I woke up in a dimly lit room with a headache. This was pretty consistent with my unfortunately vast experience as an unconscious person, so it actually took me a second to remember why that wasn't where I was supposed to be. If my people had been around, I'd have got it, Callie or Benny or even Abel might have toted my metal clad ass back to the inn to sleep off my soul trauma hangover.

But I HADN'T been with my friends. I'd been mostly alone with a bunch of randoms I didn't know, and I'd just won a PRIZE. Honestly, passing out would have been legitimately stupid of me if I'd had any actual control over it happening. My sole saving grace here was that if I was beat up from that anyone else should have been just as crushed.

"You're awake," said a voice from the dark. Not like…inside the dark, FROM the dark. A literal shadow manifested from the unlit portions of the room…in the shape of my wife. Who did not look pleased with me. At all.

I chuckled weakly. "Hi honey, fancy seeing you here. Guess you really missed me, huh?"

"To clarify a point you apparently missed," she said as she glared at me. " 'Don't do this until D-rank, it'll definitely kill you, but even after that wait until you condense your Chronicle', does NOT mean 'once you hit D-rank it'll probably be fine'. And it definitely doesn't mean you should not only ignore the very considerate advice not to use your pseudo Domain, but MAKE ANOTHER ONE!" She was hissing like a snake by the end, her eyes narrowed in incandescent rage.

I swallowed hard. She didn't get this angry with me very often, especially not lately. I must have really scared her. "In my defense…it seemed ok the first time?"

"Shane!" she barked. "You could have DIED. Permanently. If your soul breaks before Mirror you're gone forever. No resurrection, no wishes, not even a GOD could bring you back!" Her voice was choked, tears streaming down her face. I didn't even know the shadow clones could cry. "Do you really care that little about me? That it doesn't even bother you to nearly kill yourself less than a year after our wedding?"

That one hit me like a punch in the gut. "I…I honestly didn't think about it like that." I said softly. "I should've. It was selfish and stupid and I let my ego run away with me. I could say that I need the Gluttony domain to survive this…and honestly it might be true. But I didn't make a conscious decision to take the risk, and I won't pretend I did. I was just being an idiot. I thought since I got through it before that I'd be fine. What happened to me? Can you tell?"

"Your soul is cracked," she whispered. "And it's very weak right now. Life Nova will help. You're lucky your bullshit healing form works on soul damage. Your mom had an expert on hand teach me how to diagnose soul damage. She's furious by the way, and if straining the bond too much wasn't dangerous, she would be here right now yelling at you."

I winced. "Ok, so what do I need to do besides Life Nova. Beelzebub should let me use it on myself. I assume there's something else though. You don't just sound angry, you sound afraid."

"You can't use more than two forms at a time for the next week. Your healing will need to come first. I talked to that red metal woman, Elena, when she got you back here. We owe her a thank you, by the way." She hesitated. "But theres another trial in five days. Which means…"

"Which means," I finished. "That I'm going to have to tank the next torture trial with sheer willpower, without any cheating abilities beyond Mornax to keep my body intact."

Which wasn't as impossible as it sounded. The reason I had injured myself was that I'd been trying to WIN, not just survive. Speaking of winning, I reached into my ring, pulling out the egg that I'd gotten from the island.

"By the way, think you could ask Jessie if she has any clue what this is?" I asked hopefully/. "Seems like a long shot, honestly, and I'll ask Bernadette when I see her, but a little extra info couldn't hurt." She stared at me impassively for a second, and I felt the indecision through the bond. Callie was scared, and hurt, and angry…but she was also relieved. She was glad I was ok, and she didn't necessarily want to focus on our fight any more than I did.

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

That might have been a cop out on my part, really. I was on the other side of the galaxy on a suicide mission, of course she didn't want things to be awkward. Changing the subject was more for me than for her, but it was for her a little bit. Being in a fight was going to make her already hellish experience waiting for something bad to happen to me worse, and I didn't want that.

"I'll have her check," she finally said with a sigh. "It does seem like it could be something cool. You, meanwhile, need to go see your friends. Your apprentice was about to try to fight every person who was at that trial with you." She smirked. "I like her. She's gutsy. Hopelessly outclassed and unaware of her own limits, but then, I wonder where she got that from?"

This time, the jab was light hearted, with only a little sting. She walked over and sat on the bed, removing my mask to give me a soft kiss and then press her forehead to mine. "I was promised a long life together, Shane Wyndham. If you die and cheat me out of that, I will hunt you down in whatever afterlife you end up in and kick your incorporeal ass. Just…be safe? Safer than this at least."

"I'll figure something out," I promised. "I can't tell you I'll never use my domains again, but I'll talk to Zeke. There has to be some way to protect my soul until I finish my Chronicle. Maybe some equipment or something that can offset the strain."

I expected her to snap at me to just quit trying to use the ability. I might have done that, if it was her in the bed. Instead, she paused. "That's…an interesting idea. I don't know how viable it might be. But we do have the rings to transfer things to you. I'll talk to your mom. Even if Zeke can't help, maybe she can. In the meantime, your soul is on bedrest. If I feel you straining it beyond what we talked about, I will NEVER forgive you. You hear me Shane? No cute little quips about withholding sex or kicking your ass. If you ignore me and hurt yourself in a way that can't be fixed, you'll be breaking my heart. I don't know if we'll ever get past it." She was crying again, and I started to panic.

"Whoa!" I said as I wrapped my arms around her. "I'm not stupid or suicidal. I don't think things through, but I would never purposefully ignore you for no reason and hurt myself. No more than two forms at a time, Life Nova healing, no domains. I promise."

"And no more than one or two parallels," she added. "You know how Piece of Mind scales. If you desperately need more than that offload the strain to the bond. But even that should wait until your first Life Nova session. Which I expect to be tonight. As soon as you finish talking to whoever you need to speak to about winning. Now put your mask back on, remember it protects you from divination."

With a laugh, I scooped it off the bed and deposited it back on my face. "Well?" I asked her expectantly. "Don't I look pretty?"

"Yes," she deadpanned. "Pretty frustrating. I love you, Shane. I'm sorry I got so mad. I just…I should be there. We should be together, like always. I know you don't need me, that you can do things on your own-"

"Bullshit," I spat. "I'll always need you. And I'm never on my own. We're always in this together Callie, every day. Telling you what I went through, pulling on your strength when I need it. Feeling you there supporting me. You ARE here. We are together. And we always will be. And that's why I know I can do this, even if you aren't physically present."

Her eyes closed and she exhaled a shaky breath. "I hate her," she said quietly. "I hate her so much for doing this to us. For showing up at our wedding and taking you away and making you do this."

"Don't," I replied simply. "It's tempting, to rage and spit and despise. But don't. It's dangerous. She's not a person. Not a human being. She's a WORLD. And until we reach that point in our own right, we can't allow ourselves to focus on our anger. The toxic hope of maybe pulling off a miracle would be insidious. Treat her like a force of nature. If I fall and break my leg I don't hate gravity."

She snorted. "You can be so cold-blooded sometimes. I don't really control who I hate."

"Well you need to," I told her. " I won't lose you because you decided you thought you saw an opening that didn't exist and took a shot at a deity. Those kinds of emotions put you in danger. Just…don't. If you need to cool off, draw from my fear through the bond, that should put things in perspective."

"Why can't you be this introspective about trying to murder yourself?" she snapped.

I shrugged. "Well, I can't be right all the time, other people deserve a turn too. Besides, you should be glad I have introspective moments, otherwise you just married an idiot."

"Cute how you think those things are mutually exclusive," she snickered. "I'm glad you're safe." She leaned in and gave me a tight hug. "Now get out there and explain my existence to your competitors. Kind of a moot point getting you to commit to be careful if you get bounced for cheating or something."

"I don't think I CAN cheat," I said slowly. "But yeah, I get you." She was being careful not to use the word spy. None of our current conversation should be observable with the mask and all, but better safe than sorry. We hadn't exposed any big secrets, using vague terms like 'your mom' and Zeke's civilian name which could belong to anyone.

She melted back into the shadows, and I took a moment to compose myself and think of an explanation as I rose and stretched. I still felt like shit. Callie was right, I needed that Life Nova treatment asap. Another thing to add to the list.

Walking to the door, I got myself in order before opening it, stepping out into the hallway. I was immediately struck with a human shaped missile as my apprentice tackled me in a surprisingly bone crushing hug. "Master! You're ok! I was so worried. They said you had soul damage, are you going to be alright?"

I shouldn't be surprised that they noticed, but thinking about it critically it might have been a lucky break. My domain was kind of bullshit, and it would draw way less attention if they thought I had to kill myself to use it. Which, admittedly, I kind of did. For now.

"I'm fine, Bella," I laughed, ruffling her hair. She swatted at my hands, which made me laugh harder. "Is Bernadette here? Or Elena?" I was anxious to talk to literally anyone who knew what was going on with the trials. At her nod, I sighed in relief, then gestured for her to go ahead. "Alright, well, take me to them. I have questions." I also had a feeling this would be a long night.