Watching Adra and Rai start their climb into the valley, I had to nod to myself in approval. The climb would normally be easy, especially if you had dry ground and good lighting. They had neither, turning the steep slope, broken up by rocks, cracks and roots into a treacherous obstacle that needed to be navigated with care.

“Let me up.” Lenore finally told me, the indignity of being carried like a babe too much for her to bear. She was a prideful bird, demanding to return to my shoulder, where she was able to observe what was going on, just like I would try to get back onto my own feet, whenever I had to be carried due to doing something stupid, most of the time using magic.

“Certainly.” I told her, hiding my amusement, while helping her get back onto my shoulder, neither of us wanting the mental closeness that being in her Hallow would entail, not after the Avatar-state we had shared earlier. It was simply too intimate, too intrusive, to experience on a regular, let alone continuous, base, certainly not without a pressing need. And even then, the need would have to be a great one, or my mind would simply rebel, rejecting the connection with Lenore. It was akin to a stimulated nerve, once a certain threshold was achieved, the only thing reported back would be pain, even if it was normal stimulated that would be pleasant, maybe even pleasurable.

Next to me, Sigmir simply put an arm around my back, letting her hand rest at my side, keeping me close and steady without even trying to engage me in conversation. Maybe she could feel just how disturbed and confused my mind was, still trying to make sure of my earlier experience, especially as the memory itself was quickly clouding, almost like a dream upon waking. Small parts, I could remember clearly, the name Raven was one of them. Or the experience of carving a magical formation into the centaur’s naked chest, but the exact runes i had used? That I couldn’t remember.

Similarly, I could remember a feeling of dread but also of defiance but just who or what had been the cause of those feelings? I didn’t remember.

I would have to commune with Lenore later, maybe we could figure out just what we had done together. With a little luck, we would even be able to piece together the spell we had used to shroud the valley in the still lingering mist. It was curious, I could still feel a connection to the mist, but it was different than the connection I normally kept with the Astral Power leaving my body, heavy and oppressive, making it incredibly difficult to manipulate. Even something similar like shifting some of the mist around was nigh impossible but that might have been because of my exhaustion.

“Do you think more wolves will be coming here?” I asked, leaning against Sigmir and breaking the silence.

“No, I don’t think so.” she replied, gesturing towards a fiery explosion lighting up the night at the mouth of the valley, making it obvious that the orcs were still fighting the centaurs, causing a major disturbance in the process.

“Mhm, you probably are right.” I admitted, fighting back a yawn as my body simply wanted to shut down and sleep for a day or three. But still, there was a nagging part of me that wanted to make sure we wouldn’t be surprised. We were on a battle-field after all and I was in no condition to do battle with anything more ferocious than a pillow and blanket.

A quick check told me that I had some Astral Power left, not enough for any big or flashy spells but what I had in mind didn’t need a lot, the less used the better, at least in my opinion.

Shaking off the feeling of vertigo I was struck by when I reached for my magic, I let my mind simply float, guided by my will, not trying to impose it upon my Astral Power but simply steering it, like a boat on water. Darkness, darkness was what I sought, the darkness of night and the darkest shadows, to conceal Sigmir and myself.

Just like that, without a runic formation or even the mental control normally asserted by my Darkness-Magic, Astral Power was flowing out of me, settling around Sigmir and me, making me wonder if I had succeeded or failed in my spellwork. Not that it truly mattered, if we were forced to fight, I wouldn’t be in a worse position than earlier. Even the idea of using combat magic in my state was laughable, only that it wouldn’t be a very long punchline.

Snuggling up a little closer to Sigmir, I closed my eyes for a moment, simply to relax my eyelids, the strain of keeping them open was slowly getting to me.

“Wake up.” a soft voice brought me back to awareness, taking my focus away from the strangely dreamlike memories I was trying to understand. Not that I had much success, they remained strangely cloudy and murky, despite my efforts. Luckily, they also didn’t seem to deteriorate further, even if I wasn’t sure what would happen if I actually slept on them.

“I wasn’t asleep.” I said, my denial instantly brought into question when I had to suppress a yawn trying to break my jaw. On my shoulder, Lenore merely ruffled her feathers, not even trying to make it seem like she was paying any attention.

“Sigmir? Morgana?” Adra called out from nearby. Thanks to my night-vision, I was able to see her easily but she seemed to be unable to spot Sigmir and me, despite the two of us standing in the open, even if it was dark.

Trying to get a sense of time, I looked down into the valley, only for it to still be covered in mist, faintly radiating my Astral Power. Further down the valley, there were still fires going but no more explosions, making me wonder if the fighting had stopped, even if it didn’t answer my question how much time had passed. Finally, I looked at the clock and realised that Adra and Rai had been gone for three-quarters of an hour, making me shake my head in disbelief. I was sure I hadn’t rested my eyes for more than a few minutes, but it seemed as if I had been wrong.

“We are here.” Sigmir called back and I felt a soft ripping sensation, one that I filed away for later contemplation. At the same time, Adra’s eyes focused on Sigmir and me, a look of confusion and surprise on her face.

“What the…?” I managed to hear her mutter under her breath, before she called Rai over from nearby. They both had fresh traces of fighting on them, blood on their weapons and a few smudges of dirt on their clothes but nothing that hinted at them actually getting hit.

“You did quite the number on them.” she said, stepping up to Sigmir and me. “I’m not quite sure what you did, but the few centaurs down there were broken. Some of them simply struck out, like a cornered animal, while a few others just sat there, babbling about dark wings.” she told us, her eyes focusing on Lenore for a moment, who was still resting on my shoulder.

“Curious.” I muttered, not quite sure just what Lenore and I had done, but whatever it had been, it obviously had worked out quite well.

“And the prisoners?” I asked, wanting to find out if it had affected only centaurs or everyone. If it had only struck the centaurs, it would be quite impressive, making me want to study it even more. A powerful area-of-effect spell that only struck pre-defined groups would be an incredible tool in and of itself but the insights we might be able to glean from studying such a spell were even more important.

“They were affected, but to a lesser degree. We freed a couple of them and spoke a bit, they were frightened and cold but they didn’t suffer as much as the centaurs.” Adra answered, a tone of approval in her voice.

Before I could ask more questions to satiate my curiosity, I felt another yawn coming, forcing me to keep my mouth closed for a moment, while nodding, mostly to myself.

“We delivered the prisoners we found to the orcs. They had some casualties but won their part of the battle.” Rai added, while I slowly relaxed my jaw.

That was good to hear and it made my mind flicker over to the notifications I had received. Only the fact that I kept my face deliberately tense stopped my lips from curling into a wide smile when I quickly scanned them, the fight had certainly been worthwhile, even without turning in the quest. Now, we just had to talk to the orcs and get our just rewards. Hopefully, they wouldn’t try something stupid and stiff us of our rewards, or I might have to get the experience points I wanted another way. By wiping out another group of foes.

The experiment with mind-magic had been an astounding success but repeatability was the hallmark of good scientific experimentation, or so I had heard.