“You are looking purple.” Lenore’s amused voice pulled my awareness to my surroundings, something I had mostly ignored, trying to regain both my mental and physical equilibrium.

My only answer was an annoyed groan, trying to convey that help would be appreciated, without actually saying it, partially because I wasn’t sure if I would be sick if I opened my mouth. Looking around came with a similar problem, my eyes were tightly shut to limit the sensory information I was receiving, in an attempt to let myself become re-accustomed to my body, thus the earlier inattentiveness.

After a moment, she pushed the information that she had landed next to me into my mind, a thought that was laced with concern, urging me to return to the safety and comfort of my Hallow. I followed that thought, letting my mind enter my Hallow, pulling my Avatar behind me. Inside, I felt better, the vertigo quickly lessening but the blistering pain remained.

“Are you alright?” Lenore’s concerned voice asked, stopping me from investigating myself further, instead focusing on her.

“I think so.” I answered, not feeling entirely convinced.

“You didn’t look it.” she told me, her voice accompanied by an image of me, when she had seen me in the tree. It shocked me, my normally pale-blue skin was an angry, blistering reddish-purple, looking deeply unhealthy. I could only shake my head at the idea that I had managed to get such a brutal sunburn, in the forest at night. Sure, I had travelled through the Astral but that wasn’t my body, but my spirit or soul or whatever you want to call it.

Curious, I conjured up a mirror, a simple exercise in my Hallow, and looked into it. What I saw caused me to frown, even inside my Hallow I looked burned. I mentally sat back for a second, thinking about it. Going by my understanding and what I had experienced, my looks within my Hallow were decided by my mind. At least if I were native that would be the case and thus far, I had always tried to act as if it was the same for me, with my Avatar. But now, I was looking sunburned and going by the pain I had felt, I had looked sunburned before seeing the image from Lenore, which, to me, meant that it was an external factor, not my mind seeing the image and adjusting my self-image to match with the image I was seeing.

Taking a deep breath, I focused on the image I normally used for the transition into the Hallow and back out, depicting my Avatar with the smooth, pale-blue skin I had chosen on character-creation. I felt my frown deepen when the pain didn’t change in the slightest but when I looked back into the mirror, the earlier deep breath suddenly shot back out, my eyes going wide. Looking back at me, now with wide eyes, was my pale-blue form but as I was watching, the sunburn returned, my skin blistering and turning purple again.

“It’s your soul that’s injured.” Lenore spoke up, her voice calm, yet concerned. “From what I can see, it will take a day or two to heal. I wouldn’t try to work any big magic in the meantime, I’m not sure how deep your injury goes.” she warned me, making me grumble in pain and annoyance.

“Great.” I muttered, both in pain and annoyance, mentally urging Lenore to carry me back to the others. Even the emotions flowing back from Lenore, the feeling of her wings cutting through the cool night air couldn’t cheer me up, the combination of pain and frustration, both at failing to accomplish my goal and at being advised against casting spells for a few days making me grumpy.

It only took a minute or so to get back to camp, my tree hadn’t been too distant and once Lenore had settled near the still meditating Sigmir, I left my Hallow, looking over to Adra, who was keeping an eye on things while Rai had already rolled up nearby, making sure to grab as much sleep as possible, before taking an early watch. I considered things for a moment, whether I should tough it out, staying within my Avatar, even as the pain was seeping into me, a steady, painful burning that quickly made the decision for me. Without a way to keep up with the group, I would have stayed but with my ability to stay within my Hallow, there was just no need to.

“As you can see, I had a bit of an accident. I’ll be gone from Mundus for two, maybe even three days, resting in my Hallow.” I announced, not even waiting for a reply before moving back into my Hallow and triggering the logout process. I could hear her response nonetheless, thanks to Lenore’s senses, she was telling me that she’d tell Sigmir and I should come back as soon as possible. I had no way to reply and soon after, I was sitting in the home-space of my capsule, looking around the mountaintop-temple I had crafted so long ago. The pain faded instantly, leaving only a lingering sense of discomfort, my mind apparently not quite ready to let things go.

Orienting myself, I realised that it was still the middle of the night in the real-world, the double-speed of Mundus tripping me up. Instead of instantly logging out, I decided to play with my home-space a little, adjusting it to the changes I had undergone over the last few months, making it more fitting to the current me, instead of the past me. In addition, I had a few features I wanted to add, now that I was here and had time on my hands.

My first action was to head into the library, where I had originally set up the interface to interact with my computer from within the capsule. The simple desk that I had used in the beginning, just because it was what I was used to had to go. I considered things for a second, only to realise that the entire building was a little mundane. There were options for different materials, I had used some of them when I had created the room that resembled an icy cave a while back, so what was stopping me from going the whole way? It wasn’t Mundus, I wasn’t limited by the rules of Road to Purgatory, so I could go wild.

Delving into the options, I had to search for a while until I managed to spot the menus to customize the material used. Setting it to Ice, I was presented with a couple of settings, for transparency, crystal-structure and a maybe half a dozen other parameters that changed the optics of the material. Part of me wondered if there was a correlation between the Ice used in the Home-Space and on Mundus, it would make sense to re-use the graphic-work in both cases but sadly I wasn’t sure if I would be able to exploit such a correlation. The Home-Space wasn’t subject to normal laws of physics, allowing the creation of the most fanciful spaces, from underwater-environments filled with sunken treasure to fairytale castles built from cotton candy, everything was possible.

Smiling, I began to change the mountaintop-temple into something else, beginning with the sheer cliffside, turning the dark grey granite into silvery-white Ice, gleaming with a dark light from within. It was as close to the colour of Eternal Ice as I had been able to get it, the effect as close to Dark Radiance as I managed. In addition, I turned down the apparent temperature and added an icy wind, complete with whistling sounds, playing around the now jagged pillar of ice upon which my temple sat.

Next, I continued upwards, turning the walls to Ice, making them slightly transparent, just enough to make out shadows on the other side, before adding a dynamic effect into them, making it look like shadows were moving around in the walls, creating a deeply creepy atmosphere, where the walls seemed to be alive with a shadowy court. And every court needed a queen, at least in my opinion, and who better to be the Queen of this court of Ice and Shadow than myself?

The temple to the different gods I had put in when creating the space stayed, the only change was that the statues were now carved from gleaming ice, with similar changes to the training-area and the library. Connected to those three rooms, creating a cross-shape, similar to christian churches, I created my throne-room, an almost transparent roof of ice, carried by pillars veined with flowing streams of dark-red liquid, using a colour described as heartblood. There was even an option to make them pulse in tune with the movement of the flickering shadows within the walls. Those things, combined with the whistling wind and the sheer drop around the throne-room created an intimidating atmosphere, sending shivers down my spine as I looked at it.

Walking up, I started to smile before sitting down and finally getting to the point that prompted the renovation, setting up the interface with my computer in a more fitting manner. And what could be more fitting than the Queen of the place, influencing the world from her Throne?