Once I was finished with the mundane tasks of maintenance in my apartment, I went back into the capsule, lying down on the comfortable gel-backing and closing my eyes. I was still confused and a little unsure about the recording I had watched earlier, the actions taken by Lenore and me together and my memories of them. Focusing on the memories brought some of them back into focus, especially regarding the runic formation used on the centaur, not enough to understand what exactly we had done but what we had been trying to achieve. In a way, it was quite ingenious, using the pain suffered from Blood Magic to augment the working wrought by the same magic, getting more bang for your buck than one would normally think. Other parts of the magic used returned, too, magical mist to confuse the senses, to disorient and isolate, tactics I had been almost since the beginning. What was new, were the parts that augmented what we had been doing with direct Mind Magic, and those were the memories I had the most trouble with.

However, I had an idea, a plan that I wanted to try out. At the end of the day, I hypothesized that the blurry memories should still be there, shared between Lenore and me, each of us getting parts of the experience but without having the full picture, neither of our minds could make sense of things. Thus, things turned blurry, our minds trying to fill in the gaps and mostly failing, at least that was my assumption. Now, with that in mind, we might be able to combine those fragments, into a reasonably clear picture of our mental processes during that time. Lenore and I would have to get together and see.

Back in Mundus, Lenore quickly shared the events of the hours I had been gone, the time-difference a slight annoyance, that in the three hours I had spent outside the capsule six hours had passed on Mundus, turning the late morning into the middle of the afternoon. I had to grin to myself when I became aware of Sigmir’s actions, or rather inactions, during the time I had been gone. She had simply done nothing after telling the others about our day of rest, she, along with Ylva, had climbed up the slopes of the valley, finding a nice, shady spot in the forest and stretched out in the shade.

Part of me wanted to join her right that instant, leaving my Hallow and snuggling up to her, just to enjoy being near her, but before that, I wanted to sate my curiosity. It drove me a little insane, those small flashes of memory, knowing that Lenore and I had wrought a rather impressive spell but not being able to fully remember. I wanted to know and I had a way to investigate.

The sharing of ideas over a mental connection was almost instant, our thoughts mingling, shared between our minds and a few moments later, Lenore agreed, my theories were reasonable. Not necessarily true but certainly worthy of further investigation.

After a few moments of discussion on the logistics, we decided that using our Avatar-form would work but completely defeat the purpose while it was questionable if using our Hallows would work, simply because of the innate power-dynamic when one was in their Hallow, they became part of the other, providing power and resources but without means to enact change on the world by themselves. In the end, we went with a simple solution, meeting on equal ground, our bodies next to each other.

Having learned from the last time we did mental travelling on a tree-branch and my resulting fall, I left my Hallow, letting my body appear beneath the branch Lenore was sitting on, falling the last meter and landing somewhat softly. Not soft enough to keep Sigmir unaware, if she ever had been, her eyes fixed on me when I got up from the crouch I had landed in.

“You are back.” she said, a gentle smile on her face.

“Indeed, I am. You are looking comfortable.” I replied, my own lips curling into a smile similar to hers. The part that wanted to just snuggle with her grew stronger, especially when she sat up, stretching her arms, her muscles rippling just a little under her clothes.

“Lenore and I just want to try something, then I’d love to join you.” I added, turning my focus inward, for the next step, creating my throne. Using it had become a habit, a symbol of serious mental magic to my mind, when sitting on it, I felt more in tune with myself, more focused and powerful, both sensations that should be useful. In addition, it was comfortable.

Sitting down on my seat of Ice, I closed my eyes, letting calm wash over me, focusing on my connection with Lenore. Moments later, Lenore’s familiar weight landed on my shoulder, the smooth feathers of her head touching my cheek and temple, right where the symbol of her Hallow was. The symbol of our original connection.

Neither of us really knew how to proceed, how to puzzle the fragmented pieces of our memories of the night into a singular whole but both of us had ideas. Mine was to simply share what we remembered, in chronological order, trying to sort the memories of the other into our own, until we created a coherent picture. Lenore’s was a little different, she wanted to start with the strongest impressions of the night and go from there, each of us sharing the memories that were the clearest.

A mental coin-flip later, we began, figuring out who had the first memory of the night.

The whole sensation was what I would describe as trippy, flashes of my own memory merging with Lenore’s memories, all seen through her own mental perspective and lense, only that the memories themselves were seen through a different mental perspective as well, making the whole thing a bit of a mess. An attempt to make a flip-book of a series of events, only that one person had drawn with crayon on paper, the other with watercolours on canvas and the end-result was on film.

Suffice to say, it didn’t quite work well, we managed to get something of an impression of the night, even if we were certain that some false memories had snuck in, parts where our minds had used my knowledge of events from the recording I had watched to complete the image we had. But it was the best we could make it, with either of our methods, leaving us with little more clarity, just as many questions and a bit of a headache.

“What do you think that black thing was?” I asked, resting my head against my throne, enjoying the cold sensation. We hadn’t been able to get more out of our memories, merely impressions of awe, fear and respect.

“Something powerful.” Lenore stated after a moment, her voice carrying an undertone of respect and fear. “Neither of us are easily cowed, especially you. For us to simply back down, to bow in respect, it would have to be a power that commands such respect, to force us to bow without ever needing to act.” she explained and I had to agree. I couldn’t see me bowing to anyone, not without a social need or a genuine feeling of respect.

“So a Deity or one of their messengers?” I asked, half-way joking, trying to make light of my unease. I wondered if that was how my ancestors had felt, in ancient times, when they looked at lightning splitting the sky, thunder rolling across the land and decided that such incredible, awe-inspiring phenomena had to be the work of a Deity. Putting a name on what they couldn’t understand, trying to make it seem less terrifying, less of a threat. Maybe something that could be bargained with, that could be pacified by sacrifices.

“Maybe.” Lenore admitted, taking my joke more serious than I had thought.

“But I suppose it doesn’t matter, it is over and done with.” I admitted, trying to banish the question from my mind, even if I knew it would continue to haunt me. Maybe, in time, I would find an answer to it, but for now, it would remain unanswered, unanswerable. Annoying.

Opening my eyes, I looked over to Sigmir again, who had made herself comfortable again and decided that the questions of the Universe could wait. Standing, I started to make my way over, a quick thought turning my throne into a cloud of cold dust, cooling the small clearing she had chosen a little further, making it a little more comfortable for me. Summer was truly a hateful season, far too warm, but I was lacking the power to change that, at least on a large scale. For now, I would have to settle for this clearing.

With my approach, Sigmir shifted, her arm stretching out to give me a pillow, her eyes open again, following me. I gladly took her offer, snuggling against her side and closing my eyes, a sense of contentment settling over me as I felt my mind get drowsy, the few hours of sleep during the night coming back to haunt me.