We continued on our journey, moving ever further south-west, with me especially enjoying the weather, either blistering heat that made me incredibly glad for my dwarven-made clothes and their climate-control which I enhanced using Ice-Magic, even if it was a bit of a strain or short thunderstorms, doing little to the overall temperature but increasing the humidity in the air to the point that I wondered if swimming in it would work. In short, it was miserable, no matter how you wanted to call it.

On the bright side, Lenore and I could cheat, using our Hallows to allow one of us to rest in their preferred climate. Switching off with her gave me quite a bit of time I could use to theorize and ponder my magical abilities, even venturing into meditating on the network of Astral Paths within myself, while within my Hallow.

The overall effect of that was that I thought to understand a little more about the runes I had been using and what they might actually mean. That activity, combined with the studying and crafting-experimentation I had been doing managed to raise my Rune-Masteries by a few points each, bringing Ice-Rune Mastery to 75, Darkness-Rune Mastery to 71 and Blood-Rune Mastery to 60. The growth of those skills had slowed to a crawl in the recent months, as if I had to make a fundamental breakthrough to actually master them, something that had to occur before they could ever be brought to level 100.

I had meditated on a new rune for my Blood Magic, delving the Astral River one evening to gain it. I hadn’t been certain what sort of direction my magic would move in or rather, I hadn’t been sure what Blood Magic could develop into but I wasn’t sad about the results. The idea I kept within my mind while delving the Astral River had been the use of Blood Magic to carve magic directly into someone's body, either to help or to hinder them, binding magic directly into their blood and being. Part of it was similar to the concept of a Curse, which I was using in my Darkness-magic and, in a more direct way, I had seen something similar when helping Sigmir to rid herself of the magic her tribe’s Shaman had used against her, using parts of her Father to bind the curse into her being. I wanted to be able to do similar things.

The rune I was able to comprehend was quite interesting, doing pretty much what I had in mind. The meaning I understood it to have was to infuse and I thought I would be able to use it to create a link between a magical formation and the blood of someone, similar to what I had been trying to accomplish with the runic formations I had been studying, using the dwarven teachings.

The difference was that the rune I had gleaned in the Astral seemed to have a large, empty area within it, similar to the hole in a capital A and I wondered if there would be a way to design a spell-formation that slotted into that hole, linking with the rune around it to strengthen the effect.

Sadly, the various ideas I had, spell-formations to harm or help, some designed to slot into the empty spot, some that incorporated the rune as I would have with any other, without the peculiar shape, remained untested, simply due to the lack of expendable test-subjects. Two of the spells I had designed were supposed the be used on Sigmir and Rai, one for each of them, but I wouldn’t voluntarily put it on them, not without carefully testing that the spells worked as I thought they would. The image of exploding centaurs was too fresh in my memory to risk that.

However, the new rune was the last thing on my mind, as I looked upwards in the mostly clear sky, happy that it wasn’t raining or burning hot. Up, into the sky, feeling the draw of my connection to the moon, despite it being not visible. Tonight was finally the night of the new moon, the night I had been waiting for since my less than pleasant experience when trying to travel to the full-moon within the Astral.

I still wasn’t certain if what I was planning would even work but I wanted to try. We had camped near a small river, using it to clean ourselves from the rivulets of sweat, running down all our bodies due to the summer-heat and I, together with Sigmir, had retreated there after dinner. Not for the naughty fun we would normally have in such a situation, I just wasn’t in the mood, but because I felt cleaning, or maybe cleansing, myself was the thing to do before my ritual. I was making things up as I went but it felt right.

Sigmir must have felt that I was excited and nervous in equal parts, unsure and worrying whether I would succeed or not. Remembering the last time I had bottled up my worries, I told her in detail what I was planning or thinking of doing. She knew in general terms what I was planning and let me ramble about my plans, listening without comment, simply being there for me and comforting me with the quiet confidence she had in me. Rambling allowed me to get rid of some of the nervousness, letting me get in the mindset needed for my ritual.

Finally, after thoroughly washing myself, I stepped out of the water, drawing upon my Ice-Magic to instantly freeze and disperse the moisture clinging to my skin, creating a light dusting of snow around me, before it quickly melted away.

“This spot is as good as any, I think.” I muttered, looking around the riverside-clearing we had used to wash up.

“Lenore, would you mind keeping Sigmir company?” I asked my partner, still not sure what would happen if I tried to travel the Astral with her in my Hallow. Or, for that matter, what would happen if I made a mistake while doing so, the chance that she would be dragged into it was certainly there.

“No, I will stay here.” she told me, leaving her Hallow, hopping onto my naked shoulder. I was planning to do the ritual sky-clad, not sure if it had any real effect but I had noticed that it seemed to be a little easier to interact with the Astral when unclothed.

“Be confident in your abilities, I believe you will achieve your goals. Either tonight, or during some other night. I believe in you.” Lenore gave me her own motivating words before hopping off, flying over to Sigmir and landing on her shoulder.

Letting out the deep breath I hadn’t noticed I was holding, I drew upon my magic again, slowly and carefully conjuring up Ice, to make my throne. Once it was done, for tonight I had added a pair of humanoid skulls to cap the armrests, to honour Lenore and her affinity for Death, I sat down and closed my eyes.

My first action was to make sure that the rune on the backrest of my Throne, right above my head, was as good as I could make it, my Blood and Magic bound into it. I had slightly altered the way I had bound the power into the rune, using my new Blood-rune, and I wanted to make sure nothing had gone wrong. But I was unable to perceive any mistakes, even as I looked closely.

Finally, no longer dallying, I let my mind dive into the Astral River, letting it flow around me, mighty but playful. I noticed that the amount of Fire-Astral-Power in the River was even bigger than it had been during my latest visit, making me yearn for winter, the season I felt most at home, especially on Mundus. Ice, Snow, long and dark nights, those were the things I was made to enjoy. But I wasn’t waiting until winter, not for this.

And I wasn’t planning to stay near the planet’s surface anyway, instead I focused on my connection to the moon, to the connection that had been forged when I crossed the first Divide and would now be expanded upon. It was faint, in some ways similar to the connection I shared with Sigmir, only that the connection with Sigmir was in many ways more intimate but also less pure, for lack of a better word.

Using that connection as a guide-post, I felt myself moving upward, towards the dark moon, staying in its shadow to avoid the deadly radiance of the sun.