses, the rapid growth I had experienced lately would probably soon come to an end.

It was somewhat unfair. I had the suspicion, that other people with similarly strong auras as me had to train a lot longer, because they only achieved that strength with increasing a single or at least fewer classes.

Naturally, truly learning a craft offered different advantages as well, but the purely brutal strength of spells could only be increased with lots of levels. I really wanted to reach the point again I had been at while filling up my aura inside the monolith.

For that I would either have to expend a lot of time on the classes I was already leveling, find more easy to learn mana classes or look for other methods. Right now it wasn't urgent in my opinion, because to be able to tackle with entities like Parangante I would need excessively long amounts of time, and most problems on a smaller scale could be solved with some finesse and preparation.

What I wanted to continue on doing was learning about inscription and about this world. There were more and more questions popping up about things that were so very different from earth. A few of those I could talk to Arienne about now, but depending on the topic Catherine might be the better option, as she was versed in spells and had a more serious outlook on life than the happy go lucky Arienne who probably let a lot of in depth information pass her by, no matter how old she actually was.

There were a few other things I wanted to do, so my next few days wouldn't get boring.

I now felt relaxed enough to get busy again. It was time to bring my body back to peak state, I was sick of all the aches.

Over the last few days I had actually done a lot of the necessary foundation, and when I spent the night on further fixing I basically repaired every remaining wound aside from my skin issues.

Priestess has increased to level 11.

I then began to consider going to the town right away. There was no food left inside my room and I had to grab something sooner or later. I decided to put off going to work right away, that could wait one more day. I also could wait a bit longer with eating.

The question that bothered me was whether to fix my skin now. With some luck I wouldn't run into the prince again, so the decision was up to personal preference and convenience.

Getting gawked at for being disfigured wasn't a huge concern to me per se. What annoyed me were looks of pity and time spent asking about my health.

I looked around the room, but naturally in such a cheap place there was no mirror. Watching myself from the outside didn't really give me the kind of information of how I looked.

Could I somehow make myself something like a replacement? The window's glass was too rough for a proper look, and that also didn't work while it was day. I looked for metal plates, but everything was either stone or wood. I might want to move to a nicer place soon.

Magic it is then. I needed a surface or area, that completely reflected light. Unmoving. The windows would do, but I still wanted to be able to look outside. So I went over to the wardrobe and focused on the feel a mirror gave off. How it simply threw light back. I casted the enchant and voila, the door became a rough mirror. The surface wasn't really plane, so the effect wasn't the best possible, but it would certainly do.

I had deliberately cast the enchant from the side, so I wouldn't immediately see myself on the surface. I took in a breath and stepped in front.

The fact that so far I had deliberately delayed the healing, but always had the option available helped a lot to deal with the sight. It still was gruesome. I had conflicting emotions about the woman in the mirror. I had grown used to who I was a little, but was self-conscious about it all the same.

Now my reflection, while I had a nice figure, looked simply awful. Should I even be concerned about it? After all I still couldn't fully consider this myself. The body continued to feel borrowed.

But I wasn't happy how I now looked either. When I had seen myself in the clothing shop, it had also been pleasing, though I didn't know how to deal with that.

I watched as the reflection moved her hands over her face, opening the hands enough to look through with the eyes. I felt the roughness of the skin.

There was no conscious decision, but after watching myself a bit longer I laid back in bed and got busy with my face. Compared to the complexity of organs the scars on the skin were only on a superficial level. I had to move it to the right place and take care of uneven and superfluous parts.

I was finished soon enough and returned to my improvised mirror. From the neck down the skin remained ugly, but my face looked back with its old perfection. I was a bit happy there, it might grow on me yet.

I turned away again and took care of those parts of my body that were outwardly visible, like the neck and hands. The rest had to wait, but at least I was presentable again.

Now that I felt almost completely healthy, aside from some itching on the remaining areas of the skin I had not yet fixed, I felt the urge to clean myself. I conjured up some water, being grateful how much mana I had to spare by now, and cleaned myself from top to bottom. I put on new clothes, but had to make do with the pair of not all that well fitting shoes the shoemaker had originally given me.

Then I went into town. It is incomparable to move around freely after a few days of serious pain. I had to hold in some light hopping here and there.

My first stop was the city hall. I went up to the receptionist and asked for the money. I had to wait for someone who certainly must have been a bit more important to come over, and then sign a receipt that I had received the money. I wondered how little trouble there had been with my identification aside from that. Either this world was that chaotic, or I stood out enough for it not to matter to the receptionist. I doubted there was any place that could get by without unnecessary amounts of bureaucracy. If there was a hell, it would certainly even top that. The little bit Arienne had told me about the strangeness of the world might explain how it could be difficult for certain structures to emerge fully.

I suddenly felt almost rich. I had gotten by on coppers and silvers until now, but now I owned a proud 25 pieces of gold, though fortunately some of it was split up into silver at my request.

Equipped this well I treated myself to some proper food in a restaurant.

Next up was the shop of the shoemaker, where I had to endure his ranting about my carelessness. At least I didn't have to take the measurements again, as he still had them around.

Then I went to buy food and brought it back to my house. One issue I suddenly had to deal with was where I should put the money. Keeping it in the house didn't feel safe, but carrying everything around all the time wasn't the best idea either. Perhaps I should go looking for a bank, but I still didn't trust in my identification, and if there were ever problems I might just lose the money without any official right to claim it. Perhaps I would just dig a hole somewhere. For now I kept it on me.

I decided to pay Catherine a visit to ask her about some questions I had. At first I was a bit tense, and unsure if the strength of the animal population around here had increased, but the wolf packs were laughable as usual.

When I arrived, I knocked on the door of Catherine's hut, but didn't get an answer. I was hardly surprised, as she had been inside her alchemy shack almost all day while I had lived here. I did however remember, that she had told me she would be out for a while to get some ingredients. That had been a few days ago by now, so I hoped I would be able to meet her.

I was lucky and there was some activity inside the shack. I knocked on the door and spoke out: “Hello, it's me, Shalyne.”

“I'll be out in a moment.”

A quarter later Catherine came out, simply stating: “There was something I had to finish. We haven't seen each other in a while, what brings you out here?”

The way she looked irritated me a bit. Healthier or even younger. She must have realized as she added:

“The latest batch of potions worked wonders, I intend to keep it for myself. If you want to sell some more blood, I will take you up on the offer.”

“No thank you, there are just some questions I would like to ask. Arienne found out about some of my background and I could talk to her, but I would prefer some in depth information if possible.”

“Then lets go over into the house.”

We went inside and Catherine prepared a tea for both of us. Before I could ask anything, she opened up instead:

“The current situation has me worried. Before you start asking your questions, can you tell me what you experienced on your trip to the monolith?”

She was well enough informed for someone who was staying mostly out of town. I recounted the events, only leaving out the specifics of the decomposing and anything relating to my energy body.

Catherine considered what I had said for quite some time before she finally said:

“I don't know the situation in your home world, but here it is nothing unusual for dangerous situations to arise. Perhaps a necromancer starts to summon an army of dead before he is put down, or just like now the animals are going wild. Any single powerful being can create a lot of chaos just on his own.

After hearing what you just said I have made up my mind. For the time being I will leave Barlaine. I have decided to go to the Culian Empire in the west. It is possible the Varieste Kingdom will handle the situation, but there are other events that led me to my decision. I don't know if everything is related, I have never been one who is interested in the plays of the world. But if you reach a certain age you see things repeat themselves. And Barlaine, or perhaps even the entire Kingdom might soon enter a period of chaos. I advise you to leave as well, if you want you can join me.”

I began to consider her words. Of course I didn't have Catherine's experience or common sense. Until now I had trusted in the elite reserves of the kingdom to be able to handle the situation. But if other events were causing trouble as well, then the illusion of safety might be a fickle one. Still, I wanted to stay at the enchanter's shop for as long as possible. Earning large amounts of coin and learning more of the craft were too tempting to me to resist.

“Thank you for your offer. I am not tied down here long term, but I think I want to stay a bit longer. If the situation escalates I am sure I can still get somewhere safe.”

“Then I wish you the best. It's possible nothing serious might happen, but I didn't reach my age by taking unnecessary risks. If you want to, you can ask away now.”

“The first question is simple actually. What town is Elenigal?”

“It's no town, it is the capital city of the elves. It is somewhere far to the east of here. That's not how you get there though. The forest we border on is not inhabited and stretches on for far too long. The quickest way is to cross the gray lands to the southeast, but you need to prepare a lot of rations for that. There you will arrive in the lands of the beast people. From there you can get to the elven empire to the northeast.

Elenigal itself is build next to the world tree. It's as high as a mountain, so you will know the location of the capital from far away. Arienne could have answered that question, if there is anything she knows, it's fighting and geography.”

“I know, I just thought of it now and wanted to check it off. What I am really interested in is where I can find good information about plane traveling.”

“You know much more about the topic than me and I haven't given it much thought either. Let me think for a bit.”

She began to consider and then listed a few possibilities.

“There won't be any normal people with knowledge about it, the only chance you have is a pure chance meeting. I never looked for it, but I doubt there are any openly available books either. If you really want to increase your chances you will have to look for very rare collections or incredibly powerful people. That means either some nobles or even royalty. Then there are ... distinct personalities out there, but you would have to look for the right ones, because I doubt many will be knowledgeable.

I'm afraid that is already all the advise I can give you.”

That was basically all information I could have guessed myself, but I still gave her my thanks. Then I went over to the last question, the one I had more expectations to hear about from her.

“We haven't talked about it before, but there is something I need as much information about as possible. What can you tell me about light, dark and attunement?”

“I must admit that is a topic I would like to talk about myself. Will you tell me your knowledge in return?”

By now I wasn't as reluctant to share some of my information anymore, although I still wanted to keep my dual affinity a complete secret. Whatever it was that I feared, I wanted to stay in the shadows as much as possible when it came to this. It had been abnormal in the game, and so far I got the impression the same was true for this world. The few things I had heard overlapped with the lore of Ascension far too well, and then there was the fact that I had been to a wasteland of both elements, and a land of pure dark. There was a far greater reality, that encompassed more than just one world. Until I learned about it, I would not share my situation.

What else I knew though, I was willing to share, with Catherine at least. It was possible to avoid sharing if I looked for another source of information, but asking certain questions would be difficult then.

“Yes, I will share what I know.”

“Very well. In a way you are lucky you arrived at the current time. There was a war between light and dark on our world long ago, but I can't tell you when it actually was. In the end the gods intervened and set a decree, that this conflict was forbidden. Nowadays any conflicts are at most at a personal level. Some small groups of either side try to stir things up, but before it gets too big the local authorities usually suppress it before any higher being has to intervene.

Most of the attuned do not even care about the conflict and just walk it as a personal path. I am attuned to the dark, but have absolutely no interest in competing with the light. Otherwise we could hardly have our current relationship. You should still be careful whenever you meet someone else though, they might not share my sentiment.

I will tell you some general information about attunement now. You might already know all this, but I would still like to compare with you.

You can increase the affinity to your chosen attunement by performing actions that fit with the element. Before you are attuned, you have to stick with those actions, or differing ones will decrease the affinity and push you towards the other side. It is impossible to have both at once.

When you pass a certain threshold, you can go to one of the temples to finalize it. From then on the element is bound to you and you can't change it again. Any further action will only increase the attunement, never decrease it.

The actions you can take for that are very far fetched and difficult to define in my opinion. There are theories that sometimes the same action, done with different intention can lead to the increase of a different element, so I don't believe light and dark are defined very tightly. This is the only way I know to reach your attunement, but once you have it, there is a method that is far superior.

You begin to use the element you have gained directly and it will grow that way. It is still a very slow process, but the spells you use grow in power. Even if you do not increase the quantity of your mana, the potency of these spells will still increase a bit.

The ways you can use the powers vary, but the most common ones are healing for light and perception for dark. I suppose those are just the ways people like to make use of the attributes of the elements the most. You could also use light for charisma or dark for hiding. The options are plenty.”

We both leaned back and drank our tea. The information had so many parallels with the game Ascension, that I had begun to consider it to be more than just a game. To be honest I had done so since the moment I had left earth, but now the lore itself began to increase in importance as well.

I began to pour my thoughts into my own explanation:

“Where I came from, there was no conflict between light and dark. If there was, it was on a purely individual level. Supremacists who fought the other side” I had to stop, but didn't come up with another reason “for fun.”

Catherine looked at me strangely. “I can't really comprehend why anyone in our world would fight for light or dark, but at least there are motivations like power and profit behind it.”

“There might have been the one or other gain to it, but there were no actual sides to take. Well I suppose those who made these choices were a strange bunch anyway.

We had a more rewarding method to progress in one of the elements. There were a few defined actions that you could be sure of would increase your attunement. To increase light, you would go on straightforward quests, and be just.”

“That is no different in our world. But you can't just spend your entire time fulfilling such tasks. Most people have to do simple work. How many attuned does your world have?”

It was time to put everything into proportion. A game world does work a little different after all, and if I kept throwing out strange ingame realities, I might have to explain how there was yet another place behind that world I came from. It wasn't that I wanted to keep earth a secret, I wasn't very fond of her at this time, but there was an even greater cut off between my current self and my body on earth than to my game avatar. I would have to explain so much more if I wanted to explain earth and I didn't consider that worth the time. Aside from that I didn't want to talk about my sex change.

The number of attuned in Ascension was very high compared to this world, but I would make it sound a bit less.

“I was only talking about the attuned people. Attunement was more important on my world than here and there were also a lot of temples. But the normal working population didn't reach that point anymore than here.” Only that the working population back there was really small. Next to anyone would mostly do quests. At least enough to be able to attune.

“Attunement to dark was a lot more individual. If you strayed from the path the masses took, you could increase your affinity. Then there were also thieves or assassins, those who thrive in the dark in other ways than just by using the element.”

“That's actually the same as here. I had hoped there was something new I could learn.”

I actually felt a bit bad, that my information so far had been useless to her, while for me clarifying the situation on this world was of vital importance. That was the reason I decided to add a bit more specific information.

“The perception for the same element increases the higher your attunement gets. While everyone with aura perception could see the attunement of other people, there were certain things that only became visible with higher affinity.”

In contrast to before, this information seemed to have sparked Catherine's real interest. She asked:

“What kind of things did you see?”

“There were sparks of light at certain places, like at the temples. It was possible to receive information regarding to the element there. I am not sure about the dark, but it must have been the same.”

I realized that what I just said might be relevant for me now too. There had been many such places inside the game, and in the gray lands motes of light and dark had been everywhere, but I hadn't yet encountered anything like it in this place. The only times I encountered either light or dark so far had been when I saw other attuned people. Catherine had that touch of dark in her aura. Prince Nelantis only had the beginnings of a light aura and wasn't there yet.

I tried to think of other situations. I wasn't sure if there had been people in Barlaine, but I had at most seen them passing by. Lord Quay actually had an aura of dark, even denser than Catherine's. And then there was the strange light I sometimes saw around Arienne, but it was not part of her own aura. She never told me more about her strange 'luck', so I had to observe any further events.

Catherine spoke out: “I haven't been to the temple in a very long time. I wonder if I could perceive something different now. My attunement has gotten much stronger since then. I should make a stop there when I reach the empire.”

“So you are really leaving?”

“Even if I didn't want to avoid what might come, I have been here long enough anyway. You can only learn so much about alchemy and plants in the same place. I have been in the empire before, but it is large and there are many different places to settle down for a few years.”

“Do you already know where exactly you are going? If the situation here really escalates I might want to catch up to you.”

“I am sorry, all this is a bit sudden and I will have to make up my mind on the way. We might see each other again someday. I try to avoid danger, and you can probably withstand at least some kinds of death. That reminds me, I should probably visit my daughter before too long...”