By sheer strength of will and stubbornness, I refused to stumble, setting one foot in front of the other, not wanting to have Sigmir carry me out of yet another town. While my body was stressed and weakened, my magic was thrumming with power, the excess Astral Power forced into me by the backlash slowly draining into the world around me, forming a shimmering mist. That imbalance between body and magic might have been what caused a curious effect in my mind, making me feel rather floaty. It was as if my head was floating around in the clouds, dragging my body behind it. It was a strange feeling, to say the least.

“Love, are you…” Sigmir began anew, obviously not comfortable with the way I was moving but stopped herself before finishing the question. She knew, just from looking at me, that I wasn’t alright or fine, that I was hurting. But she also knew about my pride, that I disliked looking weak and that she would have a better chance to let me walk out of sight of the village before offering to carry me. I just shook my head, while giving her a wan smile, not wanting to explain my current state, not without knowing who might be listening.

“What happened? Lenore said it was an attack?” Adra asked, her voice sounding rather disturbed.

“I have a theory but you’ll have to wait until we get out of town, there I’ll explain.” I answered, trying to calm her, at least somewhat. It had to be quite disturbing for them, to suddenly see something try to murder me, without warning and without leaving a trace once it was blocked.

As we walked towards the gate, a burly centaur, dressed in some official looking leather-armour stepped in front of us, raising a hand.

“You’ll have to stay in town for now. Whatever that was, our mages will want to talk to you.” he said, sounding very officious and overbearing.

“We will leave. Right now.” I answered, feeling the already shaky control over my magic slip a little, freezing the water on and in the ground around me, creating a thin sheet of ice.

“I don’t know who you think you are, but I’ve asked you politely, as a Guard of this town and tasked by the Altin Urda to keep the peace. You’ve disturbed the peace and so you’ll need to stay until we are finished with you.” he pressed, sounding quite angry at me denying his authority.

I felt my control slip further, the ice beneath me cracking and breaking, my magic seeping into it, forming lethal shards of ice, ready to strike with half a thought.

“Morgana, let me talk, please.” Adra placed a hand on my shoulder, gently pushing me back towards Sigmir who caught me, steadying me so I wouldn’t fall.

“Fine.” I managed to growl. Moving me had caused the Ice I was connected to to move as well, causing chunks of it to float around me, slowly orbiting me, swirling with the magical mist. A small part of my mind wondered why my magic manifested as Ice, instead of Blood or Darkness and the best answer I could think of was that it was because of the slight change that permanently infused Ice-Astral Power into me, that this slight imbalance was the cause. I lightly shook my head, chasing away the idle thought, trying to keep myself focused despite the strange, floaty state I was in. As long as I focused on something it seemed to work, even if it was merely placing each foot in sequence without missing one. With Sigmir behind me, making sure I either remained upright or in her arms, that focus was gone and my mind tried to float away.

“I told you, we are going to leave.” I muttered after giving Adra what felt like hours of time to convince the guard not to annoy us further. As I stepped forward, out of Sigmir’s gentle grip, the shards of ice around me, following my mood and will, stopped their lazy orbit and the sharp and pointy ends took aim at the centaur who suddenly looked a lot less self-assured.

“What is going on here?” a voice broke the stand-off, loud enough to make me flinch, both physically and magically. The physical flinch caused Sigmir to step up behind me, making sure my legs didn’t buckle beneath me, dropping me in the mostly frozen mud, while the magical flinch shattered a few shards, doubling the ammunition I had around me.

“Ah, Moraak, nice to see you.” Adra greeted the owner of that obnoxiously loud voice. “Morgana here was just attacked by long-range magic, covering dozens of days worth of travel. She barely managed to survive and is now rather agitated to get somewhere less populated where she can set up magics and wards to defend us all.” Adra explained, fudging the truth a little but not much, before continuing, “ We simply don’t know how the attack was targeted at her, it might have been someone or something here that was used to guide the magic.” That was purely a lie, at least to me, but I had yet to explain that I suspected it was targeted using the hair I might have left behind further north. But it was a good lie, maybe even one that Adra believed herself. In any case, it was good enough that Moraak looked distinctly unhappy.

“This guard here wants to confine us in town, without any rhyme or reason and my friend here, still reeling from the attack that almost claimed her life, is a little agitated by that and about to force our way out. Which I would rather avoid.” she finished, her face mostly saying, “What can you do…”

“So, a member of the Adventurers’ Guild is attacked in your town and you try to keep them there, so that more attacks can be made?” Moraak asked, sounding grim. “Does that mean you centaurs were involved in the attack?” It was a mental leap worthy of the Olympics, I was almost certain that it was pure coincidence that the unknown Spellcaster had chosen this morning for his attack but it seemed as if the beastman had drawn his own conclusions.

The centaur’s face had changed from smug superiority when he had stepped up to confused disbelief at being on the receiving end and I felt my patience crack a little further when he made a gesture and another centaur started towards us. My magic, still leaking out and barely controlled, cracked with it and half of the shards around me shot forward, ringing the annoying centaur-guard, piercing into the ground at his feet but not hitting him. Barely.

“My patience is about used up.” I growled, the ice around me shattering into smaller pieces as if to provide a visual clue.

“Of course we are not complicit, but an attack was launched at someone within our community. We need to make sure that no further attacks can be launched.” the centaur tried to backtrack, maybe to safe face.

“It doesn’t look like your protection is desired here. So, why don’t we all walk away, without anyone getting hurt?” Moraak pressed and I noticed that the centaur looked as if he had bitten onto something sour.

“If that is your desire, nobody will stand in your way.” he said after getting his face back under control, his voice dripping with condescension. He tried to make it sound like he was the one wronged here, with us being rude and dismissing his kind offer. I, for one, just didn’t care any longer, my mind was starting to buzz, now that the excess magic was mostly drained. I wasn’t sure what would happen once that happened, it was quite possible that the stunt I had pulled had caused further damage and I just didn’t know yet. I needed to get away, so that I could try to fix some of it.

But with him out of the way, I managed to focus enough to walk again, even if Sigmir kept a steadying hand on my shoulder, gently guiding me towards the gate. Feeling the shards of ice still hovering around me, I pushed with my magic, causing them to shatter into tiny ice-crystals that I let gently fall down, almost as if it was snowing.

It took me a few steps to notice that only Sigmir and I were walking towards the gate, Adra and Rai nowhere in sight. I softly asked Sigmir and was told that they would catch up to us, that Adra wanted to talk to Moraak a little more. I blinked for a moment, not knowing what to say before simply accepting it. At the corners of my vision, I noticed blackness creeping in, making me wonder if my Darkness-magic was acting up now.

You have lost consciousness. Time remaining: 1:30:00