Chapter 8

“Compatible. Subject. Found. Initiating. Automatic. Self-preservation. Transfer.” echoed throughout the chamber as I felt the gem in my hand starting to heat up. Unlike what happened outside, my mana wasn’t sucked out; instead, it was like someone or something was trying to push in their own mana into mine and mixing them together. The gem was filling my mana pool with mana from the tower, but my relatively small mana pool was only able to hold a minuscule amount, compared to how much the tower had in storage.

After my mana was full, the voice spoke out again “Not. Enough. Room. For. Full. Transfer. Initiating. Safety. Protocol.”

“Wait, what safety protocol?” was the only thing I managed to get out, before a wave of immense pain lanced through me, knocking me off my feet. I fell on the floor, with my back arched and teeth gritted, as I felt the gem was severing portions of my mana. I was sure it was hacking off portions of my mana pool and afterward stitching it back together, using the mana mixture it created earlier.

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“I must have passed out again, I really need to stop doing that.” I murmured, as I woke up next to the four-poster bed. I was covered in sweat and dust, and I didn't feel the excruciating pain from earlier. As I tried to stand up, my body felt extremely weak, I could hardly get myself up to a sitting position.

I took hold of one of the posts on the bed and slowly started to pull myself up, and as I got to my feet, the whole room began to spin, and I promptly fell on the bed next to me. “You must be more cautious Master, what we just did will take time to recover from.” echoed a female voice around the room.

“Who are you,” I asked the empty room around me. That same female voice announced in a quiet tone “I cannot say, Master, you haven’t given me a name yet.” I let out a sigh, as another question plundered out of my mouth “Okay then, let’s try this another way. What are you?”

“I am the… the...” she sounded puzzled, like she ought to know the answer, but had forgotten it. “I am sorry, but I don’t know Master. I’m a part of this place and a part of you now. But I think I was something else before.”

“And what is this place exactly” I inquired. 

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“This place is you and me together, us sharing the same space.” she sounded happy announcing this. 

“That doesn’t make any sense, what do you mean ‘us sharing the same space’” I was starting to get annoyed by her answers.

She stayed quiet for a few seconds before saying “This place is our own little sanctum, build by our combined mana.”

 I began to rub my temples slowly and said: “Well, where is this sanctum of ours located then?”

“Like I said Master, this place is you and me combined inside our mana pool.”

I was stunned for a moment, before exclaiming loudly “ Are you saying what I think you are saying? That we are currently inside me, in my mana pool?” 

She let out an audible sigh ”No Master, we are inside OUR mana pool, not just yours. As our mana combined, I became a permanent part to you. I am as much a part of you as you are a part of me.”

This was getting crazier by the minute, I really needed to get out of this room and clear my head. Taking a quick look around the place I noticed it had changed, there was no door next to the armoire anymore. Feeling my heart starting to beat faster, I tried to pull myself off the bed, and as I did so, I realized there was no skeleton on the bed next to me either. Quickly getting off the bed I stumbled towards the armoire, searching for any signs of the door but didn't find any. It was like there never was a door here. I turned on my Arcane manipulation, thinking that some strange magic must be messing with me.

What I saw took me by surprise, everything in this place seemed to have been made out of mana, and not only that it was clearly my mana, mixed with red veins that weren’t there before. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before saying “So if this place is inside me, then how do I get out?”.

With my Arcane manipulation still active, I could see the red veins that were mixed in with my mana, pulsating as the voice answered “Inside us Master. We can go back to the real world by going to the library and using the same portal you used to get here. But are you sure you want to leave now? It is still raining outside, and the tower is gone.”

“What do you mean the tower is gone,” I asked.

She seemed to be pondering for a proper answer before saying “That tower was the mana pool of my previous self and someone else.”.

“ How is that possible, it was a solid object when I touched it” I uttered in disbelief.

“Master, apparently they created it to collect mana from surroundings, to prolong their life, as my previous selfs host was dying. But I don’t know how they accomplished such a thing.”

“You seem to know an awfully many things thing about your past life, without actually knowing what you are,” I noted to her.

She answered in a sombre tone “I am sorry Master, but when we went through our fusion, to become one being. Apparently, my previous self had to seal off a lot of her knowledge to make me fit in here. But don’t worry master as we get stronger, and our mana pool grows. I’m sure we’ll get her old knowledge back.”

“Fine, if you really are a part of me I might as well make most out of this situation. So what can you tell me about magic.”