“Please no!” a voice shouted. “Please don’t kill us.”

“Take me, you monster,” another woman said, “but let my children live!”

I looked around to see Kai pacing on the ship’s decks, spreading death and gore around him. His golden body illuminated the corridors as he walked by. He stopped in front of a closet and turned to face it.

Without him touching it, a blast of golden energy smashed the door open. Kai continued walking down the corridor but I heard a thump from the closet and a hand appeared out of it, hanging limp. I could not see the body, but I could tell from the size of it. It was a child’s hand.

I woke up sweating and holding my breath. I had to tell myself that it wasn’t Kai, just something that looked like him. I turned around, still in my bed and saw him sitting at our big table, surrounded by books.

The poor child. If he remembers half of what I saw in my nightmare, of course it would be enough to bring him to the edge.

I wasn’t going to let that happen though. I had already let him down one too many times. I would figure out a way to get that almighty force out of him. He would be the sweet boy that I grew up with again.

I got out of bed and approached him. He was deep in his studies and only realized I was awake when I was almost upon him.

“Hey, Myriam,” he said, with an apologetic expression on his face. “Was I too loud? Did I wake you up?”

“Not at all,” I replied, and kissed the top of his head. “It’s almost dawn and we’ve got some way to travel yet. What are you reading there?”

“I found a lot of these books in our library,” he said, looking excited to be reading again. “They have lots of stories about gods and heroes. This one here is about a wizard called Magaer that managed to teleport to the sun. Myriam, he walked on the sun and returned to tell the tale!”

I felt a wave of sadness hit me as he expressed his enthusiasm. Of course I was happy that he was excited about something, though at the same time I couldn’t help but feel sad that he wouldn’t be reading spell casting books anymore, since they would be useless to him.

He had been such a dutiful student and his spell repertoire was almost as big as people twice his age. Yet now he was infatuated with books about myths and tales.

It was a great loss to the world, but I guessed it would bring us no good if I let my disappointment show. There was nothing I could actually do about his having no mana, so instead I smiled.

“He really did that?” I asked, and tried my best to look stunned. “Can you tell me how he managed it?”

I took a chair and sat myself down, not taking my eyes off of Kai, interested in his story. I was not actually that interested in the tale itself but more in the fact that Kai was interested in it. We spent some time with him recounting the details of Magaer’s trip to the sun and back, and then we proceeded to prepare breakfast.

As we ate, he recited another of Magaer’s adventures, this time involving him riding a dragon up to an island floating in the sky.

Once we had finished eating, we had one more look at the map that we’d procured from the captain’s cabinet and calculated how long it would be before we reached the middle of the forest we were in, something that would bring us closer to Leka An, while staying as far away as possible from any inhabited place.

We both climbed up the stairs and stepped out into the forest clearing that we’d placed our chest in. We removed the protective barrier and summoned our steads. The forest was thick and grew even thicker as we traveled so we couldn’t ride fast, but it was still faster and less tiring than walking.

Riding at a slower pace allowed us to take in the scenery of the forest though. The plants and trees were so different than the ones back home.

Their leaves were thicker, the branches were longer and the colors were more vibrant, or at least they seemed that way to us. Where thorny bushes might have been common in the forests surrounding Nara, low leaf growth and long hanging vines were dominant here.

The most familiar thing was the sound of birds. Even though we heard some calls that we could not recognize, most of them sounded exactly like those in the forests of Elysia. Birds were obviously not hindered by the Endless Sea, but now neither were we.

We had a quick snack without stopping and reached the place we had selected before noon. After some detailed reconnaissance of our surroundings, we decided that this area would serve perfectly as our isolated hideout.

We briefly discussed where we should place our chest and agreed on putting it in the hollow of a giant tree. I couldn’t recognize the tree itself, but its trunk was so massive that the hollow created in it was large enough to fit two adults.

What’s more, the branches had thick leaves on them and hung very low, many of them low enough even to touch the ground. This naturally created a curtain, which provided additional coverage and was more than welcome.

The first step in setting up camp was casting a seeming spell just on the perimeter of the tree.

Name : Raise the Veil

School of Magic : Illusion

Verbal Components : 64 words

Somatic Components : Simple

Material Component : None

HP Consumed : 0

MP Consumed : 0

Divine Mana Consumed : 6,600

Range : 700 inches

Casting Time : 2,100 seconds

Precondition : None.

Description : A veil of illusion is thrown on an area of the caster’s selection, no larger than sphere of 10ft. This veil would conceal anything that enters it after it has been cast, leaving the outsiders looking at what used to be, instead of what actually is. This illusion will last for 24 hours.

The spell had multiple degrees of difficulty, but since I did not want to change the form of the tree nor make something that was not there appear, I only needed to cast the 64-word form of the incantation for around thirty-five minutes.

When complete, the tree would look exactly as it was with the only exception being that whenever we walked into the seeming bubble, we would not be visible outside of it and neither would our chest or anything that was not there when we arrived.

The second step was making the spell persist. The original spell would last for a whole day, but since we would be staying here for quite some time, I wanted to have it stay until I dispelled it. And so I cast a simple 16-word spell persistence enchantment.

Name : Resist Time

School of Magic : Enchantment

Verbal Components : 16 words

Somatic Components : Simple

Material Component : None

HP Consumed : 0

MP Consumed : 0

Divine Mana Consumed : 100/second of target spell’s casting time

Range : 700 inches

Casting Time : 7,200 seconds

Precondition : None.

Description : Renders a spell permanent status.

The enchantment was fairly easy to remember and cast, but it needed my full concentration for the two hours of casting time. The cost of the making the spell permanent was quite steep considering what I had been using so far but there was no way around it.

Kai stood guard while I was occupied, though it was more like a couple of hours enjoying nature as there was nothing that even hinted at a threat.

Once that was taken care of, we moved to the third and final part, which was creating a protective barrier. We set up gem-bearing stakes in the ground forming a very tight perimeter of invisible walls.

This would block anyone except the two of us from walking into the hollow under the tree. Finally, I activated a magic-masking orb.

Item : Orb of Magic Concealment

Type : Magic Item

Durability : 2629/3200

Grade : C Grade

Weight : 20st.

Description : An orb that extends a concealment mana field in the shape of a sphere, spanning 50ft. on all sides. The orb will stop anyone with magical sight to detect the mana flow of items and spells in effect. The orb has a life expectancy of 10,800 hours of continuous use.

I wondered how likely this was on the southern continent, but I wasn’t going to take any risks.

We were safe at last. I had brought Kai to the other side of the Endless Sea, away from the grasp of anyone who believed in The Divine. Everything had turned out well in the end. But this didn’t feel like the end of our journey. Rather a new beginning.

Satisfied with the work we’d done on our hideout, and seeing that the forest was getting dark, we decided to climb back down to our abode in the chest. We prepared a lavish dinner while discussing our plans for visiting the jungle city of Yubna for the first time the next day.

“Kai, I’d like to talk to you about something,” I said, as soon as we were done eating.

“Sure,” he replied, and relaxed into his chair.

“I know you don’t want to talk about it, but I just want you to know that I will find a way to get that thing out of you.”

“I know.” He smiled so wide that I could see his teeth. “You said that you would take care of it, and I believe you.”

“That’s the spirit,” I said, to him as much as to myself. “We have a vast pool of knowledge in all the books we recovered… I’m sure that we’ll find something to take that burden off your shoulders.”

“Maybe even restore The Divine Itself?” he asked, and I thought I saw a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

“Maybe even that,” I replied, not wanting to dampen his enthusiasm. There was a moment of quiet and then Kai spoke again.

“Myriam?” He lowered his eyes. “I don’t want to study any more spells though. At least not until we’re sure that we can restore The Divine.” I could see that he was worried.

“I wouldn’t recommend it either,” I said, standing up and walking over to him. “The stories that you’re reading now seem so much more interesting, to be honest.”

“They are much more fun than studying,” he admitted, and stood up as well. “But also… I want to go out more. I want to see the wild and animals. I want to explore!

I smiled. “I don’t see why we can’t do that. Spellcasters are rare around these parts anyway. We can prepare provisions and go on trips whenever we want to.”

“I already like it here, Myriam,” he said, and hugged me with all his might.

“I think I’ll like it here too,” I replied and returned his hug. “We’ll have a great time here. The two of us.”

And I will find a way to release the monster hidden in you.