Sophie returned to the shrine’s entryway with Elowen floating close behind. She had left the cabinet open that held the stone, and she stared at with no small amount of trepidation. The mana buzzing through her from the tea helped boost her confidence, allowing her to take a step forward and confront it again. The Magewort definitely had some sort of different effect than Acacia’s mana bread – that was a sort of warm, mellow feeling whereas this had sharper edges.

She wasn’t sure the taste was worth it though. Maybe if she could find some sugar?

Regardless, she placed her hand back on the shrine stone, feeling for a connection again. It would not scare her off this time. She was determined. She had to figure this out for Elowen’s sake. Even if she was only Level 5, surely there was something she could do.

This time, instead of channeling her mana into the stone again, she held back a bit. She poked at the connection, remembering something from the day before. Something from when she first gained Mana Sense and tried working with the stone.

She wasn’t sure what she was looking for exactly, until she felt it again. That tugging that she had noticed before. Something pulling at the stone – a bond.

The Understanding washed over her suddenly, so startling that she broke the connection to the stone, her mana reserves still mostly intact other than a trickle that had left during her exploration.

“I think I can sense your bond,” she half-whispered and turned to Elowen.

Elowen looked startled at the revelation. “Oh,” she said, and then she looked away.

Sophie glanced back at the stone again. “If I can sense it…” She put together the pieces of information that came with the Understanding. “If I can sense it like that, is it possible that I could unbind you?”

“Oh, no –” Elowen said suddenly. She floated in front of Sophie, her eyes wide, causing Sophie to take a step back from the stone’s cabinet. “Oh, you mustn’t. It’s not safe.”

She seemed honestly fearful that Sophie would do it, although Sophie had some doubts that she’d be able to remove the bond of an ageless shrine spirit anyway. But she was still curious about the idea. “Why not?”

Elowen frowned at the question and shook her head again. “The bond is my source of mana at the moment. I am – well, I am far too weak to sustain myself without it.”

Sophie mulled this over. “Can’t I just move your bond to something else?”

Elowen hesitated for a long moment, but eventually answered. “Perhaps,” she admitted. “You could. In theory. But – it’s dangerous. If the mana runs out, I’d become unbound.”

“Well, we’d just rebind you again, right?”

“It’s not that easy…” Elowen said. “I might – well I might lose control and bind to something randomly if my mana gets too low. Being unbound… it’s too risky.”

“Well, it’s your decision,” Sophie reassured her. “I’m not just going to unbind you if you don’t want me to try. I’m honestly not sure I’d even be able to do it anyway…”

Elowen frowned again and eventually floated away from Sophie, seemingly conflicted. Sophie felt a little confused by the whole interaction. But she supposed the shrine stone was the safest place for Elowen to be bound to – it’s not like there was another source of mana that would be large enough to sustain the spirit. And whatever was left in the stone must be enough to do just that.

Sophie stepped forward again and placed her hand back on the stone, intending to just push more mana into it, like she had before, but now that she had the Understanding of the bond, something was bothering her.

She made the connection again, easily finding Elowen’s bond this time. It was a strange, slippery thing – almost right outside her grasp – but she was able to pin it down enough to get a good look at it.

Sophie was not currently able to measure the amount of mana in the shrine stone, or even have any sort of sense how much mana the stone could possibly hold, but Elowen’s bond was different.

In fact, it was almost negligible. Even compared to Sophie. Barely any mana trickled through the link. Sophie frowned. That couldn’t possibly be right, could it?

Sophie felt like she could easily support such a weak link. But why was it so weak? Was this why Elowen was Faded or was it a result of the Fading?

Sophie had no way to tell without Elowen’s permission to work with the bond. She let it go for now, pushing her mana into the stone instead, holding on for as long as she could manage. The distraction of the problem with Elowen’s bond helped somewhat.

What did Sophie really know about the bond between a shrine spirit and a shrine stone? Was it normal for shrine spirits to be bound to shrine stones? Had Elowen told her that?

But if Elowen’s memories were less than accurate… well…

For the first time since coming to the fantasy world, Sophie felt like something seemed fishy here.

***

The next morning, Sophie woke to sun streaming in through the windows and a curious shrine spirit peering down at her.

“Um,” she said, trying to sit up. Elowen was still not corporeal, so it wasn’t like Sophie had to worry about running into the other woman, but it still felt sort of rude.

“I want to try it,” Elowen said. She looked a little more lively this morning than she had the previous night. She had been fairly subdued after the discussion about her bond to the shrine stone, so Sophie ended up reading the next romance novel the librarian had recommended to her, leaving the spirit to her own devices for the night.

Sophie felt a little more lively this morning, given that they hadn’t read any more of that weird thriller novel, so she had a very refreshing sleep. In fact, she felt like maybe she even woke up with a little more mana than she had yesterday. She hadn’t leveled – but she felt brimming with energy, unlike yesterday when she felt a little drained, even on waking.

“I want you to try moving the bond to something else,” Elowen repeated, and she seemed oddly insistent about the idea, compared to her reticence the night before.

“Um, you do?” Sophie was not caffeinated enough to deal with this this morning. She honestly sort of doubted she’d be able to do it, even if she tried. “What made you change your mind?”

“I…” Elowen began. She bit her lip, growing hesitant again. “I don’t – well, I don’t remember everything,” she admitted. She looked as if she were confessing a terrible secret. “I didn’t really even notice at first. But ever since you came, I started realizing it… There are only bits and pieces of things that I remember. And I want to remember! I –”

“Hey,” Sophie said, reaching out as if she could comfort Elowen in that manner. “Hey, it’s okay. I already know. I figured it was some sort of side effect of –” She waved a hand to indicate Elowen’s general Faded state.

Elowen sniffed a bit, but she looked relieved. “I guess it must be. It’s so frustrating. I don’t remember anything.”

“But you do, though,” Sophie reassured her. “You remember some things. Like you remembered the light in the greenhouse. Maybe you would remember more if you tried new things.”

Elowen nodded and rubbed at her face – a curious gesture since it wasn’t clear if shrine spirits could actually cry or not. “I thought about it last night, and I want to try. I think I remember… Well, I know I used to go into town. In the past. I wasn’t always just here. I know I used to be able to travel further.”

“Hmmmm,” Sophie said. “But you’d need a strong source of mana to bind to, right?”

Elowen nodded. “I’m sure that must have been true.”

“Then, it had to have been Rosalie, right?” Sophie said softly. “Wouldn’t she have been a strong enough source of mana?”

Elowen looked away at that. “Maybe,” she agreed. But Rosalie seemed to be a sore topic for the spirit.

And Sophie wondered if it was really even true. Would Elowen need that strong of a source of mana? The bond between her and the shrine stone seemed so weak.

“We could try moving your bond to me,” Sophie suggested, but Elowen’s eyes grew wide at the suggestion, and she immediately shook her head.

“No! It’s too dangerous. I might completely drain your mana, and then –”

Well, she had a point.

“Okay, okay,” Sophie agreed. “Well, maybe something else then. Like –” She thought back to the mana stones in the garden, the weight of it in her palm. “Hey, wait. I have an idea!”

She ran out to the garden, pulling up one of the stones again. The border looked a little sad with the missing spot, so she nudged some of the stones closer together to close it up, and then she brought the stone to Elowen. “Here,” she said. “Would something like this work?”

Elowen stared down at the stone curiously. “It might… But I don’t know if it could hold enough mana…”

The stone felt cool with morning dew in Sophie’s palm. It was slightly dirty on the bottom from sitting in the garden for untold years. But nothing a little scrubbing wouldn’t fix. “Let’s try it. I’ll fill it with mana,” Sophie explained. “And then we’ll transfer you to it.”

“It’s not that easy…” Elowen tried, but Sophie already had it in her mind that she was going to do it that way. In fact, she had already begun to fill the stone with mana, just like the lights on the path.

“How long do you think this will last you?” Sophie asked. It was a smallish amount of mana – more than the lights on the path, but not enough to drain Sophie completely. But Elowen didn’t seem to need much in her Faded state, judging by the bond to the shrine stone. In fact, it seemed like she was barely surviving on a trickle of mana from the stone.

“I simply have no idea,” Elowen replied. She glanced at the stone skeptically. “But I’m not sure if–”

“Well, let’s just test it out. We won’t have any idea of what we’re working with unless we try something,” Sophie insisted, interrupting Elowen’s worries. “We’ll work on moving your bond to this –” she held up the stone in her palm. “And if you drain it immediately, surely we can just put you back on the shrine stone.”

She hoped it was as simple as that.

Unfortunately, it was not.

The problem was the bond itself. Through the connection to the shrine stone, Sophie could feel the bond now, but it was still somehow right out of her grasp. Perhaps like it was tangled and she couldn’t quite find the end piece to tug on and unravel the whole thing. She poked at it for a bit, feeling her mana slowly seeping out of herself through the connection, even though she wasn’t actively channeling.

“Here –” she heard Elowen say somewhat distantly. “Here, let me try something.”

And then Sophie felt something new. Almost as if Elowen had shown her the end of the thread. Sophie tugged at it and felt it come loose. She had it now, and she had the stone from the garden in the hand that wasn’t touching the shrine stone, but –

Something wasn’t right.

The bond wrapped itself around her, suddenly stronger than it had been previously, pulling and pulling on Sophie’s mana until Sophie saw Elowen flicker in front of her.

Elowen looked almost solid for a split second, glowing as she filled with more mana than Sophie had ever seen in her.

Mana that had come from Sophie.

“Uh oh,” Sophie said. “That doesn’t seem right.”