A strange sensation overcame me, I felt watched. Somewhere, in the darkness around me, was something focused on me, giving me a feeling that I was being measured to my very soul. It was disconcerting, not only the feeling of being watched but also the darkness, instead of the usual, comforting embrace, I felt isolated, like unseen walls around me were closing in, about to crush me. I tried to reach out, to push back with my magic or at least get an inkling of what the darkness around me was hiding, but it was as if there was no power within me, nothing to reach out with.

Suddenly, a pair of eyes appeared before me, shining with an inner fire and each the size of my head. My body froze, no matter how I tried to move, it was as if my body was paralized, rendering me unable to do anything. Then, the inner fire of the eyes burst out, racing over bronze skin, illuminating a stern face, a face I had seen from a distance before, in the morning.

My heart was trying to beat out of my chest as I shot up, fear gripping me tightly. I felt the shadows around me surge up, finally responding to my commands, covering me up and hiding me from the burning gaze. But at the same time, I felt something strange, as if the darkness around me had changed, lacking the previous weight. The difference was stark, making me pause for a second, even as my body was desperately trying to pump enough air into my lungs to fuel my escape.

“Morgana…?” I heard a voice, calling my name, a familiar voice. That, too, made me consider for a moment, if my companions were trapped with me, they might need my help, even Sigmir might be trapped with me. It was that thought that made me snap out of my panic, to use the shadows gathered around me to observe my surroundings. And what I found was…

Nothing. Or rather, nothing too extraordinary. My most important person, Sigmir, was resting nearby, close enough that I thought that I could smell her familiar scent, while Rai was sleeping on the other side of a fire, next to an unknown person. Lastly, Adra was sitting at the fire, clothed and obviously keeping watch, it had been her voice that I had heard earlier. It appeared to be our usual camp, if not for the presence of that unknown person.

“What is going on?” I asked, my voice rough, while my breathing was still laboured.

“Are you awake now?” Adra asked, her voice tinged with worry.

“Awake?” For a moment, I stopped speaking, instead I took in my surroundings, letting the shadows that coiled around me dissipate. While a part of my mind was still racing, screaming at me to run and hide, a rational part of me managed to take the reins, giving me the clarity to realise just what I had experienced.

“It was a dream, huh?” I asked, mostly to myself while I quickly checked that Sigmir was alright, remembering that I had been desperately healing her earlier. To my senses, she appeared to be fine, at least as far as I could tell, without a close and careful scan. For that, my brain needed to stop pounding in pain, a feeling I had experienced before, the after-effect of severe depletion of Astral Power, made worse by using Blood Magic to keep casting. Not a fun experience, by any stretch of the imagination.

“You are loud.” Lenore’s tired voice came over our mental connection and I noticed her resting on a nearby perch, looking a little ruffled. While avian body-language was far different from the body-language of humans, which I had worked hard to understand, our mental connection allowed me to accurately read Lenore’s mood. In this case, she was casting a baleful glare at the person who had disturbed her rest, namely me, while answering my mental query about what had happened.

To her, my mind had started screaming over our mental connection, to the point that even as she had tried to reply, I had been unable to hear her. Other than that, she remembered the fight against the Tiger and that we had started to heal Sigmir, before we had used the Avatar-Ability to enhance our powers. After that, just like the last time, things got murky, the separation between our memories making it difficult to get an accurate picture of what had happened.

Quietly moving over to Adra, I asked what had happened and who the person resting in our camp was. She couldn’t be an enemy, or she wouldn’t be sleeping in the middle of our camp, but I had never seen her before. From what I could see, she looked human but given that we were on Mundus, with literally dozens of races that looked human at first glance, I wasn’t willing to bet on it.

“What is the last thing you remember?” Adra asked in return, making me frown for a moment, not sure what she meant.

“The Tiger. It attacked, I barely managed to get away, you managed to kill it but Sigmir was wounded.” I replied, before adding, “I began healing her, but needed more power.”

“Mhm, good, so you remember to that point.” she nodded, before raising an eyebrow, “That winged form, what exactly is it?”

Lenore, who had moved over as well and was now sitting on my shoulder, and I took a brief moment to decide just how much we wanted to disclose, neither of us the type to explain our abilities in detail, even to our trusted companions. There were only two beings, one for each of us, who we would tell everything, without holding back. Adra was not one of those two, still, she deserved an answer, maybe even a relatively complete one.

“Lenore and I; each of us has their own distinct abilities, yes?” I started out, getting a frown and nod in response, “While we are normally able to combine some of our abilities, it only goes so far. That form, it allows us to combine all of our abilities. It gives me the ability to fly, it gives Lenore the ability to use opposable thumbs and so on.” I explained, not adding that I was reasonably sure it also combined the Astral Power that was flowing through our bodies and the Vitality that kept each of us alive. Whether it also gave us all our innate traits, like my increased Astral Power Regeneration, I couldn’t even begin to tell, that would require more testing.

The slow nod Adra gave in response made me wonder if she suspected that I hadn’t told her everything, but it was all I was going to disclose at this point.

“I see.” she muttered, before shaking her head for a moment, and continued speaking. “You began healing Sigmir but after a minute or two, Death- and Ice-Magic started to spill out of you, not massive amounts but continuously. Yet, you were obviously healing Sigmir, I could feel the powerful magic you used. But after maybe fifteen minutes, something changed, you scratched your hand while the previous trickle of Death-Magic suddenly turned into a flood, annihilating everything in your surroundings. It even struck Rai and me, forcing us to move away.” at that, she gave me an almost accusatory glance but didn’t press, when I didn’t respond.

“A few minutes later, Olivia showed up, she said she had felt the magic you wrought and wanted to find out what was going on. Seeing you healing Sigmir, she wanted to help. Rai was hesitant to let her get close, fearing she might harm you or disrupt your work, but she made an Oath in the name of Eleutheria that she merely wanted to help.” Adra continued, shedding light on the identity of the one sleeping nearby. When she mentioned the Oath, I raised an eyebrow, curious why such a thing would be especially binding, given that we had just recently been duped and given a reward that was mostly worthless. Certainly, what we had seen in the morning, the valley holding the Titan Prometheus, was a Place of Power, but our visit had awarded us with nothing but nightmares.

“She is a cleric, serving Eleutheria.” Adra told me, in response to my raised eyebrow.

“I do not serve, I respect and revere, but I do not serve.” a new, calm voice spoke up, making me look over to the previously sleeping form who was now obviously awake and looking over to us.

For a moment, I was taken aback and wanted to tell her off for eavesdropping on us but at the end of the day, we had been talking right next to our camp, making such an act idiotic. At the same time, I was vaguely able to remember that I had been desperate earlier, when healing Sigmir, and given what Adra had just told me, this woman had helped out, saving Sigmir.

“Thank you.” I sincerely told the woman, who had earned hospitality by helping me save Sigmir. It was a deed I wouldn’t forget, even if she was looking at me a little strangely.